Joseph Johnson, Rapides Parish Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller
Date: July 23, 2013

************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
************************************************

Rapides Parish Louisiana Archives Biographies
Name: Joseph Johnson
Date: 1870 - 

Source: A History of Louisiana, v.3, pp. 10-11; 1925
Author: Henry E. Chambers

Joseph H. Johnson, president of the Adams Brick Company, is one of the 
sterling business men of Alexandria, to whose enterprise and sagacity 
much of the present prosperity of the city is due. He was born at 
Moscow, Polk County, Texas, in 1870, a son of Joseph H. and Bettie F. 
(Fortson) Johnson, natives of Louisiana and North Carolina, 
respectively. They were married at Mansfield, Louisiana, although at the 
time the father was a resident of Texas, where he was engaged at 
farming, stockraising and merchandising, and where he was a large 
taxpayer on account of his many interests. Eight children were born to 
him and his wife, all of whom are living, and Joseph H. Johnson, of this 
review, is the eldest. Both parents belonged to the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and they were active in it. He belonged to the Masonic 
fraternity, and was a past master of the Blue Lodge, and past high 
priest of the Chapter. While he was active in politics as a democrat, he 
never sought office. During the war he served as a scout, journeying in 
pursuit of his duties on horseback from Galveston. Texas, as far north 
as North Carolina, and then traveling back again to Texas. His death 
occurred in March. 1921, at Long View, Texas His widow survives him and 
still resides in Texas.
After completing his high-school course in Texas the younger Joseph H. 

Johnson became bookkeeper for a local storekeeper, and held this 
position for ten years, and during that period also served as general 
credit man. In 1901 he came to Louisiana, first locating in Grant 
Parish, where he was in the employ of the Chicago Lumber & Coal Company, 
continuing with this concern for twenty years as bookkeeper and superintendent. For eighteen years of this period he had charge of all 
of the milling and railroad interests of this company in the South, his 
duties being exacting and important. In 1921 he severed these 
connections and organized the Adams Brick Company, which he 
incorporated, with himself as president and general manager. In addition 
to this company he has an interest in the Day Builders Supply Company, 
of which he is vice president.

In October, 1894, Mr. Johnson married Miss Mamie Adams, born in Texas. 
She died in 1909, leaving two children: C. W., who is a lumberman of 
Alexandria; and Ruth, who married Frank Pendleton Clark, who is in the 
gravel business. Mrs. Johnson was a Methodist. High in Masonry, Mr. 
Johnson belongs to all of the bodies of both the York and Scottish 
Rites, and also to the Mystic Shrine, and is a past master of the Blue 
Lodge. He is also a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of 
Elks. In politics he is a democrat. In 1924 Mr. Johnson was made 
president of the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce by acclamation. The 
Adams Brick Company manufactures common brick for central Louisiana, and 
handles pressed brick which is shipped to the same territory. The supply 
company of which he is vice president is doing an annual business of 
$300,000, and these two concerns demand all of Mr. Johnson’s time.
For twenty-seven years after the Colfax Riot there were no negroes in 
Grant Parish, but Mr. Johnson was able to bring in a gang of them to 
work in a saw-mill, the largest in the parish. For the first year they 
were in the parish he would not let them go off the grounds, having 
brought them to the locality by special train. At the expiration of that 
time, however, he found it was safe to permit them to mingle with the 
other workers, and today there is no disturbance with reference to them. 
In a quiet, convincing way he has always been able to carry out his 
policies, the determining of which has always been guided by his most 
excellent judgment, and therefore the people have confidence 
in him and are willing to follow his leadership.

Additional Comments:
Joseph H. Johnson

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/rapides/bios/johnson185gbs.txt