Josiah S. Johnston

JOHNSTON, Josiah Stoddard,

He was a Representative and a Senator from Louisiana; born in Salisbury, Litchfield County, Conn., November 24, 1784; moved with his father to Kentucky in 1788; returned to Connecticut to attend primary school; graduated from Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky., in 1802; studied law; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Alexandria, La. (then the Territory of Orleans); member, Territorial legislature 1805-1812; during the War of 1812, raised and organized a regiment for the defense of New Orleans, but reached the city after the battle; engaged in agricultural pursuits; State district judge 1812-1821; elected to the Seventeenth Congress (March 4, 1821-March 3, 1823); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1822 to the Eighteenth Congress; appointed to the United States Senate in 1824 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of James Brown; elected to the Senate in 1825; reelected in 1831 and served from January 15, 1824, until his death, caused by an explosion on the steamboat Lioness, on the Red River in Louisiana, May 19, 1833; chairman, Committee on Commerce (Nineteenth Congress); interment in Rapides Cemetery, Pineville, La.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography.