My Genealogy Hound

Dr. W. S. D. Johnson was born in Scott County, Ky., in 1824, the son of John S. and Lucinda (Poague) Johnson, the former, of Irish stock, born in Scott County, Ky., in 1792 and the latter in Mercer County, Ky., in 1796. The grandfather, Joseph, was a native of Ireland, and served under Washington in the Revolution. He was an eccentric man, who never allowed laughing at his table, never became in debt, never wore boots, and although a Christian, did not belong to any church. In 1828 he came to Marion County, and died in 1842. The father located near Palmyra, and bought eighty acres, and died in 1862. His first wife died in 1838, and his second wife, Sarah F. (Haley), survives him. Our subject, the third of seven children, was educated in Marion County, and in 1845 came to this county, and engaged in teaching. He began the study of medicine under Dr. Polonzo Conduitt, January 6, 1846, and after four years with him, and a course of medical lectures at Jacksonville, Ill., and at McDowell’s College, St. Louis, he graduated at the latter in 1850. December 19, of the same year, he married Rebecca, a daughter of Elisha and Sarah Williams, and born in Kentucky in 1830. Robert is their only living child. The doctor began practice in 1848 near La Grange, and in 1860-61 attended lectures at what is now Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, Tenn., and re-graduated in 1861. His wife died in 1860, and March 2, 1865, he married Sarah F., a daughter of Rev. T. J. Starr, a member of the Missouri Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church South, and born in Jacksonville, Ill., in 1839. He has been a successful physician at La Belle since 1871, the next oldest in the county. He bought 320 acres near and in LaBelle, forty acres of which he gave to the railroad. He is a Democrat, a Mason, chairman of the First District Medical Association, member of the County Medical Association, and of the State Medical Association. He is steward and trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, to which his wife also belongs.