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Submitted: 10/7/19 • Approved: 10/7/19 • Last Updated: 10/10/19 • R211201-G0-S3
Located on the Johnson League Ranch, located between Palo Pinto Lake and FM 919, north of Gordon.
The mausoleum was built in 1923 according to instructions in the will of Mrs. Anna Fatzinger Johnson, who died in 1922, the wife of William Whipple Johnson.It is built of native stone with walls two and one half inches thick, is 18 X 18 feet square and surrounded by a stone fence.
William and his wife, Anna, lost both of their children to disease prior to moving from their home in Strawn to Johnson's League.Unable to bury either of the children because of their grief, the parents chose instead to keep their only daughter and only son in an upstairs bedroom where Mrs. Johnson is reported to have lovingly changed their clothing daily.
After moving to their new home on Johnson's League in 1905, Johnson had a small wooden mausoleum constructed and attached to the new house. However, when Palo Pinto Creek overflowed its banks in 1908 the little mausoleum and its contents narrowly missed destruction when swept away by floodwaters. Only the action taken by quick-thinking ranchhands saved it. After its retrieval, the mausoleum was moved to the highest point on the ranch, Salt Point.
Preceded in death by her husband, when Anna Johnson died in 1922, she left specific instructions detailing the building of a stone mausoleum which was to house the bodies of herself, her husband and their two children. She specified that once the bodies were placed inside, the building was to be forever sealed shut. Today it remains a silent reminder of a time gone by and the deep and lasting mark William Whipple Johnson and his wife made on this land.
*Photograph & information courtesy of:
Larry Lack
Contributed on 10/7/19 by ashaw444
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Record #: 211201