"Prominent Men of West Virginia" George Wesley Atkinson, Alvaro Franklin Gibbens Published by W. L. Callin, 1890 - West Virginia DANIEL DYE JOHNSON. In the hours when the people west of the Alleghenies needed the services and counsel of all their sons, Daniel D. Johnson was not absent or deficient. He was born in Virginia April 28, 1836, and still resides at Long Reach, Tyler county. He grew up to manhood on his father’s farm, laboring nine months each year and enjoying the benefits of a private school at home dur- ing winter months. At the age of twenty-one he entered Mari- etta College, Ohio, where he spent two years, and in June, 1860, graduated from Columbian College (now University), Washing- ton, D. C. From the galleries of Congress he listened to the exciting de- bates of the hour, which presaged the coming storm; attended as spectator the great Union Convention at Baltimore, in May, 1860, and, returning to the labors of the farm, determined to resist all attempts to dissolve the Nation. He took an active part in the canvass that preceded the election of members of the Virginia Convention in February, 1861, opposing secession in all its forms; was a member of the Mass Convocation at Wheeling in May, and also of the Delegated Convention of June 11, 1861, and did his part in preventing what is now West Virginia from being annexed to the Southern Confederacy. In August, 1862, he entered the Union army as Major of the Fourteenth West Virginia Infantry, and was promoted July 29, 1863, to be Col- onel thereof. He was in many hard-contested battles, wounded at Opequan, and in several engagements acted as Brigade Com- mander, and was mustered out and finally honorably discharged July 3, 1865. In 1866 he served as a member of the House of Delegates, and led in opposition to the Test Oaths which were enacted by that Legislature. There had been no organized resistance to such measure, hut by his public criticism he aroused a sentiment which later resulted in the transfer of the political power in the State to the Democratic party. In religious affairs he was equally active. The Baptist de- nomination owes to him its rescue from apathy and discourage- ment and its present aggressive condition. He was mainly in- strumental in organizing the General Association of West Vir- ginia, which elected him its first President, and so continued him several years. In 1866 he was the Democratic candidate for Congress in his district, and made, an aggressive and hold canvass, but was de- feated. In 1868 he delivered the Master’s oration at his Alma Mater, Columbian College, and received the A.M. degree. He was a member of the State Senate from 1872 to 1879, and was President thereof; was an able and quick parliamentarian, pop- ular and impartial. He also served one term as Clerk of the Senate. The same Senatorial counties elected him to the Con- stitutional Convention of 1872, in which he took a prominent part. In 1878 he was appointed Pegent of the State University and was President of the Board for many years. He is still a Regent, having been thrice re-appointed. In 1880 he was Presi- dential Elector by a larger majority than any of his colleagues, and voted for General Hancock in the Electoral College ; was an Alternate to the Democratic National Convention in 1880> a delegate to the one of 1888, and Chairman of the State Con- ventions of 1876 and 1880. Colonel Johnson is a farmer, loving agricultural pursuits, but has taken part in every political campaign within the State since 1865. He was admitted to the Bar soon after the war, and has maintained a lucrative practice ever since. No man has stamped deeper impression for good on the State of West Vir- ginia than Col. Dan. D. Johnson, whose portrait now faces the reader. Submitted by Linda Fluharty.