My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM PAYNE JOHNSON was born near Georgetown, in Scott County, August 31, 1851, and is a son of L. L. and Irene (Elley) Johnson. The Johnsons are a prominent family in Scott County, and very early settlers there. Our subject is a grand-nephew of Colonel Richard M. Johnson, Vice-President of the United States under Van Buren. He was liberally educated. In 1867 he entered Washington-Lee University, Lexington, Va., where he remained two years, having spent two years previously in the Kentucky Military Institute. In 1870 he began reading law under Madison C. Johnson, at Lexington, Ky. He was licensed to practice by the Court of Appeals in 1872, and at once came to Louisville, where he practiced until 1876, and for a part of the time was a partner of Judge A. T. Pope. In the latter year, he, with his brother-in-law, Judge S. B. Toney, took charge of R. Burge’s estate, which they wound up satisfactorily. The subject has been for some time in the tobacco business with Theodore Schwartz, Jr., his partner. The firm at present is William P. Johnson & Co., and they are the proprietors of the Enterprise Tobacco Warehouse. Mr. Johnson was married on the 5th of April, 1876, to Emma Moore Burge, daughter of the late R. Burge, Esq., long a prominent and well known citizen of Louisville.