James Polk Johnson

Other Johnsons ran cattle here before the town. Samuel Ealy Johnson Sr. and his brother Jesse Thomas built a port-holed rock barn as headquarters for their cattle business at what is now Johnson City. Sam, born in Alabama in 1838, had come to Lockhart with his family in 1846. He served in Col. Xavier Blanchard Debray's regiment from 1861 to the war's end, at the battle of Galveston and at Pleasant Hill in Louisiana. In 1867 he married Eliza Bunton at Lockhart, and they set up house in the log cabin the brothers had used before the war.

What the plaque says

James Polk Johnson (August 24, 1845-October 20, 1885) A native of Georgia, James Polk Johnson came to Texas with his family and grew up in DeWitt County. Following his service in the Confederate army during the Civil War, he moved to Blanco County to join his uncles in the cattle business. He bought the business in 1871 and became successful in his own right. In 1879 he founded a new town, Johnson City, on the Pedernales River and was instrumental in its development. His dream of making Johnson City the seat of Blanco County was not realized until 1891, six years after his death. (1989)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park — 0.3 mi
  The Johnson City district of the national park: the Victorian house where Lyndon Johnson grew up, and the stone barns his grandfather built in the Johnson Settlement.
• Pedernales Falls State Park — 11 mi
  The Pedernales stepping down over layered limestone east of Johnson City, a river that can turn from a placid stream to a torrent in minutes.
• Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site — 13 mi
  A state park on the Pedernales opposite the LBJ Ranch, with a working Texas-German farm kept as it was around the First World War and the permit desk for the ranch tour.
• Luckenbach — 22 mi
  A store, saloon and dance hall on Grape Creek that a humorist bought in 1971, declared a free state of mind, and turned into a pilgrimage for Texas music.

More markers nearby

• Blanco County Trail Drives — steps away
• Dr. James Odiorne — 0.2 mi
• James Polk Johnson Building — 0.2 mi
• Blanco County — 0.3 mi