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Colonel Benjamin A. Johnson, who lives at Crowley in this county,
was a native of the state of Tennessee and his first wife was Sarah
E. Fielder, of Hickman county, of that state. The writer married
married a younger sister of Mrs. Johnson, she being Miss R. L.
Fielder. Another sister was married to John C. Treadway, and was the
mother of Thomas, William and Ed Treadway, of Paragould, and of Mrs.
McFall, of near Camp Ground and the other sister of Tennessee
Fielder, was married to Rev. E. H. Bratton, and she was the mother
of Mrs. Sallie Mangrum, William, Thomas and Manda Bratton. These
ladies were sisters of Thomas and Polk Fielder. Colonel Johnson
enlisted in the Confederate army in Missouri and was made Lieut.
Col. in Reeve's Regiment of Missouri Calvary, a most daring and
indomitable body of soldiers. They made their mark where they went
and victory perched upon their arms on many a bloody field. At the
close of the war Col. Johnson came to Pollard, now in Clay county,
but which was then in Greene County. In 1869 he came down to
the Dr. Croft farm and soon afterward bought and moved onto the old
Ed Bratton homestead, where he lived for several years and then
purchased the Mart Gramling place and moved to t and resides there
at the present time.
Col.
Johnson is strong and active for one of his age ansd is now living
with his third wife. He is a consistent member of the Baptist
Church, a great student of current news and takes a lively interest
in political affairs, being an old time Jeffersonian Democrat. He
appears satisfied to spend the rest of his days on Sugar
Creek, surrounded by his children, grandchildren and great
grandchildren, drinking the finest water in the water in the world,
eating big red apples and smoking home made tobacco.
(From
History of Greene County, by H. B. Crowley as published in 1906 in
the Paragould Soliphone. The Greene County Historical Quarterly, Vol
3. No 3, Summer 1967.)
Transcribed by
Sandy Hardin 2003 |