University of Virginia Library

JOSEPH JOHNSON.

The honored career of Joseph Johnson was the just result of intrinsic
merit and resolution of character. No factitious advantages of birth or
education attended him. He was born December 19, 1785, in Orange
County, New York, and was the second son of Joseph and Abigail
(Wright) Johnson. His parents were poor, but their virtues commanded
esteem. His father had been a soldier in the war for Independence.
Joseph was but five years of age when his father died, leaving
a widow with five children. The family moved to Sussex County,
New Jersey, in 1791, Joseph then being six years old. They resided
there until 1801, when the mother, with a married daughter and son-in-law,
and her two little sons, moved to Harrison County, Virginia.
Joseph was then fifteen years of age, and was the chief stay and protection
of his mother and younger brother. He, of his own volition, soon
formed an engagement to live with a respectable farmer in the neighborhood
named Smith, and whose health was delicate. This proved to be
an auspicious business contract. Joseph soon won the regard of Mr.
Smith, became his chief manager, and lived with him until his death.
He subsequently, before attaining his majority, married the daughter of
his late friend and employer. This was a mutually fortunate and happy
union. Mrs. Johnson was noted for her gentle and amiable character.
She lived and died an earnest Christian, without an enemy, and beloved
by all who knew her. Four years after his marriage Joseph Johnson purchased
the interests of the remaining heirs in the farm of his wife's father,
and it continued his home through life. It adjoins the village of Bridgeport,
a depot on the Parkersburg branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
Harrison County is now in the new State of West Virginia, carved
from the old mother. At the time of Mr. Johnson's marriage, that portion
of Virginia was almost covered with primeval forest, educational
facilities were limited, and, as the time of Joseph Johnson by day was
fully occupied, the simple rudimental knowledge which he acquired was
the result of study by night, and later in odd moments. His application
was continuous, extending into manhood, and he was thus truly, so far
as his knowledge extended, a self-educated man. The demand upon his
time as a farmer continued exacting. As a means of improvement he
originated a debating society, which met at night in the village near him,
and subsequently became famed for the ability of its members, many of
whom were honored with public station. Here the talents of young
Johnson attracted attention. His analytical and logical powers of mind,
and skill as an orator were rapidly developed and acknowledged. In
the discussions pending the last war with England, Johnson at once
took position with the Republican party, as the advocates of war were
then called. As the Captain of a rifle company of militia he was first
brought into public view. When the Atlantic sea-board was threatened,
in 1814, he called them together, and by a stirring speech influenced

ARMORIAL BOOK-PLATE

Of the eccentric "John Randolph of Roanoke."

them to a unanimous tender of their services to the General Government.
They were promptly accepted, and the company marched to
Norfolk. There, in the front, Captain Johnson continued in the service
until peace was announced in the following year, when with a small
remnant of his company he returned home.

Now commenced the long and useful political career for which his
talents, decision of character, and unsullied integrity so eminently fitted
him. In 1818 he was elected to the House of Delegates, defeating the
noted old public servant, John Prunty. In 1822 Mr. Johnson was
again elected to the House of Delegates, but declined a re-election on
the expiration of his term. In 1823 the Hon. Edward B. Jackson, of
Harrison County, declined a re-election to Congress, and persuaded Mr.
Johnson to offer himself as a candidate for that body. He did so. The
opposing candidates were Edwin S. Duncan, afterwards a Judge of the
General Court of Virginia, Colonel Thomas S. Haymond, and the celebrated
Philip Doddridge. After a meeting of the candidates in the city
of Wheeling, the first two withdrew from the canvass, leaving as competitors
Doddridge and Johnson. Doddridge was the senior of Johnson,
an eminent lawyer, a forcible and eloquent speaker, and in ability compared
favorably with any public man of the period. Yet, after a
heated and exciting contest, Johnson triumphed. He took his seat in
the eighteenth Congress in December, 1823. Henry Clay was made
Speaker of the House, and there was then convened in the two branches
of Congress the most imposing array of intellect that has ever graced
the National halls. It was during this session that the election of President
of the United States devolved on Congress. In this memorable
contest Mr. Johnson voted alone for Andrew Jackson from first to last.
In 1825 he was re-elected to Congress over Philip Doddridge in a
spirited contest. In the spring of 1827 Mr. Johnson returned to
private pursuits, and was succeeded in Congress by Isaac Lefler, and
he in turn, after a single term, by Philip Doddridge, who served until
his death, November 19, 1832, when Mr. Johnson was elected to fill the
vacancy, and served during the last session of the twenty-second Congress.
He declined re-election in the spring of 1833, and recommended
and supported John J. Allen, subsequently a distinguished Judge, who
was elected. In 1835 Mr. Johnson again offered himself for Congress,
was elected over Mr. Allen, and served continuously until 1841, when
he declined re-election, and supported Samuel L. Hays, who, however,
was defeated by the Whig candidate, George W. Summers. In 1845
Mr. Johnson was again elected to Congress, over Colonel G. D. Camden.
This was the seventh time he had been elected to Congress. At the
close of the twenty-ninth Congress, in 1847, Mr. Johnson issued an address
to his constituents, thanking them for their past confidence, declining
re-election, and expressing his wish and purpose to retire permanently
from public life; but his constituents demanded his service in

the House of Delegates, in which he served in the session of 1847-48.
In 1850 he was elected a member of the State Constitutional Convention,
and served in that body as chairman of the committee on suffrage.
Whilst a member of the Convention he was elected Governor of the
State by the Legislature, under the provisions of the then existing
constitution. In the autumn of 1851 the constitution which he had
helped to frame was adopted, and under its provisions Mr. Johnson,
who had been nominated by the Democratic party, was elected Governor
over George W. Summers, by the popular vote, for the term of
four years from January 1, 1852. This was the first election of a
Governor of Virginia by the votes of the people, and Johnson was the
first and only State Executive from the section now comprised in West
Virginia. In his first message to the General Assembly, in 1851,
Governor Johnson recommended the completion of the James River
and Kanawha Canal to Clifton Forge as its western terminus for the
time, and the extension of the Central Railroad (now Chesapeake and
Ohio) from Staunton, by Clifton Forge, westward to the Ohio River,
at or near Guyandotte; together with a general system of railroads for
the residue of the State. His recommendations were adopted by the
Legislature, and the work on the different lines began and rapidly
pushed forward until the breaking out of the civil war in 1861. In
the same message he called attention to the importance and critical
tenure of the relations of the State with the Union, and foreshadowed
the culmination which was so unhappily realized.

In addition to the stations enumerated, Governor Johnson had several
times served as Presidential Elector; and now, upon the expiration
of his term, December 31, 1855, having attained the allotted age of
the Psalmist, three-score and ten years, he finally retired to private
life. His mental and physical powers were happily but little impaired.
In his home of more than fifty years, surrounded by life-long friends,
he dispensed a generous and joyous hospitality. In all the relations
of private life he was a model of excellence. Proverbially punctual,
his morals were pure and lofty.

In person he was below the medium height, but with robust physique.
He was dark in complexion, with brilliant black eyes that were singularly
expressive in debate. He was permitted to remain in peaceful
quietude for but a few years. In 1860 he discerned the pending fratricidal
conflict, and was sorely grieved. A strict constructionist of the
Federal Constitution, regarding it as a written compact between the
States composing the Union, he held that the Union was the creature
of the States. He was never a secessionist per se. He loved the Union
of our fathers, and always advised moderation and patience. He earnestly
hoped for a peaceful solution of the sectional differences until
President Lincoln called upon Virginia and other States for troops to

subjugate those of their own blood. At this critical period he was
called upon by his old constituents to address them publicly at their
court house on their duty in the trying exigency. Though in the seventy-sixth
year of his age, he promptly acceded to their request, and
urged them to side with their near kindred and to protect their friends.
During the war the section in which Governor Johnson lived was overrun
by the Federal troops, and for personal safety he was forced to
leave his home in the charge of a daughter and retire across the mountains
with the Confederate army. Soon after the close of the war
Governor Johnson returned to his home, where he lived peacefully until
his death, February 27, 1877, in the ninety-second year of his age.
The next day a public meeting of the citizens of Clarksburg was held
to give expression to their sense of loss and appreciation of his worth.
An excellent portrait of Governor Johnson is in the State Library at
Richmond. Of the surviving children of Governor Johnson, a daughter,
Mrs. John A. English, resides in Baltimore, Maryland; another
daughter, Mrs. C. S. Minor, resides in Bridgeport; Henry G. Johnson
is a farmer in Harrison County, J. S. Johnson a successful lawyer in
Grafton, West Virginia, and Dr. G. W. Johnson is a practicing physician
in Missouri. A granddaughter, the daughter of Mrs. John A.
English, is the wife of Dr. George H. Eyster, New York City.