T. J. JOHNSON, JR., Caldwell County, was born October 13, 1842, in Eddyville, Lyon Co. (then Caldwell), Ky., and is a son of T. J. and Eliza Ann (Barnard) Johnson, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Kentucky. Subject's paternal grandfather was a native of North Carolina, who immigrated to Tennessee in an early day, and ran a ferry at Nashville when there were but two or three cabins in that city. John Barnard, maternal grandfather, was born in Massachusetts, which State he left many years ago, immigrating to Kentucky and settling at Princeton, where he lived until 1840, at which time he moved to Texas and died in that State two years later. His wife, Rachel (Warren) Barnard, was a grand niece of Gen. Warren, who fell at the battle of Bunker Hill. She died in Kentucky in 1880, at the advanced age of one hundred and one years. T. J. Johnson, Sr., subject's father, came to Princeton in 1833, and worked at the tinner's trade for a number of years. He was also a livery man and hotel-keeper, and later in life became a farmer. He is still living in Logan County, where he moved in 1873. Subject's mother is living also. T. J., Jr., is the fourth of a family of ten children. He commenced life for himself at the age of seventeen years by keeping a stage office at Hopkinsville, where he remained until the breaking out of the war. In April, 1861, he enlisted in Woodward's Oak Grove Rangers (Confederate), with which he served through the war. His command figured in the Western campaign under Gens. Forrest and Wheeler, and participated in a number of bloody engagements, the most noted of which were second fight at Fort Donelson, Thompson's Station, Farmington, Saltville and Chickamauga. Mr. Johnson was taken prisoner in middle Tennessee September 6, 1884, and kept in confinement at Camp Chase until the close of the war, after which he went West, and for several years followed mining, stock-raising and farming among the Rocky Mountains. After an absence of five years he came back to his native State and engaged in farming in Ballard County, which he continued until 1873, when he engaged as clerk for J. T. Savage, of Hopkinsville. He afterward served as clerk for E. H. Daniells, of Princeton, with whom he remained for a period of five years, and then went to Texas for the purpose of going into the stock business. He remained but a short time, however, coming back to Princeton before the expiration of a year, and engaging in the livery business, which he still follows, and in which he has been very successful. Mr. Johnson was married June 2, 1880, to Miss Ida Bell, daughter of Dr. J. A. and Mary M. (Melville) King, of Caldwell County. Three children bless this union: King, Jeff Warren and Ray Barnard.
Source: J. H. Battle, W. H. Perrin, & G. C. Kniffin. Kentucky. A History of the State. Louisville, KY, Chicago, IL: Battey, 1885. Page 703.