Johnson, John Lipscomb, 1835-1915

John Lipscomb Johnson attended the University of Virginia from 1855-1859.

Johnson was a native of Virginia, graduate of the University of Virginia, Baptist minister, Confederate chaplain, author, professor of English at the University of Mississippi, president of Mary Sharpe College in Winchester, Tenn., and of Hillman College in Clinton, Miss., and planter near Duck Hill, Miss. His son, John Lipscomb Johnson, Jr. (1869- 1932), was the first president of Mississippi Woman's College.

John Lipscomb Johnson (1835-1915), an educator and Baptist minister, was born in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, the son of Lewis Johnson (1800-1853) and Jane Dabney Johnson (1800-1863). He was one of at least five children that the couple raised at Forest Hill, the family plantation.

In 1854, Johnson began his studies at the University of Virginia. He was graduated in 1860, and, on 10 June of that year, was ordained in Charlottesville as a minister in Southern Baptist churches. One month after his ordination, Johnson married Julia Anna Toy in Norfolk. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted as chaplain of the 17th Virginia Infantry. Later, he served as a hospital chaplain in Lynchburg.

Following the war, Johnson preached in Baltimore, Maryland, and in Portsmouth, Lynchburg, and other towns in Virginia. He also held various offices in the Southern Baptist Convention and assisted in raising money for Richmond College. To honor his alma mater, he compiled the University Memorial Biographical Sketches of Alumni of the University of Virginia Who Fell in the Confederate War (Baltimore: Turnbull Brothers, 1871).

In 1873, Johnson moved with his wife and two children to Oxford, Mississippi, where he taught English at the University of Mississippi. He taught at Oxford, preaching on Sundays, for sixteen years, until he and four other professors were dismissed in 1889 after a feud with the chancellor, Alexander Peter Stewart (1821-1908).

Johnson then took his family to Tennessee, where he was president of Mary Sharp College in Winchester. After two years, he again became embroiled in controversy and left his position.

The next stop was Columbia, Mississippi, where Johnson was pastor of the First Baptist Church. In 1896, he resigned as pastor and retired to the Purnell Place, two miles from Duck Hill. He enjoyed an active retirement, writing articles, preaching, and working within the church hierarchy. For a short time, he served as president of Hillman College for Young Women. He died in 1915.

Six of Johnson's children reached adulthood: Julia Toy, Crawford Toy, John Lipscomb, Jr., Jessie Rosalind, Wortley Valentine, and Mary Rawlings. John Lipscomb, Jr. (1869-1932), followed most closely in his father's footsteps. Shortly after marrying Sue Bell Moody in Georgia, Johnson moved to Mississippi. There his responsibilities included teaching at Georgia Normal and Industrial College in Milledgeville, acting as chair of the Laymen's Executive Committee of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, and serving as mayor of Clinton. With the help of the Convention, Johnson became president of the Mississippi Woman's College in Hattiesburg, where he guided the college through its formative years.

The Johnsons had five children reaching adulthood: Cecil Slaton, Rachel, Julia Toy, Jacqueline van Roden, and Sue Bell. Cecil (b. 1900) studied at Yale University and at the University of Virginia. He taught at the Tunica Agricultural High School in Mississippi, Wake Forest College, Limestone College in Gaffney, South Carolina, and the University of North Carolina. Most of his career was spent in the History Department at Chapel Hill. (See the CECIL S. JOHNSON PAPERS, #3806, in the Southern Historical Collection).

Rachel (b. 1903) worked first as a teacher and then joined the Associated Press in Europe, operating primarily out of Geneva, Switzerland. During World War II, she joined the WACs, serving in the Office of Strategic Service in Italy and North Africa. After the war, she married Waller Batson and lived in Washington, D.C.