U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Johnson, Isaac Vandeventer (b. 1837 ------------------------------------------------------------------- The History of Barbour County, West Virginia, From its Earliest Exploration and Settlement to the Present Time by Hu Maxwell The Acme Publishing Company, Morgantown, W.Va., 1899 Pages 406-407 Hon. I. V. Johnson. The following biography of Mr. Johnson was published in the Charleston Mail, while he was Auditor of the State: "Isaac Vandeventer Johnson, Auditor of West Virginia, was born in Randolph, now Barbour, November 15, 1837. His father, Col. William Johnson, was a farmer and tanner and was a prominent and influential citizen, representing Barbour County in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1859 to 1865. The subject of this sketch received a limited education in the public schools of that day which was supplemented by a year and a half at Emory and Henry College. He entered the Circuit Clerk's office of Barbour County at the age of sixteen as deputy clerk, and continued in that position until the breaking out of the war, with an intermission of the years 1857 and 1858, which years he spent in Illinois. Espousing the cause of the South, he assisted in organizing early in April, 1861, the "Barbour Grays," of which he was elected Second Lieutenant (the late lamented Thomas A. Bradford being the Captain.) He was badly wounded in the knee at the battle of Allegheny Mountain on the 13th day of December, 1861. At the reorganization of the army in 1862, he was elected First Lieutenant of his company, the 31st having become a part of "Stonewall" Jackson's command. Finding toward the close of that campaign that he could not, on account of his wound, stand the infantry service, he resigned his commission and attached himself to the Brigade of General Imboden, where he was assigned to duty by the Secretary of War in the Quartermaster's department, where he continued until the close of the war, when he returned to his home in Barbour County. In 1866 he entered the service of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, where he was employed as brakeman, baggage-master and clerk in the Parkersburg railroad office until 1870. In the latter year he returned to Barbour County and engaged in farming and teaching until 1872, when he became a candidate for and was elected clerk of the circuit court of that county under the new constitution, going into office on the 1st of January, 1873. He was twice re-elected to the same office, retiring on the 31st of December, 1890, after a continuous service of eighteen years. He became a candidate for the Democratic nomination for State Auditor, and was nominated and elected to that office in 1892 for the term of four years. "Auditor Johnson has been twice married, his first wife being Miss Fannie Link, of Bridgewater, Virginia, to whom he was married on the 24th of December, 1874, who died August 25th, 1891, and by whom he had three children. His second wife was Miss Fannie Kemper, of Shendun, Virginia, to whom he was married on the 20th of September, 1893. He is a Master Mason, a member of Bigelow Lodge, No. 52, Philippi, Barbour County, W. Va., and an Odd Fellow, a member of Philippi Lodge, No. 59, and is a member of the M. E. Church, South." At the close of Mr. Johnson's four years' term of service as Auditor, not being a candidate for re-nomination or re-election, he turned his office over to his Republican successor, Mr. L. M. LaFollette, and moved to Roanoke, Virginia, where he now resides, being engaged principally in farming pursuits. During Mr. Johnson's term of service as auditor, his office was kept in the perfect order and system characteristic of his nature and disposition. He made many valuable and original recommendations to the Legislature concerning the improvement of the service and change in the administration of the office. No defaults in the collection of the revenue occurred during his term, and defaults in previous terms were prosecuted. It is but justice to say that West Virginia never had a better Anditor, or more deserving and popular official. The loss which West Virginia sustained by his removal was a positive gain to the "Old Commonwealth," for whom Mr. Johnson, by reason of his birth, education, association and service there during the Civil War, retained an affectionate remembrance. Mr. Johnson's children are Miss Ivy, the eldest, named in imitation of the initials of her father's Christian name, and who is now the wife of Mr. Mark Cordier Price, of Roanoke; and Frank and Virginia, all of whom, with Mrs. Johnson and himself, during his term at Charleston, participated in and formed part of the social functions of the administration at the Capital. ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Barbour County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/barbour/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------