Firstborn of John & Nellie (Wafford) Johnson of Greenville, Texas. Spouse of Ruby (Whitaker) Johnson, married 62 years. Eight children. Farmed 20 irrigated acres in rural Fort Sumner, New Mexico the last 30 years of his life. Homesteaded there in 1936, constructing a thatch-roofed shanty with walls made out of bales of hay. Kitchen was made from an old truck cab. Rooms had dirt floors & bed sheets as doors. Raised cotton, corn, grain, chickens, & rabbits. Housing upgraded later. Had purchased a forty acre apple orchard nearby on the banks of the Pecos River months before the "Crash of 1929," but lost it to foreclosure by the early 1930s. No formal education. Worked the New Mexico railroads in his youth, advancing from a watchman in 1910 with El Paso & Southwestern Railroad (Roy, Mora County) to an engineer by 1915 with Southern Pacific Railroad (Tucumcari, Quay County). Farmed a claim 30 miles south of Tucumcari during or prior to his railroad years. Fired from the railroad after being falsely accused of causing a train accident. Worked in Tucumcari afterwards as a self-employed auto mechanic, & then in Fort Sumner as a farmer & part-time school bus driver before farming there full-time. "Invented" a jelly-baited, agricultural-duty fly zapper using an old neon sign ballast & metal refrigerator grate before electrical bug zappers were marketed. Played the violin as a teenager, but quit after marrying when his wife complained it was annoying. Collected tools, Indian artifacts, & other relics. Most notable relics included a grinding tooth from a prehistoric mastodon & a Spanish sword he found while plowing his fields. Unfriendly at times towards his wife, children, & grandchildren. Became "brutal" & physically abusive when angry. Always farmed wearing bib overalls & his railroad engineer's hat. Reputedly "1/16th" Native American Indian based upon one of his great-great-grandfathers marrying a Cherokee woman. Twenty-acre Fort Sumner farmstead was located near the gravesite of the legendary outlaw "Billy the Kid." Committed suicide (health-related) in bed, 82, with a self-inflicted 410 shotgun wound to the chest.
--- SOURCE: 1992 videotaped interview of Rex Wallis Johnson (1923-2001) speaking about his childhood memories of his parents, Charles & Ruby (Whitaker) Johnson.
--- SOURCE: 1992 videotaped interview of Rex Wallis Johnson (1923-2001) speaking about his childhood memories of his parents, Charles & Ruby (Whitaker) Johnson.
Firstborn of John & Nellie (Wafford) Johnson of Greenville, Texas. Spouse of Ruby (Whitaker) Johnson, married 62 years. Eight children. Farmed 20 irrigated acres in rural Fort Sumner, New Mexico the last 30 years of his life. Homesteaded there in 1936, constructing a thatch-roofed shanty with walls made out of bales of hay. Kitchen was made from an old truck cab. Rooms had dirt floors & bed sheets as doors. Raised cotton, corn, grain, chickens, & rabbits. Housing upgraded later. Had purchased a forty acre apple orchard nearby on the banks of the Pecos River months before the "Crash of 1929," but lost it to foreclosure by the early 1930s. No formal education. Worked the New Mexico railroads in his youth, advancing from a watchman in 1910 with El Paso & Southwestern Railroad (Roy, Mora County) to an engineer by 1915 with Southern Pacific Railroad (Tucumcari, Quay County). Farmed a claim 30 miles south of Tucumcari during or prior to his railroad years. Fired from the railroad after being falsely accused of causing a train accident. Worked in Tucumcari afterwards as a self-employed auto mechanic, & then in Fort Sumner as a farmer & part-time school bus driver before farming there full-time. "Invented" a jelly-baited, agricultural-duty fly zapper using an old neon sign ballast & metal refrigerator grate before electrical bug zappers were marketed. Played the violin as a teenager, but quit after marrying when his wife complained it was annoying. Collected tools, Indian artifacts, & other relics. Most notable relics included a grinding tooth from a prehistoric mastodon & a Spanish sword he found while plowing his fields. Unfriendly at times towards his wife, children, & grandchildren. Became "brutal" & physically abusive when angry. Always farmed wearing bib overalls & his railroad engineer's hat. Reputedly "1/16th" Native American Indian based upon one of his great-great-grandfathers marrying a Cherokee woman. Twenty-acre Fort Sumner farmstead was located near the gravesite of the legendary outlaw "Billy the Kid." Committed suicide (health-related) in bed, 82, with a self-inflicted 410 shotgun wound to the chest.
--- SOURCE: 1992 videotaped interview of Rex Wallis Johnson (1923-2001) speaking about his childhood memories of his parents, Charles & Ruby (Whitaker) Johnson.
--- SOURCE: 1992 videotaped interview of Rex Wallis Johnson (1923-2001) speaking about his childhood memories of his parents, Charles & Ruby (Whitaker) Johnson.
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