Senate 
Welcome to the Johnson Family Club's History section on "Famous & Notable Johnsons - Johnsons" who served in elected federal, state and local offices as well as in notable positions in government. This section is for those Johnson - Johnston relatives who have served in the United States Senate.
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Reverdy Johnson Sr. was born 21 May 1796 in Annapolis, Maryland, a son of John Johnson and Deborah Ghieslin and grandson of Robert and Ann Johnson. Reverdy graduated from St. Johns College and studied law at his father's law office. He was admitted to the bar in 1815 and set up law practice in Upper Marlborough, Prince George's County, Md. He served as Deputy Attorney General of Maryland 1816-1817. He later moved to Baltimore. In 1818, he was appointed chief commissioner of insolvent debtors.
He was elected to the Maryland General Assembly Senate and served 1821-1825. He was in private practice from 1825-1845. He became one of the most prominent lawyers in the nation and argued more cases before the United States Supreme Court than anyone else during the 1850's.
Reverdy was elected as a member of the Whig Party to the United States Senate in 1844 and served from 1845-1849.
President Zachary Taylor appointed Reverdy as the 21st Attorney General of the United States in his cabinet on 8 Mar 1849; he resigned his seat in the Senate to take the Cabinet post which he held until July 1850, after Millard Fillmore became president.
He became identified with the conservative wing of the Democratic party in 1856 and four years later supported Democrat Stephen A. Douglas for the presidency. In 1861 he was a delegate from Maryland to the peace convention at Washington which tried to avoid war between the union and the Confederate States of America.
Reverdy served from 1861-1862 as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates. After the capture of New Orleans by the yankees, he was commissioned by Abraham Lincoln to revise the decisions of the military commandant, General B. F. Butler in regard to foreign governments. Reverdy reversed all those decisions to the entire satisfaction of the administration.
In 1863 Reverdy was once again was elected to the United States Senate, this time as a Democrat, and served from 1863 to 1868 when he resigned. He was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary (ambassador) to Great Britain 12 Jun 1868 and presented his credentials to the Court of St. James 14 Sep. When U. S. Grant took office in 1869, he recalled Reverdy on 13 May 1869. While in England, he negotiated a treaty for the US to settle claims of the US against Britain for that country's aid to the Confederate States of America during the War for Southern Independence. However, the yankee radicals in the US Senate refused to accept the treaty.
Reverdy also served for five days as interim Secretary of the War Department (which later became part of the Department of Defense), a cabinet post. He died at Annapolis 10 Feb 1876 and was buried at Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore.
Rienzi Melville Johnston was born 9 Sep 1849 in Washington County, Georgia, a son of Freeman W. Johnston and Mary Jane Russell. During the War for Southern Independence, he enlisted in the Confederate States Army and served as a drummer from 1862-1863 and reenlisted in 1864 and served to the end of the war. In the early 1870's, he became City Editor of the Savannah Morning News at Savannah, Ga. He left there and moved to Austin, Tx. in 1878 to become editor of the Crockett Patron. A year later, he became editor of the Corsicana Observer in Corsicana, Tx. and then established the Independent paper there. In 1880, he moved to Austin, where he worked for the Austin Statesman. He worked for the Houston Post as a correspondent covering the state capital. When the Post was reorganized in 1885, he was chosen editor-in-chief and later became president of the Houston Printing Co., owner of the Post. He served for two years as the first vice president of the Associated Press.
Rienzi became a prominent leader in the Democratic Party in Texas and the South. He was urged to run for Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1898 but declined. He served from 1900 to 1912 on the Democratic National Committee.
In 1913, Governor Colquitt appointed him to fill an unexpired term in the United States Senate and he served from 4 Jan to 3 Feb 1913. He then returned to Houston and resumed his position as head of the Post. He was elected to the Texas State Senate in 1919. He resigned when the governor appointed him as Chairman of the State Prison Commission in 1920.
Rienzi married Mary E. Parsons in 1875 and they had three children, including Libbie, who married Neill Turner Masterson. Rienzi died 28 Feb 1926 and was buried at Glenwood Cemetery, Houston.
Robert Ward Johnson was born 22 Jul 1814 in Scott County, Kentucky, son of Benjamin Johnson and Matilda Williams. He was a grandson of Robert M. Johnson Sr. and Jemima Suggett, both natives of Orange County, Va. Robert came from a politically prominent family. He was a nephew of Vice President and Congressman Richard Mentor Johnson; and nephew of Congressmen James Johnson and John Telemachus Johnson. His was a brother-in-law of Congressman Ambrose H. Sevier Sr.
He moved with his father to Arkansas in 1821. He attended Choctaw Academy and later St. Joseph's College, Bardstown, Ky. He studied law and began practice at Little Rock, Ar. In 1835. He was prosecuting attorney for the Little Rock circuit, 1840-1842 and State Attorney General ex officio.
Robert was elected as a Democrat to the House of Representatives of the 30th US Congress and two additional terms, serving from 1847 to 1853. During his House terms, he served as Chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs. He declined renomination in 1852 and was appointed to fill a vacancy to the United States Senate. He was reelected in 1855 and served from 1853 to 3 Mar 1861. He was not a candidate for reelection in 1860. While in the Senate, he served as Chairman of the Committee on Printing and on the Committee on Public Lands.
When Arkansas seceded from the union and joined the Confederate States of America, Robert was named a delegate to the Provision Government of the Confederacy in 1862. He was elected to the Confederate States Senate and served from 1862 to the end of the war in 1865. After the war, he practiced law in Washington, DC for several years. He was defeated in a bid for the US Senate in 1878.
Robert married Sarah Frances Smith in 1836 and Laura Smith in 1863. He died 26 Jul 1879 at Little Rock and was buried there at Mount Holly Cemetery.
Samuel Johnston was born in Dundee, Scotland 15 Dec 1733. He came to the North Carolina Colony with his parents John Johnston Jr. and Helen Scrymoure (Seymore) in 1736 and settled in Chowan County. His uncle, Gabriel Johnston, became the Royal Governor of the Colony of North Carolina. Samuel attended school in New England and later studied law in North Carolina. He was admitted to the bar and set up practice. He was elected a delegate to the Colonial Assembly, serving from 1760-1775. He also served as clerk of the Edenton District Court and was a deputy naval officer for the port of Edenton.
In 1773, Samuel became a member of the Committee of Correspondence, one of the many committees set up in the 13 colonies to demand rights and protection for the American colonists and which eventually demanded independence. He was elected as a delegate to the first four North Carolina Provincial Congresses. He was also elected Colonial Treasurer. In 1775, he was named as a District paymaster of troops. Upon independence, he was elected to the NC State Senate in 1779, 1873 and 1784.
Samuel was elected a member of the Continental Congress from 1780-1781. He was elected as the first President of Congress after the Articles of Confederation was signed, creating the United States; he declined to serve. He presided over the NC State Conventions of 1788 and 1789. He was elected Governor of North Carolina in 1787. He resigned in 1789 when he was elected to the United States Senate and served from 1789 to 1793. He then returned home and was named Judge of the Superior Court of North Carolina from 1800-1803.
Samuel married Frances Cathcart and they had five children: Penelope, Gabriel, Frances, Helen and James Cathcart Johnston. Samuel died 17 Aug 1816 in Chowan County and was buried in the Johnston Family Cemetery near Edenton.
Timothy Peter ("Tim") Johnson was born in 1946 in Canton, South Dakota. He graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1969 and received a master's degree there in 1870. He received a JD in law from there in 1975. He became a budget advisor to the Michigan State Senate from 1971-1972 and then began law practice at Vermillion, SD in 1975. He was elected to the SD State House of Representatives from 1979-1982 and the State Senate 1983-1986. He served as Clay County Deputy State's Attorney in 1985.
In 1986, Tim was elected as a Democrat to the House of Representatives of the 100th US Congress and to four additional terms, serving from 1987 to 1997. He did not seek reelection in 1996. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1996.
Waldo Porter Johnson was born 16 Sep 1817 in Bridgeport, Harrison County, now in West Virginia, the son of William Johnson and Olive Waldo. He graduated from Rector College, Pruntytown, Va. in 1839. He then studied law and was admitted to the bar, setting up practice in Harrison Co. In 1842, he moved to Osceola, St. Clair Co., Mo. where he set up law practice. He served with the First Missouri Regiment of Mounted Volunteers during the Mexican War. Upon his return home, he was elected to the Missouri State House of Representatives in 1847. He was elected circuit attorney in 1848 and Judge of the 7th Judicial Circuit in 1851. He resigned in 1852 and resumed his law practice. He was a member of the peace convention in 1861 held in Washington, DC to try to resolve the growing threat of war between the North and South.
Waldo was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate an served from 17 Mar 1861 to 10 Jan 1862, when the yankee republicans expelled him for "disloyalty to the government" along with other Southerners. Waldo enlisted in the Confederate States Army during the ensuing War for Southern Independence and was named Lt. Colonel of the 4th Missouri Infantry Regiment.
He was later appointed to fill a vacancy to the Confederate States Senate. At the end of the war, Waldo moved his family to Hamilton, Canada where he lived until 1866, when he returned to Osceola, Mo. He was elected president of the State Constitutional Convention in 1875. Waldo was a nephew of Joseph Johnson, Governor of Virginia and US Representative.
Waldo married Emily W. Moore in 1847.
William Samuel Johnson was born 7 Oct 1727 in Stratford, Cn., a son of Samuel Johnson and Charity Floyd. He was tutored privately by his father and later graduated from Yale College in 1744 and from Harvard College in 1747. He studied law and was admitted to the bar. He practiced in his home of Stratford. He was elected to the Colonial House of Representatives of Connecticut 1761, 1765 and to the upper house in 1766 and from 1771-1775. He served as a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress held in New York City in Oct 1765 and was Colony of Connecticut's Agent extraordinary to the Court of England 1861-1771 to determine the title to Indian lands. He served as Judge of the Connecticut Supreme Court 1772-1774.
He was elected to the Continental Congress and served 1785-1787.He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and served as the first President of Columbia College in New York City from 1787-1800.
William was elected to the United States Senate in 1788 and served from 1789 to 1791, when he resigned. He died 14 Nov 1819 in Stratford and was buried in Stratford Cemetery.
William married Ann Beach in 1749 and they had at least 8 children.
Ambrose Hundley Sevier Sr. was born 4 Nov 1801 in Greene Co., Tn. He married Juliette E. Johnson 26 Aug 1827 in Little Rock, Ar. He was a brother-in-law of US Senator Robert Ward Johnson. Ambrose moved to Missouri in 1820 and to Little Rock, Arkansas in 1821. He became Clerk of the Arkansas Territorial House of Representatives. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1823. He was elected to the Territorial House and served from 1823-1827 and served as Speaker of the House in 1827.
He was elected as a Territorial Delegate to the 20th US Congress and reelected to three more terms, serving from 1828 to 1836, when the territory was admitted as a state. He was then elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate for 1836 and reelected in 1837 and 1843, serving from 1836 to 1848. He served as President pro tempore of the Senate during the 29th Congress and later as Chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs.
He was appointed Minister to Mexico to negotiate a treaty of peace for the Mexican War in 1848. Juliette and Ambrose had four children.
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