|
a.
|
Note: [Lohnson.fbc.FTW]
BAPTIZED: August 7, 1927 in Lutheran faith at St. John's Ev. Lutheran Church (Mo. Synod). Rev. Michalk
RELIGION: Member of the Oak Island Baptist Church.
ADDRESS: Rt. 2, Anahuac, Texas 77514, Lived at Oak Is. on Double Bayou. Ernest lived at Port Bolivar, Texas as a child and attended school in Galveston. He developed diabetes at the age of 16.
His sister and brother-in-law, Ellen & Walter Harmon, lived four miles south of Anahuac. There he met Katherine Johnson, who lived 5 miles south of Anahuac. They were married and lived in Port Bolivar.
They were young and had little money. They would flounder at night to make extra money to buy Ernest's medicine. In about 1950 they moved to Baytown and lived in the Pelly Oil Field next to Katherine's aunt. Ernest worked for the Highway Dept. on the ferry between Baytown and La Porte, at Morgan's Point. When the Baytown--La Porte Tunnel was built and the ferry closed down, he then worked at the Tunnel. He worked the first night shift the day the tunnel was opened. (Tunnel closed October 1, 1995, when the bridge was opened.) He worked there until about 1956, when they moved to Double Bayou (Oak Island). Katherine's Uncle Eddie Johnson owned and operated Eddie's Bait Camp and he needed help.
The house in the Pelly Oil Field was dismantled and taken to Double Bayou. Using the lumber Ernest, family and friends built a new house there. Eddie had a one room storage house on the property that Ernest built his house around. Ernest helped the older Eddie run the business for a few years until due to heavy rains there was no fish or shrimp. With a family to support he began looking for a job, but there were no jobs. Finally Katherine told him not to come home without a job that the children had to be fed. Ernest again went to the only business around--Brown and Root Shipyard. He explained to Haskell York, the Superintendent, his predicament and again ask for a job. Mr York, understanding the situation, made a job for Ernest. He became night watchman. He would sit in his car and guard the entrance road to Brown and Root. A guard house was later built for him. He would make cast nets while on guard to pass his time and sell to make extra money. He worked his way up to work in the ship yard, on a pile driving barge and to supervise a pile driving crew. When he retired, because of his health, he was the ship yard foreman.
His health began to fail in the 1960's. For seeing this his wife began Kreuzer's Seafood in the late 1960's. Childhood diabetes affects other organs in the body, Ernest had a bad heart. His heart was enlarged from overwork because of the damage. He frequently had bouts with congested heart failure. Due to the diabetes and the bad heart his feet had no blood circulation and wounds would not heal. He had one foot amputated just below the knee and the other foot had the middle toes amputated. A catfish fined him between his fingers and due to that, he had to have his little finger amputated.
Ernest loved to fish, hunt, and dance. He enjoyed playing dominoes and cards. He was a good father. He had a soft heart for anyone in need. His children, if one needed money and mother said no, could always go to daddy and he would sneak it to them. In his last years he would get frustrated because his health would not allow him to do the things he enjoyed even though he tried. He fished and hunted anyway. He was in the hospital and was released, went home, and went fishing and played a game of cards, became feeling bad again, and went back to the hospital and died the next day.
The thing I remember the most about daddy was his smile-- when he laugh his eyes would be almost closed in a squint. He always had his hair cut in a burr. He loved his children and grandchildren even the word "love" was rarely used, we all knew his feelings.
|
