Provided by Ms. Nancy Vause

 

In 1858 Charles Engram Vause, at the age of 54, and wife Sarah, with 9 of their 11 children, moved to Florida from South Carolina, and became Homesteaders on a section of land located in the western part of Putnam County.  The property included a large lake and part of a smaller lake, now known as Vause Lake and Gillis Pond respectfully.  The homestead was near the half-way point between the "villages" of Gainesville and Palatka.  The Vause family was the second family to homestead in the area. The first family to settle in the area 5 years earlier was John McDougal Johnson and wife, Margaret Gillis Johnson, with their 5 children in 1853, coming from North Carolina in covered wagons.

The families had heard that Putnam County, which was established in 1849, was "a vast wilderness" - no roads -only paths made through the woods by large herds of deer.  Deer and wild turkeys were plentiful, and the lakes and streams were filled with fish.  The area was described as a "Hunter's Paradise."  The Vause family built a 2 Story wooden house on the East side of the big lake (Vause Lake) and began to homestead the land.  The family continued to live and work the land after the death of Charles and Sarah.  In 1877, Charles and Sarah's youngest son, John Dixon Vause married Mary Patterson Johnson, the youngest daughter of John and Margaret Johnson.  John and Mary lived on the Vause homestead along with his other family members and ended up having 4 children.

 In 1881 the Railroad began laying the 55 miles of tracks between Gainesville and Palatka, it was known then as the "Narrow Gauge of the Florida Southern Railway Company".  Its route came through the settlement of Johnson, and the land for a depot was donated by Daniel Webster Johnson, the son of John and Margaret Johnson.  The settlement and depot were then officially named Johnson.  Daniel married Ida Selemma Vause, a granddaughter of Charles and Sarah Vause, and he continued to build the community.  A post office was built and Daniel became the first Postmaster.  He served in this capacity for 35 years.

In about 1889 - clay mining began in Johnson, Edgar, and Keuka providing employment for numerous local citizens. By the early 1900's, the families of John Dixon Vause and brother Caleb Franklin Vause were continuing to work the homestead.  These years were hard on everyone due to the depression that our nation was experiencing.  Once a year the school children from Johnson would go to the Vause homestead to enjoy the sugar cane grinding where the juice produced from the grinding would be poured into a large iron pot to boil until it was reduced to a syrup.  All of the children got a taste of the cane juice before returning to school.  John Dixon's only son, John Calhoun Vause married Ada Worley and they had a son, Treston Elwood Vause, born in 1931.  They lived in the Vause family house at the lake, and in 1941, while the family was out fishing on the lake, the Vause family house burned down.

After this, the family began to sell off the homestead land and lake front property on the east side of the lake.  All that remains of the original homestead property is a lake lot and adjoining 9 acres where the house once stood.  This property is still owned by the Great,  Great granddaughter of Charles and Sarah Vause.  Vause Lake is also named Lake Fanny.  It is unknown how it came to be called Lake Fanny.  Perhaps someone in the family was named Fanny that we were not aware of, or knowing and possessing myself the sometimes misdirected Vause sense of humor, it may have acquired the name from the Vause men sitting under the shade trees at the water's edge watching the women swimming and one asking the others if they had ever seen so many fannies in the lake at one time.