Francis White Johnson

Johnson was a leader in the Texas Revolution and early historian of Texas. He was born in Virginia in 1799 and studied land surveying Tennessee. After working a series of different jobs in Illinois and Missouri, he came to Texas in 1826. He laid out the town of Harrisburg and later became alcalde for San Felipe de Austin. He was considered a “firebrand” and advocated for taking up arms against Mexico and led a group of soldiers in the Siege at Bexar. He was also involved in leading a plan to invade Mexico at Matamoros, an effort soundly defeated with Johnson one of the few survivors. After the war he settled in San Jacinto County and later abandoned his farm and family in 1839. He returned in 1847 and reunited with his wife, until she passed in 1850. In 1871 he settled in the Austin area and started the Texas Veterans Association. He spent his final years researching and writing about the early history of Texas, and he died while on a research trip to Aguascalientes, Mexico, in 1884. His research was published posthumously as A History of Texas and Texans in 1914 by Eugene Barker.