Ezekiel and Julia Hills Johnson

Ezekiel Johnson was the son of Ezekiel and Bethiah Garnsey Johnson. He was born 12 January 1776 in Uxbridge, Mass. He died 13 January 1848.
Julia Hills was the daughter of Joseph  and Esther Ellis Hills. She was born 26 September 1783 in Upton, Mass.
They were married 12 January 1801 in Nauvoo, Illinois. The are the parents of 16 children. (Our line comes through Joel Hills Johnson.)
Times were hard after the war of 1812 and it was almost impossible to care for a large family. All their support and home comforts were produced  by their labors. Flax  was grown for clothing, bed and table linens and towels. Cheese, butter, soap, sugar and candle making were common everyday events. Theirs was a pioneer life, clearing deep forests with great labor to obtain a scanty living. The children were happiest when gathering nuts, wild fruit and wild flowers with their beloved mother.
Son's Joel and David were the first to join the church in 1830 and then Julia and those children old enough were baptized.
The family started westward on 4 July, 1838, the company consisting of 60 wagons and nearly 400 souls. They reached Dayton Ohio where they stayed for a month then onto Ramus. The Johnson's were influential and quite numerous in Ramus (Now Macedonia). Some people dubbed them the "Royal Family."
When the Prophet Joseph Smith heard this he said they were a royal family and that the father Ezekiel would yet be a great man and stand at the head of a kingdom. He also said that not one of his children would ever leave the church.
Julia Hills was a poet. Some of her works have been published. She wrote the following song for the hymn book. (The gray book called, "The Deseret Sunday School Songs")Julia and Ezekiel are buried in a beautiful cemetery in Ramus, now Webster, Illinois.
Words to the song:
1.  We praise Thee, O God, for the joy and the song. Which unto us this beautiful season belongs;
We love and adore Thee, for light and for love, and for all the rich blessings that come from above.
2.  The gates are wide open and they beckon us all, each to follow and serve at the sound of call; Tho' portals of praise, and thro' Zion's fair gates, We will pass on with songs the work that awaits.
3.   At last in that city, with it's glories untold, with it's gates all of pearl and with streets of pure gold, we'll give to the Savior, who dwelleth in light, All the power and dominion, and wisdom and might.