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FROM THE BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF PRIMITIVE OR OLD SCHOOL BAPTIST MINISTERS BY DAVID MONTGOMERY AND MARK GREEN:
ELDER R. B. JOHNSON
Robert Barnett Johnson was born May 5, 1920, in Tylertown, Mississippi. One ofthirteen children, his mother died when he was seven years old. His father later remarried. Since his parents were Primitive Baptists, he grew up believing the Doctrines of Sovereign Grace. He often said that he did not remember a time when he did not love the Lord. While an honor student at Hinds Junior College, in Raymond, Mississippi, he met and fell in love with his future wife, Miss Ruby Conlee, of Terry, Mississippi. Upon his graduation, in 1940, they married and thus began a very happy union, lasting some fiftys even years. R.B. was offered a job with another wholesale company in Jackson, Mississippi, so the young couple moved to the capital city where they continued to live for the remainderof his life.
There was not a Primitive Baptist Church in Jackson at the time. Elder Fred Satterfield drove over from Lake, Mississippi to conduct services, and a short time later the group decided to constitute a church.
This is an excerpt from some of Elder Johnson’s writings. “The presbytery met and seven were constituted into a regular church. This was one of the happiest days of my life. I had not been here long before Elder Satterfield came to me and asked me if I was not impressed to speak in public and insisted on me taking a part in the services. Time went by and the brethren liberated me. I had been going regularly into the Bethany Association and preaching with Brother W.J. Sanders and especially at Antioch Church and there was some talk of themcalling for my ordination. But just before that happened, I was down at Good Hope Church during an association, and twenty joined. Ten of whorequested me to baptize them. Not being ordained, the brethren got together and discussed the matter. Not only with the members of my home church, but also with members other churches. They were unanimous in the decision to ordain me. I then performed my first official work. The ordination took place onAugust 13, 1944.”
The first two years after his ordination, Elder Johnson baptized seventy-six members into the Primitive Baptist faith. He saw one hundred and fifty-sixsouls unite with the churches he was serving during his first four years as a minister. Jackson Church grew from seven members to forty-four in four years.Brother Johnson served several churches in Mississippi over the years. These included Antioch, new Bethel, and Damascus, in the Bethany Association, and New Hope and New Chapel, in the Good Hope Association. He pastored Damascus Church for nearly twenty years.
Stricken with polio during his childhood, Elder Johnson never allowed his physical disability to hinder him from accomplishing his goals in life. He accepted the extra challenges brought on by his handicap, and he cleverly disguised the paralysis. Friends and acquaintances were often unaware that he had very little use of his left arm.
Elder Johnson served twelve years as President of the Tobacco Dealers Association, and he was on the Board of the Southeastern Candy and Tobacco Dealers Association for five years. He served as an honorary Colonel during the administration of Governor Paul Johnson Jr. and William Waller. And for many years he was the Clerk of the Good Hope Association of Primitive Baptist Churches in Mississippi. Elder Johnson departed this life on January 3, 1997, following several years of failing health. |
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