06 September 2012

James C. Johnson, M.D., a Biographical Sketch

Source: Georgia and Florida Biographies [database on-line].
Original Data from Biographical Souvenir of the States of Georgia and Florida, Containing Biographical Sketches of the Representative Public, and many Early Settled Families in These States. F. A. Battey & Company, 1889.
Transcribed by S. Lincecum 2005.

James C. Johnson, M.D., Macon, is a native of Henry County, GA, born November 1, 1838, and is a son of Thomas B. and Amanda M. (Cain) Johnson. Thomas B. was a son of David Johnson, one of the oldest settlers of Georgia, coming from Virginia. He died in 1865 at the advanced age of eighty-six years. Thomas B. was born in Putnam County, Ga, and is now a resident of Spalding County, and is yet in the enjoyment of good health at the age of eighty-two years. For many years he has represented his county in the State legislature. His wife, Amanda M., died in 1887 at the age of seventy-nine years. They were married at the respective ages of nineteen and seventeen years, and lived on the same farm, five miles from Griffin, in the enjoyment of each other's society more than sixty-three years. Both were devout members of the Methodist Episcopal Church for more than sixty years. Thomas B. Johnson was a model temperance man. He never used tobacco in any form, and for more than sixty years has not tasted intoxicants. His wife's father left his home in the State of Louisiana at the age of fifty years, going to Texas to transact business, and was never heard of afterward. He had $1,000 in his possession at the time, and it is presumed that he was murdered for his money.

James C. Johnson, our subject, received good educational advantages, and graduated at the Atlanta Medical College in the class of 1859. He located at Wellborn's Mills, Houston County, the same year, and began the practice of medicine. He was a partner of Dr. L. B. Alexander, now of Monroe County, for one year, after which he practiced his profession alone. He entered the Confederate service as physician and surgeon in the spring of 1862, and continued therewith until the close of the war. He was surgeon of the second regiment of the Georgia reserve corps, and by virtue of his commission became brigade surgeon. He was stationed at Andersonville prison for two years, going there when that prison contained 1,600, and was there when the number had increased to 38,000. He slept in the same room and ate at the same table with Captain Wirtz for one year, and the same with A. W. Perrons, the first commander of the post. At the close of the war he opened an office at Echeconnee Station, Houston County, where he had an extensive practice, making a speciality of surgical diseases of females; obstetrics and diseases of children. During the winter of 1865 and '66 he treated fifty-seven cases of small-pox for Houston County and sixteen cases for Crawford County, Ga, and as an evidence of his success it is only necessary to say that in the seventy-three cases he only lost two patients. The two counties mentioned rewarded him for services rendered by paying him $5,750, and during this time he also attended individual cases of small-pox that paid him more than $1,000. His practice that year amounted to more thatn $7,200. He has followed his profession for a period of thirty years with gratifying success, and has now a large and lucrative practice in the city of Macon, where he has made his home since March, 1884. The doctor was married in 1862 to Miss Annie Eliza Reynolds, daughter of James and Sarah (Paul) Reynolds. To this marriage has been born two children: William Reynolds and Mattie N. -- the latter a school-girl, in her teens. William R. was married February 27, 1887, to Miss Mina L. Kent, of Bibb County, Ga. To them was born in May, 1888, a son named Thomas Blanton Johnson.

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