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HON. J. PERRY
JOHNSON
Hon.
J. Perry Johnson, attorney-at-law and senator for the Twenty-fourth
District of Missouri, is a native of Covington, Ky., where he was born
in 1835, being the son of Jonathan and Sarah (Chase) Johnson.
The father was born in Fauquier County, Va., and was of
German-Irish descent. He
was a ship builder and contractor on Lake Erie for a number if years.
When young he went to Ohio with his parents, was married there,
and in 1831 he moved to Covington, Ky., where he followed merchandising.
His wife, Sarah Chase, ws born in Delaware County, Ohio, in 1795,
and was a second cousin to Salmon P. Chase, who was chief justice of the
supreme court of the United States.
She died in July, 1844. After
her death Mr. Johnson broke up housekeeping and when the Mexican War
broke out he enlisted, and participated in the battle of Chapultepec, in
which he was wounded. Soon
after the war he started on a foreign trip, and died on the route in
1858. He was the father of
four children, J. Perry being the only one living at the present. The
latter was educated in the common and select schools of Missouri and
Illinois, and attended St. Louis University, Jones’ Commercial
College, and Stewart’s Mathematical Institute.
At about the age of seventeen he commenced merchandising at
Central City, and followed this occupation for five years.
In 1859 he read law with Hon. Harvey K. S. O. Melveny, of Marion
County, Ill., and the same year was admitted to the practice by the
supreme court at Mount Vernon, Ill., He located at Central City, Ill.,
and remained there until 1861, when he removed to Chester in Randolph
Co., Ill., and entered upon the general practice of law at that place.
In 1864 he was elected circuit attorney of the Second Judicial
Circuit, which comprised Marion, Randolph, Monroe, Clinton and
Washington Counties. He
served four years. In 1863,
the year previous to his election he married Miss Mary C. Prine, a
native of Chester, Ill., and to this union was born one child, John
Flernoy, who is now residing in Marshall, Tex.
Mrs. Johnson died in 1866, and in 1868 Mr. Johnson married Miss
Abigail F. Prine, sister of the first wife.
She bore him seven children: Alfred C., Mary E., Adaline C.,
Georgia A., Kate A., Ida J., and Blanch G. In 1876 Mr. Johnson was
elector on the Democratic National ticket, and in 1881 he came to
Fredericktown, where he has since resided.
He is a stanch Democrat in his political views, and in 1886 he
was elected senator of the Twenty-fourth Senatorial District of
Missouri, representing the counties of Iron, Madison, Wayne, Reynolds,
Carter, Butler, Ripley and Oregon.
His term of office expires in 1890.
He was on committees of corporations other than Railway-Criminal
Jurisprudence, Enrolled Bills, and State and Swamp Lands.
In 1887 Mr. Johnson and Erastus R. Lentz of Poplar Bluff, Mo.,
became partners under the name and style of Johnson & Lentz, and now
have offices at both Poplar Bluff and Fredericktown, but the principal
office is at Poplar Bluff. They
have and extensive law practice, and are able and influential members of
the legal fraternity. Mr.
Johnson is Past Master of the Masonic fraternity, and he and wife are
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.
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