1925 Biography - Andrew R. Johnson

Andrew R. Johnson, son of William D. Johnson and Sarah J. (Slaughter) Johnson, was born in Dadeville, Tallapoosa County, Alabama, September 16, 1856. His father, William D. Johnson, prior to the Civil war, in which he served with honor and distinction, moved from Alabama and settled on a plantation in Scott County, Mississippi. The noble son, Andrew R. Johnson, was reared from early childhood on the Mississippi plantation. He was educated in the public schools of Mississippi, and later attended Harperville Academy. The earlier days found him in school but three or four months during the year, at irregular intervals, attended with difficulties and lack of facilities; for the most part assisting his father on the farm. It was no rare occasion for him to walk five miles to the school.

While still a young man in his early twenties Mr. Johnson moved to Columbia County, Arkansas. Vigorous, ambitious, and determined to succeed, he taught school while in South Arkansas; clerked in a store; was elected and served as mayor of his town; was employed as depot agent by the Cotton Belt Railroad; and edited a newspaper, the last four of which positions for a great while he held at one and the same time, soon going into business for himself as a merchant.

He was married to Julia C. Pittman on April 18 1883, and to this union were born eleven children, eight of whom are now living, good and useful citizens of Louisiana.

Before moving to Louisiana in 1897 Andrew R. Johnson was employed three years by the Government in the states of Wisconsin and Oklahoma as special agent of the Land Office of the United States. He quit the Government service in 1896, and during the following year he moved his family to Homer, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana. During 1898 he moved to Natchitoches Parish, where for eight years he was actively engaged in the timber, lumber, and real estate business, returning to Homer in 1906, where he has since that time resided. In that community his name has been conspicuously identified in many ways with its most progressive interests. He was twice mayor of that town; was president of the Homer State Bank; was a member of the Parish School Board; and was vitally concerned and Connected with every commendable advancement. During his incumbency as mayor the picturesque little Town of Homer was equipped with electric lights, water works and many other improvements.

Successful in business, forceful in all the relationships of a busy life, a devoted husband and father, public spirited and high-minded, Andrew R. Johnson has earned for himself a very prominent place in the citizenship of Louisiana.

Mr. Johnson was a delegate to the constitutional convention in 1913, which was his first conspicuous public work. He soon gathered about him a host of friends throughout the state; soon accumulated a rare fund of knowledge of state affairs. For two terms he served as state senator, representing the parishes of Claiborne and Bienville, and was elected to that seat of honor without opposition by the good people of the Twenty-fourth Senatorial District. While in the Senate he was chairman of the finance committee, and of the committee on state banks and banking, as well as being a member of other important committees. Much of the best legislation of the state for the past twelve years has had his hearty support, co-operation and vote, much of it originating with him. Through his ability, influence, geniality, loyalty to Louisiana, a staunch democrat, through his faithfulness to his friends, and through unswerving honesty and integrity, he soon became one of the most popular men in the Senate. His record there is unsullied.

This distinguished citizens of Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, is a Baptist in faith. He is an Odd Fellow, and a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner.

In the last state gubernatorial campaign of 1923 Andrew R. Johnson was widely urged by his friends throughout the state to become a candidate for governor, but declined.

Mr. Johnson's early life fell in a period marked by war and reconstruction, and his personal advantages were very limited, but he has steadily and persistently worked up to a volume of achievement far beyond that of the average man. For several years he and his good wife supported not less than four children in colleges and universities throughout the country and away from home at one and at same time, giving them every advantage they did not themselves ever have, bearing their parental duties and responsibilities in an unusual manner, measure and fullness.

Though not a native Louisianian, Andrew R. Johnson's life is dedicated to her. Mr. Johnson is now sixty-eight years of age.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, pages 146-147.