Source Church Register of Centerpoint (currently Diamond Methodist), Warrenton Circuit, North Alabama Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South: Register of Members lists J P Johnson received August 1914 by baptism. Lists James W, Ada E, JP, and Harvey D Johnson being received into the church summer of 1918 on transfer from the Horton Circuit.
JP graduated from high school at Blountsville and from college at Jacksonville. He taught first in Blount County (Blountsville Elementary principal 11 years, later he was high school principal at Cleveland 8 years), came to Guntersville in 1944, then at Guntersville High School until the early 1950's.
At the time of his death he was the only chairman the Marshall County Soil Conservation District ever had. He held this position for 24 years. In 1953 he was named to represent Marshall on the board of what was then a 5-county district. He continued in that capacity until the county got a district of its own. He was state president of Soil Conservation Districts in 1965. Three years later, September 1968, he was named Alabama Conservationist of the Year.
He lived on the same farm at Diamond where he grew up. He farmed all his life, taught school 22 years and was a leader in several farm organizations. He started conservation work in a serious way in 1938, when he took over his family's farm at Diamond and started building the soil back. He was one of the first farmers in the county to adopt several conservation practices that are now in general use.
