Document text
Project #3613
I. Dixon
Tinnsboro, S.
OLIVER JOKHSQH. D. D.
(whit.)
72 YEARS OLR.
Doctor Oliver Johnson, pastor of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
at Winnsboro, South Carolina, is one of the outstanding ministers of his denomi-
nation in the South and a prominent citizen of the Piedmont section of South
Carolina. He is 6 feet tall and weighs 185 pounds. By his dignity and force
of strong personality, he attracts attention in any assemblage of ,people. He
is easily approached in conversation; is a good listener. und a better talker.
He is fond of children and posaesses the confidence and affectionate regard of
all classes of society in Winnsboro and Fairfield County. He and his family
reside in the large manes of the A. R. P. Church on aest Liberty 3treet, in the
town of 4innsboro.
"Ay father was Henry MeYinney Johnson. His ancestor was one of the pil-
grims who came over on the :layflower to America in 1620. He was a descendant
of illiam Brewster. mother, 'Ilry Uisa Bouchillon, was descended from the
Bouchillons that came with the Huguenots from Francs and made the settlement
J in Abbeville County known as Bordeaux. I was born at Bordeaux, Abbeville County,
,uly 30, 1866.
"Uy father was a farmer. He bought a hone in the imall college town of
Due lost and moved our family there in 1873. I received my primary schooling
in the preparatory department of th college. !'re. Louisa Galloway was my first
primary teacher in the rudiments of how to spell, road and write.
-Joctor m. ',,loffatt Grier had been elected president of 7.rskine College
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in 1871. As I reflect upon that era, the task confronting us must have been a
difficult one. The Wbuth was suffering from the ravages of a devastating war.
The people from whom the college expected its patronage and financial support
were impoverished and disheartened. Again, the burden of reconstruction was
upon them. At that time, Doctor Grier was a young man twenty-eight years old.
He had served in the Confederate Army, a member of the 6th Regiment, South Caro-
line Volunteers. He was wounded at 4illiamsburg and taken prisoner and exchanged
in 1862. But he really seemed born and called of God to the service of Erskine
College for this particular period.
"The old endowment was gone, and there were no effective plans for a new
one. The question of Mordicai to Esther suggests itself here: 'Who knowest
whether thou art not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?'
"Doctor Grier soon proved himself preeminently qualified for the position.
His worth became known far outside the bounds of his own denomination, and he
was generally accepted as an exponent of the highest and best Christian culture
in the South. Under his wise administration and guidance, the college extended
its influence and attained a place of recognized prominence among the institutions
of higher learning in this country. Doctor Grier was great as a teacher of mental
and moral science. As president, he was tactful, resourceful, and unstinting in
toil and reared a fair superstructure on the foundation laid by the great and
good men who preceded him. He has been described as gentle, firm, considerate
and just. He relied on appeals to his student's sense of honor rather than the
naked hand of discipline, and rarely did his students fail him.
"His Sabbath afternoon sermons, preached in the Due lest pulpit, are ever
to be remembered. They have left their impression upon me, while some of his
words in the classroom have been forgotten. It was under such environment that
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my literary education was conducted and my mental and moral nature was developed.
-I gained three medals while at Erskine College. I won the first one for
being the best all around pupil in the preparatory department; the second, for
being the best declaimer in my freshmen year; and the third, for being the best
essayiat in my senior year. I was graduated at -.1,,skine in 1888, a few days prior
to my twenty-second birthday.
Before leaving the subject of the college, I will relate how one of the
legends that used to interest the student body has since become authenticated
history. The legend WEE, that Ebenezer 1;rskine, for whom Irskine College is
named, was born six months after his mother's funeral and interment. he explana-
tion of this legend came about recently, when lir. H. T. Patterson, a Columbia
banker, presented the Krskine Theological 3eminary with an old copy of Erskine's
sermons, printed in the year 1728.
A startling memoir penned on the flyleaf of the volume describes ”rs•
Henry ',irskine's death and interment and her subsequent revival by the act of a
grave robber. The cryptic thief in this instance, however, played a benevolent
role. 7rovidentially his ghoulish act restored its. 'Erskine to life, saved %bone-
zer, her unborn son, and altered Presbyterian church history.
Ebenezer Erskine, through this amazing incident, was literally projected
from the grave to establish the Seceder Church, out of which grew the
Reformed Presbyterian denomination and 4.skine College.
victim of epilepsy, according to the story, and suffered
Ars. :rskine
from nervous
Associate
Was a
disorders,
lapsing into unconsciousness at times for hours. !:o her seeming death at Iryburgh,
errickshirt,was deemed real. A short time after her interment in the family
vnult, the church sexton, remembering a costly ring that had been left on her
finger, secured secret access to the vault. After opening the coffin and failing
to loosen the ring from her swollen finger, the sexton attempted to sever the
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joint with a knife. The blood and the shook from the knife wound stirred life
in the supposed dead body, and 74.s. Erskine arose from the crypt and walked the
short distance home.
As Mrs. Erskine approached the house, her husband, hearing footsteps, ex-
claimed: 'If I didn't know my Margaret was dead, I'd say that was her footstep
on yonder wall.' Henry Erskine was quite correct, for his wife, miraculously,
had returned alive. Six months afterward, she gave birth to Ebenezer Erskine.
This son, on attaining manhood, disagreed with the teachings of the Scotch Church
and led dissenters in forming the Seceder Church at Gairney Bridge, near Kinross,
Scotland, on December 6, 1738.
In the fall of 1388, I began teaching school at Lewisville, Chester County.
It was a school supported by subscriptions from individuals in the community.
The hours were from 8 a. in. until 4 p. in., with an hour's intermission for lunch
and recreation. It was not a graded school. My pupils ranged in age from six
to twenty-two years old. It was a pretty laborious job but not an uninteresting
one nor a profitless one to me in after life.
I taught this school for three years, until I entered the Theological
Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey, in 1891. I remained at Princeton three years,
taking the full course in Theology and obtaining my degree in Aly, 1894.
I had been licensed to preach in 1893, by the second A. H. P. Presbytery
in session at Due feet, South Carolina. I spent that summer with the church in
Atlanta, Georgia. The following year, I supplied the pulpit of the First Church,
at Charlotte, North Carolina, during the summer, the regular pastor being absent
for surgical treatment.
At the seminary, I had learned that all sermons may be or should be predi-
cated with regard to three subjects: God, man, and Christ, Christ being the
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mediator between God and man.
I remember Sector William Henry Orson was the president of the faculty
the time was at Princeton. was installed as pastor of the Associate Reformed
Presbyterian Church at Leslie, in York County, South Carolina, October 18, 1894.
I was married October 30, 1901, to Tirsah Christine Elliott of Winnsboro, South
Carolina.
In May, 1900, I bore the fraternal greetings of the A. R..P. Synod of the
South to the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church in session at
Chicago. I was an invited speaker at the Young People's Christian Union Conven-
tion held at Winona Lake, Indiana, in July 1901. While there, I was presented with
a gavel made of wood from Gairney Bridge, Scotland. Under the words 'Oairney
Bridge' on the gavel is inscribed 'December, 1733,' this being the month and
year that Ebenezer Erskine and his conductors net at Oairmsy Hridge and organised
the movement which cane to be known in Scotland as the Secession Church' and
which was the progenitor in this country of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian
Church, the members of which are still familiarly called 'Seceders.'
I was elected a director of Erskine Theological Seminary in 190/ and a
member of the Home Mission Hoard of the A. R. P Church in 1901. By invitation,
have acted as chaplain in both the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States Congress.
I have been in the ministry 44 years and served but two pastorates;the
Neely Creek Church at Leslie ,14 years, and Bethel Church at Winnsboro, 30 years.
My paternal grandparents had thirteen children, of which my father, Henry,
was the fourth child. My maternal grandparents had fifteen children, of which
my mother, Mary, was the ninth child.
"My wife, though her baptismal name is 'rirsah Christine,' has always been
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called 'Tiny'. TO the eolored population, she is affectionately known as
'Miss Tiny. To us have been born nine children, five girls and four boys.
The 30th day of October, 1938 was the 37th anniversary of our marriage.
"Contrasting public opinion now and fifty years ago, as you request, T
would say first that public opinion has been aroused on the subject of pub-
lic health. Fifty years ago, the people would not have approved the large sums
of money now appropriated by the legislature to the ltate Board of Health and
county boards of health.
"Take the town of winnsboro for example. It didn't have a board of health,
a sewerage system, nor a county medical office. It was regarded as an invasion
of personal rights to oven require vaccination of the children in a home. Individa
ual privies were generally constructed behind merchants' stores in town, and hog
pens were within the town limit. The care and sanitation of these places were
left to the judgment and will of the owner of the premises.
"Then grocery stores were unsavory places. The vendor had no regard for
screens over meats, molasses, and other food stuffs. Flies hummed over and lit
on these commodities, but today, by a change of public opinion, rules of boards
of health have been enacted, regulating the conduct of these places. The grocery
store has become a 'thing of beauty' if not 'a joy forever.'
"Public opinion has been improved on the subilect of paved streets and good
roads. one of the streets and few of the sidewalks of the town were paved when
I came to 4innsboro in 1908. In that day, transportation of heavy loads were
affected by wagons and trucks. The power used was mules and horses. Frequently,
teams would bog (Loan and stall on the county roads and even on the main streets
of our town. Now public opinion has advanced,since the coming of the automobile,
and I believe all of our streets and sidewalks are paved or to be paved. Fifty
years ago, we really had no State road system worthy of the name. Today, we
have a State Highway Department, and the excellence of our State highway is
commented upon by the traveling public in this and other states of the Union.
Public opinion has demanded increased educational facilities. Large,
sums of money are raised by taxation for school buildings and teachers' salaries.
The individual public school teacher's salary is one hundred percent better than
it was in 1888.
*You asked me about the attitude of the public mind toward lynching? In
spite of the public inflammatory speeches made by some of our politicians of
a decade or more ago, the tenor of which was *To hell with the law and Consti-
tution where a rapist is concernedi' I think people have become more sober-
minded and are more inclined to let the law have its course in all violations of
the law. can't recall a lynching in Fairfield County in the past 30 years.
Our county is situated between two rivers, the Acteree and iroad, with
numerous streams. It. surface is rolling and hilly. Our farmers had become
one crop producers in the mein -cotton, cotton, cotton. There was no diversi-
fication and little rotation of cropsiand no thought was given to the cOntervation
of the soil. Forests of pine were cut down to feed the furnaces of railroad
locomotives. Hard woods were also destroyed for people's fireplaces in cities
and towns. Ahem lands ceased to be productive in cotton, more timber lands were
demanded, and the waste went on from year to year, greatly increased by the timber
merchants and sawmills.
in spite of the voice of wisdom proceeding frorl (aenson Oolloze and the
Department of agriculture at Washington, as to rotation of crops and methods of
soil conservation, it all was more or less unheeded until the present adminis-
tration at Washington extended a helping hand to the farmer in consideration of
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his submitting to the plans of farming outlined by the government. Now there
are marked changes in the country as you ride through on the excellent highways
the National Government he 4,41101**k.,build. Thirty years ago, cotton was about
all you saw growing along the highways. Now one sees more corn than cotton.
Legumes are everywhere, also a variety of field crops, wheat, oats, rye, and
alfalfa, which were little in evidence thirty years ago. One sees more cattle,
more hogs and vastly improved schoolhouses.
As The State said in its editorial a few days ago: 'Good country dwellings
do not precede intelligent farming, they come after it and as a result of it.
South Carolina is learning how to farm. Axil! we are alive twenty years hence, we
expect to see an impressive number of neat, snug, comfortable homes, as we travel
the highways.'
About young people now and fifty years ago. Human nature will always,
basically, be the same. Youth has more freedom now than then, but it is my
firm belief that the boys and girls of today are just as good, maybe a little
better, than they were in 1880. I would not exchange the comradeship of parent
and child of today for that of the parent toward the child of a half century
ago."