Perley Brown Johnson

Perley Brown Johnson (September 8, 1798 – February 9, 1870) was an American physician and politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Ohio for one term from 1843 to 1845. He was born in the blockhouse in Marietta, in the Northwest Territory, on September 8, 1798, at a time when the region had not yet been admitted as the State of Ohio, which would occur in 1803. Raised in one of the earliest permanent American settlements in the Old Northwest, he attended the public schools in and around Marietta, receiving the basic education available on the frontier.

After completing his early schooling, Johnson studied medicine, preparing for a professional career at a time when formal medical education was still developing in the United States. By 1822 he had commenced the practice of medicine in Marietta, where he served the local community as a physician. In 1823 he moved to McConnelsville in Morgan County, Ohio, a growing town in the southeastern part of the state, and continued the practice of medicine there. His professional standing and reliability soon brought him into public service. In 1825 he was appointed or elected clerk of the court of common pleas, a position that placed him at the center of county judicial and administrative affairs.

Johnson’s political career advanced in state and national party politics during the 1830s and early 1840s. He served as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives from 1833 to 1835, representing his district in the state legislature during a period of expansion and internal improvement in Ohio. A committed member of the Whig Party, he became active in national electoral politics and served as a presidential elector in 1840, casting his vote for the Whig ticket of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler. His service in the state legislature and his role as elector helped establish his reputation as a reliable Whig leader in southeastern Ohio.

Building on this experience, Johnson was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-eighth Congress, serving as a U.S. Representative from Ohio from March 4, 1843, to March 3, 1845. As a member of the Whig Party representing Ohio, Perley Brown Johnson contributed to the legislative process during his one term in office. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history marked by debates over economic policy, westward expansion, and the role of the federal government. In this context, he participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his constituents in Morgan County and the surrounding region. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1844 to the Twenty-ninth Congress and returned to private life at the close of his term.

After leaving Congress, Johnson resumed the practice of medicine in McConnelsville, continuing to serve as a physician in the community he had adopted in the 1820s. However, declining health forced him to discontinue the practice of his profession in 1847. From that time forward he lived in retirement in McConnelsville, remaining a respected former legislator and long-time resident of the town.

In his personal life, Johnson married Mary Manchester Dodge on December 6, 1825. The couple had five children, four of whom survived him. One son, Perley B. Johnson Jr., served in the Union forces during the American Civil War and was killed on July 18, 1863, during the assault on Fort Wagner, a significant and costly engagement in the campaign against Confederate defenses near Charleston, South Carolina. The death of his son in battle linked Johnson’s family directly to the national conflict that reshaped the United States in the 1860s.

Perley Brown Johnson spent his final years in McConnelsville, where he had long been a prominent physician, local official, and political figure. He died there on February 9, 1870, after more than two decades of retirement brought on by ill health. He was interred in McConnelsville Cemetery, in Morgan County, Ohio, leaving a legacy as both a frontier-born physician and a Whig congressman who represented Ohio during a formative era in the nation’s political history.