Cemeteries: Bethlehem Cemetery Newsletter #11 - Dec 1996, Winn Parish, LA Submitted by Peggy Chandler Beaubouef, 2656 Hwy 1232, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** [These articles are taken from the Bethlehem Cemetery Newsletter published by the Bethlehem Baptist Church cemetery committee. They are posted here with the full knowledge and consent of the cemetery committee. Bethlehem Cemetery is located in Ward 8 of Winn Parish on Hwy. 1232. These articles were written by Peggy Beaubouef based upon information supplied by others. As with all secondary sources, the data shown should be used as clues to further research and verification.] Issue No. 11 Dec. 1996 HISTORICAL NOTES: I'm cheating a little this time in that the subject of my column this quarter is not actually buried in our cemetery. His wife, Della, two sons, Jesse and William, and numerous descendants are buried here but he was laid to rest in a cemetery in Georgetown. Still, he was very much a part of the history of this community and was inadvertently tied to the legal history of Bethlehem church and cemetery itself (see bold print). His name was Marion Thankyou Johnson and this is his story as told in an article published in the Winn Parish Enterprise dated April 3, 1969: Captain Marion Thankyou Johnson was one of the first settlers of Wattsville and was the first educated man to live there. He started a school where Bethlehem Church is now, thus he taught many early settlers in the area. Wattsville school was about two and a half miles north of Calvin . . . Marion Thankyou Johnson was born and raised on a farm 12 miles east of the Cumberland Mountain on the old Knoxville and Nashville highway in Tennessee. He was the baby boy of a family of 12 children which consisted of six boys and six girls. His father's name was Jesse and somehow M.T.'s father managed to send him to college in Portland, Maine. Just how long he attended college in Portland is not known, but it is known how he came to settle in Louisiana. On his way home by horseback, he attempted to cross Saline River and his horse bogged down. So he took his saddle bags off the horse and swam across the river to shore. He walked to Wattsville and that's where he remained. He built a little log cabin, "Just one room," his son A.S. (Al) Johnson of Cleveland, Oklahoma wrote to Hershel Carpenter of Calvin in a letter dated Aug 21, 1966. Hershel Carpenter's mother went to school at M.T.'s school in 1873 and he corresponded with Al to get additional information about Marion Thankyou Johnson. To continue another part of the letter describing the log cabin in Winn Parish, Al wrote "I remember playing in the snow half knee deep to me at that time, and I was barefooted too. I remember a snow they called the black snow. It was when I was seven or eight. We still lived in the little log cabin, just one room. I'd lay awake at night and hear the big limbs breaking off them big pine trees in the woods." A letter from New York Lumber Co. Of Lousiana to M.T. Johnson dated Dec. 12, 1892, sent from president of the company, W.H. Gratwich, shows that Johnson was looking out for some of the company's interests and received $25 compensation for services rendered. Another letter dated May 21, 1897 was sent from Buffalo, N.Y. from Gratwick's son . . . had some interesting information concerning political affairs in this parish at that time . . . "I am glad to note from your letter of Nov. 24 of the satisfactory McKinley contingent in your neighborhood and shall be interested to hear of any speeches which you make of a political character, on the right side . . . . With the political influence which you undoubtedly have in your neighborhood it is strongly to be hoped that you will use all of your endeavors to promote the interests of the owners of timberland, both in the matter of railroads and in other respects; because what is for the interest of large owners of timberland in Louisiana is for the interest of people who live in the vicinity, as all the operations of such men bring money into the parishes. . . ." The next information pertaining to Johnson was the deeding of land to the Bethlehem Church and to Wattsville school by the Bodcaw Lumber Company Land Dept. of Minden, La. The deed was dated 1 of 23rd of 1901 [Jan. 23, 1901?]. It states "We will deed to Bethlehem church 4 acres of land, and to Wattsville school near the residence of MT. Johnson, 1 1/2 acres of land, as soon as the land lines are located." Signed, Bodcaw Lumber Co. Capt. Marion T. Johnson's oldest living son lives in Winnfield, now a resident of Parkview Estate Nursing Home. Jesse Johnson was born in 1882 and describes his father as a very lively man who could entertain a few or a thousand people with his political speeches. His father, at the age of 38, married Della Bolton of Wattsville and they had three sons and one daughter. Jesse went to his father's school at Bethlehem as a child, but MT. Johnson did not teach school for many years, finding more money and interest in making speeches for politicians or looking out for timber company holdings. He was an agent for the New York Lumber Co. for four or five years, Jesse said, before they sold out to Bodcaw. His father was instrumental in getting the L&A Railroad to this part of the country. . . . It is difficult to determine how influential Captain Marion Thankyou Johnson's life really was in early Winn history. Certainly his educational influence made an impact upon the children and their children's children. Since Winn has always been noted for its prominent political figures, no doubt Marion Thankyou Johnson started the work of mouth campaigns which have perpetuated to this day for men seeking offices. And, last but not least, Winn can thank Johnson and others who got the railroad to this parish, even if his motives for wanting the rails were undoubtedly personal -- the railroads moved the timber products from the forests. [End of article.] In addition to the two sons mentioned in the article, Marion and Della Johnson had a daughter, Meadie, who married J.C. "Blackie" Young, and another son, William B. Johnson, who married Lessie A. Carpenter. William and Lessie Johnson lived in this community and had four children, Henry (married Thelma Jones), Bessie (married Ernie Yocum), Amos (married Hazel ?), and Floyd (married Velma Jones). CORRECTION: William B. & Lessie A. Carpenter Johnson had 5 children rather than 4. The fifth and youngest child was a daughter, Nena, who married (1) J.C. Barton, (2) Clarence Cromwell. Information on this child given by Pat Yocum Patterson.