F E AT U R E S
SACRED GROUND by DAVID ROTEN
Frederich L. Johnson for more than a decade has made it his mission to reclaim abandoned cemeteries in Newton County, preserving history with annual cleanups in conjunction with Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday. You might be tempted to think that 80-year-old Frederich L. Johnson has one or more feet in the grave. On one hand, you would be dead wrong. Johnson still drives a pick-up truck, operates a part-time masonry business and takes frequent trips to the beach and mountains with Artie, his wife of 58 years. On the other, you would be correct—quite literally. Johnson’s efforts to reclaim abandoned cemeteries in Newton County have at times landed him with both feet squarely in the middle of a sunken grave. Showing respect for the dead by taking care of their final resting place is a family value he learned early in life. “When I was small, we would get on a wagon, ride up to the cemetery and there would be a day of cleaning,” Johnson said. “Everything would be immaculate, and next year, we would come and do the same thing.” However, times change and so has the condition of many cemeteries in Newton County. Former county commissioner Monty Laster is an expert on the subject. A personal search for his ancestors that began 20 years ago led to a project of painstakingly mapping out every cemetery he could find. “We’ve recorded about 280 cemeteries to date,” Laster said. Over half of them are considered “abandoned,” meaning they show signs of neglect,
12 The Newton