Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 12.pdf/264

Rh the historic page of both State and Church among those "good and faithful servants" whose talents were used for their fellow-men and for the Lord to the gain of an hundred-fold.'"

Judge Johnson was born in Tyler County, Virginia, March 24, 1834, one of a family of fifteen children who grew to manhood and womanhood. He worked on a farm in summer and attended school in winter. In 1856 he graduated at Marietta High School. He studied law at Harvard University where he received the degree of LL. В., in 1858. In July of that year he was after a rigid examination by Judges G. D. Camden, David McComas and Geo. W. Thompson, eminent judges of that day, admitted to the Virginia bar. Shortly after his admission he removed to Parkersburg where he actively practised until 1877; as was the custom he attended the courts in adjoining counties.

He received in 1874 the degree of A. M. from Marietta College, Ohio. He was presidential elector in 1864 on the McClellan ticket, and on the Greely ticket in 1872. In 1870 he was elected a member of the State Senate over a majority of 650 at the previous election and was elected by a majority of 700, and carried every county in the district.

He was elected to the Constitutional Convention, by 2,000 majority, of 1872 in which he took a very prominent part, and was chairman of the committee on the executive department.

In 1876 he was elected on the Democratic ticket a member of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia by over 17,000 majority and served in this position for twelve years. For seven and one half years of this period he was president of the court. He wrote over 300 opinions which are found in volumes ю to 31 inclusive. In January, 1889, he resumed the practice of law in Charleston, the State capitol; he has since that time had many cases in this court and has for the most part been successful.

In June, 1895, the position of dean of the law college of the West Virginia University was created, and he was elected to fill it. He is professor of constitutional, international and corporation law, and has largely aided in bringing this law school to a high standard of proficiency. Many of his judicial decisions have of necessity been on most important questions and involved large amounts, but he handled them with the acumen and skill that his literary training and long study and practice at the bar fully prepared him. In the case of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company v. The State Auditor, this company was obliged to pay to the State taxes amounting to a large sum. A State statute which exempted this company from the payment of State taxes was declared unconstitutional. This cause is reported in 19 West Virginia reports and the principles there decided are approved by the Supreme Court of the United States in Freeland v. Williams, 130 United States reports.

His opinions took the widest range and are marked by profound learning, and it was during the period that he was judge that the opinions of this court were brought into prominence in other States and by the law textbooks of the United States.

Judge Johnson is a very large man, over six feet tall, wears long whiskers, has a swing in his walk; when arguing a cause and in the excitement of his theme his voice is loud and sonorous, and so vehement is he that a stranger might assume, he was very angry. It is said that one summer day at Charlestown and while he was in consultation with Judge Green in a room at the Carter House, the proprietor of the hotel, who was not kindly disposed to Judge Green, heard Judge Johnson pressing his view of the cause so vigorously that he immediately came down into the hotel office and told the crowd gathered there, " Well, that is the best thing I ever heard — I never heard any man give an other such a tongue lashing as Judge Johnson gave old Green, and he well deserved it."

Another incident in the life of Judge