John T. Johnson

John Telemachus Johnson, a founding trustee of the Kentucky Female Orphan School, was born at Great Crossing on November 5, 1788, into a prominent Scott County family. Before turning full-time to evangelism, Mr. Johnson was a successful lawyer, US congressman, and farmer. His brother, Richard Mentor Johnson served six terms in Congress and was vice president of the United States under Martin Van Buren, from 1837 to 1841.

During Dr. Lewis Letig Pinkerton’s first trip to Kentucky in 1838 he travelled with William Morton and John T. Johnson, evangelizing through the State. Pinkerton and Johnson remained fast friends until the latter’s untimely death in 1856 while evangelizing in Missouri.

When Dr. Pinkerton raised the subject of a female orphan school in 1845, both Church Elder James Ware Parrish and John T. Johnson set about raising funds for the project. While Parrish focused on the local area raising funds for the purchase of the land and the building of the school, Johnson searched further afield raising the funds necessary to establish the endowment required in the school’s charter.

Johnson served as editor at various times of the Christian Messenger, the Gospel Advocate, and the Christian. He also worked to establish Bacon College in Georgetown, Kentucky. Education clearly played an important role in his life. It would be correct to say that Johnson, with Pinkerton and Parrish, played an important role in bringing the Kentucky Female Orphan School into existence.