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HON. J. PERRY JOHNSON

Hon. J. Perry Johnson, attorney-at-law and senator for the Twenty-fourth District of Missouri, is a native of Covington, Ky., where he was born in 1835, being the son of Jonathan and Sarah (Chase) Johnson. The father was born in Fauquier County, Va., and was of German-Irish descent. He was a ship builder and contractor on Lake Erie for a number if years. When young he went to Ohio with his parents, was married there, and in 1831 he moved to Covington, Ky., where he followed merchandising. His wife, Sarah Chase, ws born in Delaware County, Ohio, in 1795, and was a second cousin to Salmon P. Chase, who was chief justice of the supreme court of the United States. She died in July, 1844. After her death Mr. Johnson broke up housekeeping and when the Mexican War broke out he enlisted, and participated in the battle of Chapultepec, in which he was wounded. Soon after the war he started on a foreign trip, and died on the route in 1858. He was the father of four children, J. Perry being the only one living at the present. The latter was educated in the common and select schools of Missouri and Illinois, and attended St. Louis University, Jones' Commercial College, and Stewart's Mathematical Institute. At about the age of seventeen he commenced merchandising at Central City, and followed this occupation for five years. In 1859 he read law with Hon. Harvey K. S. O. Melveny, of Marion County, Ill., and the same year was admitted to the practice by the supreme court at Mount Vernon, Ill., He located at Central City, Ill., and remained there until 1861, when he removed to Chester in Randolph Co., Ill., and entered upon the general practice of law at that place. In 1864 he was elected circuit attorney of the Second Judicial Circuit, which comprised Marion, Randolph, Monroe, Clinton and Washington Counties. He served four years. In 1863, the year previous to his election he married Miss Mary C. Prine, a native of Chester, Ill., and to this union was born one child, John Flernoy, who is now residing in Marshall, Tex. Mrs. Johnson died in 1866, and in 1868 Mr. Johnson married Miss Abigail F. Prine, sister of the first wife. She bore him seven children: Alfred C., Mary E., Adaline C., Georgia A., Kate A., Ida J., and Blanch G. In 1876 Mr. Johnson was elector on the Democratic National ticket, and in 1881 he came to Fredericktown, where he has since resided. He is a stanch Democrat in his political views, and in 1886 he was elected senator of the Twenty-fourth Senatorial District of Missouri, representing the counties of Iron, Madison, Wayne, Reynolds, Carter, Butler, Ripley and Oregon. His term of office expires in 1890. He was on committees of corporations other than Railway-Criminal Jurisprudence, Enrolled Bills, and State and Swamp Lands. In 1887 Mr. Johnson and Erastus R. Lentz of Poplar Bluff, Mo., became partners under the name and style of Johnson & Lentz, and now have offices at both Poplar Bluff and Fredericktown, but the principal office is at Poplar Bluff. They have and extensive law practice, and are able and influential members of the legal fraternity. Mr. Johnson is Past Master of the Masonic fraternity, and he and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.