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Johnson Oatman, Jr.
1856 - 1922 Person Name: Rev. Johnson Oatman, Jr. Author of "Jesus Took My Burden" in Edward MacHugh's Treasury of Gospel Hymns and Poems Johnson Oatman, Jr., son of Johnson and Rachel Ann Oatman, was born near Medford, N. J., April 21, 1856. His father was an excellent singer, and it always delighted the son to sit by his side and hear him sing the songs of the church.
Outside of the usual time spent in the public schools, Mr. Oatman received his education at Herbert's Academy, Princetown, N. J., and the New Jersey Collegiate Institute, Bordentown, N. J. At the age of nineteen he joined the M.E. Church, and a few years later he was granted a license to preach the Gospel, and still later he was regularly ordained by Bishop Merrill. However, Mr. Oatman only serves as a local preacher.
For many years he was engaged with his father in the mercantile business at Lumberton, N. J., under the firm name of Johnson Oatman & Son. Since the death of his father, he has for the past fifteen years been in the life insurance business, having charge of the business of one of the great companies in Mt. Holly, N. J., where he resides.
He has written over three thousand hymns, and no gospel song book is considered as being complete unless it contains some of his hymns.
In 1878 he married Wilhelmina Reid, of Lumberton, N.J. and had three children, Rachel, Miriam, and Percy.
Excerpted from Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers by Jacob Henry Hall; Fleming H. Revell, Co. 1914
Johnson Oatman, Jr.
Bertha Mae Lillenas
1889 - 1945 Composer of "[When I, a poor, lost sinner] (Lillenas)" in Christian Service Songs Lillenas, Bertha Mae (nee Wilson). (?--1945). First wife of Haldor Lillenas, mother of their two children. Ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene. Evangelist, singer, and composer, as well as artist at the piano. Deets Pacific Bible College, Los Angeles (later Pasadena College). With her husband, pastored churches at Lompoc and Pomona, California; Auburn, Illinois; Peniel, Texas; Redlands, Calif.; and Indianapolis, Indiana. She often preached.
She had a gift for writing songs easy to sing on powerful gospel themes. Since she was a contralto, she wrote most numbers in a low key. The text of "Jesus Took My Burden" (Johnson Oatman) was sent to Haldor Lillenas to be set to music, but the musical setting he wrote visited virtually all publishers of the day without success. After it lay in his file of unpublished music for 13 years, he took it to Bertha Mae, whose melody was immediately accepted and sung widely by Homer Rodeheaver.
--E. Roger Taylor, DNAH Archives, edited for clarity
Bertha Mae Lillenas
