Joshua Foster Johnson

Johnson was 25 and the youngest member of the Third Legislature when he was elected to it from Titus County in 1849. Twelve years later he sat in the Secession Convention and was one of only eight delegates to vote against secession. He came from Rutherford County, Tennessee, to Clarksville in 1845, and the Handbook of Texas records his baptism in 1852 and his ordination in 1853 at New Liberty Baptist Church in Mount Vernon. He died at home near Mount Vernon on February 15, 1877.

What the plaque says

Joshua Foster Johnson (September 27, 1824 - February 15, 1877) Came to Texas from Tennessee in 1845, settling (1846) near site of Mount Vernon, which he helped found (as town of Keith) in 1848. Member 3rd Texas Legislature (1849-50); sponsored Mount Vernon Male and Female Academies bill -- leading to public school system. Member Secession Convention, 1861; Constitutional Convention, 1875. As pastor, helped organize Mount Vernon Baptist Church. Married Amanda C. Wright; they had seven sons, three daughters. (1973)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Bob Sandlin State Park — 11 mi
  A 1987 state park on a 9,000-acre reservoir, where a Republic of Texas stockade called Fort Sherman stood in 1838 and the Caddo lived from A.D. 800 to 1860, now with fishing piers, trails and cabins.
• Cooper Lake State Park — 28 mi
  Two units on Jim Chapman Lake, a Corps reservoir proposed in the late 1930s, stalled by a lawsuit until 1984 and dedicated in 1991, with a 10.5-mile equestrian trail and wildlife land around it.

More markers nearby

• Franklin County Courthouse — 0.5 mi
• Franklin County — 1.2 mi
• Ripley Massacre — 3.7 mi
• Gray Rock Cemetery — 5.4 mi