Grandniece of John Quincy Adams' wife Louisa Catherine Johnson, and great grandniece of Thomas Johnson III, Maryland's first governor and a Supreme Court justice, she married Hamilton Gustauvus Fant, an attorney, in Washington on 16 May 1853. She was noted as a "great beauty" as the attached photo portrait suggests. They would have a total of ten offspring, one stillborn, but not all now with memorials, as not all death and/or burial information is known. The single remaining offspring as of Oct 2022 without a memorial is:

Mary Emily Fant Reardon 1856-1920

At some point after their marriage they moved into a home at 505 D St. NW, that, or adjacent 507, noted as the original 1831 Washington home and law office of Daniel Webster. It was then owned by Josephine's father, Johnson H Hellen, who leased it to them. Some years later, it modified into offices, Hamilton and Josephine appear having inherited it, and Hamilton maintained his office there, renaming it, with by then two attached structures, the "Webster Law Building". It was demolished by 1940. See attached photo.

After she was widowed in 1893, she moved in with her daughter Fannie (Kenny) and her family by 1900, Fannie also widowed in 1902, and died in 1905 at what appears to have been the Kenny summer home in Elkridge Maryland, just south of Baltimore.

Allan Garner - Rev: Oct 31, 2022.
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The attached photo of the headstone includes the names of several of the Fants, only Mary T Fant remaining as yet unidentified. It is thought that she was an in-law, and may have been the late (and much younger) second spouse of Johnson Hellen Fant, who is known to have married once, and later divorced. That cannot yet be verified, however. Mary McAuliffe has been identified as once a servant in the Fant household, found in census records in 1870 and 1880, and though to have remained with some members of the family for many years, although not found in subsequent records, except as institutionalized late in her life. She was clearly much beloved by the Fants, being interred here upon her death in the family plot as once a domestic servant, that unusual for the times. Which of the then surviving Fants was primarily responsible for the decision is unknown, but it would appear all would have had to then agreed, much to the family's credit.