Samuel Ealy Johnson Jr.
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Samuel Ealy Johnson Jr. | |
---|---|
Member of the Texas House of Representatives | |
In office January 10, 1905 – January 12, 1909 | |
Preceded by | Joseph Wilson Baines |
Succeeded by | William Bierschwale |
Constituency | 89th district |
In office February 6, 1918 – January 9, 1923 | |
Preceded by | William Bierschwale |
Succeeded by | Ben F. Foster |
Constituency | 87th district |
In office January 9, 1923 – September 1, 1923 | |
Preceded by | William Alexander Black |
Succeeded by | Alfred P. C. Petsch |
Constituency | 85th district |
Personal details | |
Born | Samuel Ealy Johnson Jr. October 11, 1877 Buda, Texas, U.S. |
Died | October 23, 1937 Austin, Texas, U.S. | (aged 60)
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse |
Rebekah Baines (m. 1907) |
Children |
|
Parent(s) | Samuel Ealy Johnson Sr. Eliza Jane Bunton |
Relatives | Joseph Wilson Baines (father-in-law) |
Samuel Ealy Johnson Jr. (October 11, 1877 – October 23, 1937) was an American businessman and politician. He was a six-term
Early life
Samuel Johnson was born in
He had to quit going to high school because of health problems, and his parents sent him to live on his uncle Lucius Bunton's ranch in Presidio County, Texas, for several months.[2] When he returned home, Johnson had ambitions to become a teacher; however, the hill country had no state-accredited high schools and no colleges at that time. He learned that he could get a state-issued teaching certificate without finishing high school by passing a state examination.[2] In 1896, with the thirteen textbooks he needed to study for the exam, he moved to his retired grandfather's nearby home to study in quiet.[3]
Johnson passed the exam and, for the next three years, taught in one-room school houses throughout the hill country.
Personal life
He married Rebekah Baines (1881–1958), daughter of Joseph Wilson Baines and his wife, on August 20, 1907. Their first child, Lyndon B. Johnson, was born on August 27, 1908. They had four more children: Rebekah (1910–1978), Josefa (1912–1961), Sam Houston Johnson (1914–1978), and Lucia (1916–1997).
According to Lady Bird Johnson, Lyndon’s wife, he planned to join the Christadelphian Church, where his father and mother and sister were members, toward the end of his life.[4]
Political career
Sam Johnson served five terms in the
In 1896 and 1898, Republican
From 1867 to 1874 the Reconstruction era Republicans in the Texas Legislature had raised taxes to provide for the first universal free education, and to start establishing welfare institutions such as hospitals, to serve the people.[8] To restrict the power of the legislature, the Democratic-dominated legislature amended the Constitution of Texas in a measure passed by remaining white voters. The amendment scheduled the legislature to meet only every other year as well as setting legislators' pay at five dollars a day—which would be reduced to two dollars a day if the legislature ran longer than 60 days.
First term (1905–1907)
Samuel Johnson's political career began in 1904, when his brother-in-law, Judge Clarence W. Martin, a former State Representative, encouraged him to run for the Democratic nomination to the state house from the
When he arrived at the
One of Johnson's early political achievements was preserving
Second term (1907–1909)
In the 1906 election, Johnson faced David Martin, the owner of the Martin Telephone Company and a resident of Llano County, Texas, in the Democratic primary.[12] He had the support of newspapers in the four counties that comprised the 89th district. He won such large margins in the primary that the county Republicans did not put up a candidate for the general election.[13]
In the 1907 session of the
His stand against business interests made him a hero to political observers in
Third Term (1918–1919)
In November 1917, a
Fourth Term (1919–1921)
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Fifth Term (1921–1923)
On January 24, 1921, Johnson was appointed vice-chair of the House Committee on Representative Districts.[17]
Sixth Term (1923)
In 1923, he was chair of the House Committee on Municipal and Private Corporations.[18]
Business career
Samuel Johnson had made gains in the cotton futures market in 1902, 1903, and 1904; however in 1905, he lost all of the money he had invested. His son, Lyndon B. Johnson later noted, "My daddy went busted waiting for cotton to go up to twenty-one cents a pound, and the market fell apart when it hit twenty".[12] In 1906, he took out a loan and bought futures contracts on margin, but lost money again. When he arrived in the Texas State Capitol after his election in 1906, he was "several thousand dollars in debt".[8]
After retiring from the legislature in 1909,[19] Johnson began to buy and sell real estate in addition to farming. He did well in selling real estate, so well that he hired a local teenager as a chauffeur and paid a staff of cleaning ladies to handle household tasks for his wife.[20] However, he would also lose money, which resulted in the Johnson family living in poverty.[21] He re-invested the profits from real estate into buying local businesses. He bought several ranches, a small movie theater, as well as the only hotel in Johnson City.[20] In 1916, he bought the local newspaper, the Johnson City Record, an "eight page weekly" from its owner. Four months later, he sold the paper to Reverdy Giddon, as many of his subscribers could not pay in cash.[20] Having regained his financial footing, he ran for a third term in 1917.
In 1920, he sold all of his real estate, and went $40,000 into debt to restart cotton farming. He was motivated by post-WWI cotton prices, which were $0.40, but expected to rise to $0.50 or $0.60. Heavy spring storms repeatedly washed away the crops, and cotton prices fell to $0.08. The Johnson family lost everything.[8]
Notes
- ^ a b c Caro 1982, p. 40
- ^ a b Caro 1982, p. 41
- ^ a b c d Caro 1982, p. 42
- ^ "Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum — Religion and President Johnson". Archived from the original on November 21, 2013.
- ^ a b c Savage 2004, p. 21
- ^ "Nixon v. Condon. Disfranchisement of the Negro in Texas", The Yale Law Journal, Vol. 41, No. 8, June 1932, p. 1212, accessed March 21, 2008
- ^ Michael Perman.Struggle for Mastery: Disenfranchisement in the South, 1888–1908. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001, Introduction
- ^ a b c Caro 1982, p. 46
- ^ Caro 1982, p. 43
- ^ a b c d e Caro 1982, p. 44
- ^ a b Caro 1982, p. 44–45
- ^ a b Caro 1982, p. 45
- ^ Caro 1982, p. 45–46
- ^ Caro 1982, p. 47
- ^ Caro 1982, pp. 47–48
- ^ a b c Caro 1982, p. 48
- ^ "House Committee on Representative Districts - 37th R.S. (1921)". Committees. Legislative Reference Library of Texas.
- ^ "House Committee on Municipal and Private Corporations - 38th R.S. (1923)". Committees. Legislative Reference Library of Texas.
- ^ "Samuel Ealy Johnson". Texas Legislators: Past & Present. Legislative Reference Library of Texas.
- ^ a b c Caro 1982, p. 62
- ^ Braver, Rita (January 22, 2023). "LBJ and his monumental presidency". CBS News. Retrieved January 22, 2023.
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0-679-72945-7
- Savage, Sean J. (2004), JFK, LBJ, and the Democratic Party, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-6169-3, retrieved June 15, 2010
External links
- Samuel Ealy Johnson Jr. from the Handbook of Texas Online
- Johnson City from the Handbook of Texas Online