Joseph Edward Johnson, M. D., Vernon Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller, February 2002
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Joseph Edward Johnson, M. D.  A physician and surgeon at Gandy in 
Sabine Parish, Doctor Johnson has made a commendable success in his 
profession.  He is a man who has made his own way under difficulties 
since early boyhood, and has helped provide for others as well as for 
himself.  His practice at Gandy includes the medical work for the Wyatt 
Lumber Company in addition to his large practice in Sabine and Vernon 
parishes.
He was born in the pine woods twenty miles east of Leesville in Vernon
Parish, November 22, 1881, son of Daniel and Elender (Jordan) Johnson.  
His father moved to Louisiana from Alabama before the war.  By trade he 
was a wheelwright and miller.  On account of his trade he was exempt from 
duty as a soldier during the war between the states.  Operating a water 
mill on Flactor Creek, he supplied the surrounding country with bread stuffs, 
a service more important than any he could render on the battlefield.  He
built mills at many places.  He was sixty years of age when he married, 
and he died at the age of seventy-four, his son Joseph Edward being then
thirteen years of age.  He built a small sawmill at Leesville long 
before the advent of a railroad, and was one of the pioneer producers of 
lumber in Southwest Louisiana.  His wife and the mother of Doctor Johnson 
died when the latter was an infant.  He had a brother, Wyley Jordan, who 
went to Texas.
After the death of his mother Doctor Johnson was taken into the family 
of his aunt, Emily Johnston, widow of Sila Johnston.  She had four 
children of her own and lived at Hicks postoffice.  Though very poor, she 
did the best to provide a good home for her children and her nephew.  As 
Doctor Johnson grew older he assisted in providing for her family until 
her death in 1899. After that he lived with her daughter, Mrs. Minnie 
Newman, until his own marriage.  Doctor Johnson first attended school 
in a "pole pen school" at Flactor Church, his teacher being Rev. Isaiah 
Watson, a very capable instructor.  He attended another school of the 
"pole pen" variety at Mulberry, four miles from borne, walking a total 
of eight miles each day he finished a public school education at Fort 
Jessup.  In the meantime he was doing the heavy labor of farm work and 
also did farming for himself, he taught a three months' school at Jean 
Chapels twelve miles south of Leesville, and was a teacher tour terms 
at thirty-five dollars a month. Five months was the longest term of 
school taught in any one year.  For two years he farmed on his own 
account, raising good crops and getting some money to provide for his 
higher education.  He also homesteaded and developed a claim of forty 
acres.  Doctor Johnson spent his first year of professional study in 
the Memphis Hospital Medical College, and during vacations assisted 
Doctor Wood at Leesville.  He was graduated in medicine in 1907, and 
in 1911 went back to Memphis for post-graduate work. After qualifying 
as a physician he practiced for a short the at Mora, looking after 
patients over Rapides, Sabine and Vernon parishes.  He then studied a
short the at Hicks, his old home community, five years at Elmer in 
Rapides Parish, ten months at Fullerton and ten months at Rose Pine and 
at Blewett for the Sabine Train Company and eighteen months at Singer.  
In 1918 he established his permanent location at Gandy.  Doctor Johnson 
is a member of the Louisiana State and American Medical Associations, and 
is a trustee of the Florien High School.
He married, in 1904, Francis Elizabeth Brown, daughter of William and 
Sarah Ann Brown, who came to this state from Mississippi.  Mrs. Johnson 
is a Methodist and he is a Baptist and member of the Masonic fraternity.
A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 363, by Henry E. Chambers.  
Published
by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.