The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 50, July 1946 - April, 1947 Page: 351
582 p. : ill. (some col.), maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Lizzie E. Johnson: A Cattle Queen of Texas
bookkeeping.'" A grandnephew of Lizzie's states that she taught
French, arithmetic, bookkeeping, music, and spelling-the spell-
ing out of the original "Blue Back Speller."'17 Latin and algebra
were also taught at the Institute,8 and Professor Johnson him-
self taught higher mathematics, courses as advanced as any
given in the period.9 The Institute possessed the first piano in
Hays County, and it was used by Lizzie in teaching music.20
It is interesting to note that Lizzie became so proficient at
bookkeeping that she was later paid unusually high salaries to
keep the books for many cattlemen in St. Louis.21 The training
and education which she received at Johnson Institute and later
at Chapel Hill, Texas, where she received a diploma, stood
Lizzie in good stead.22
T. J. Johnson was a sincerely religious man. In those days
when religion and liquor had not yet parted company, it was
quite customary for a preacher to make his rounds on horseback
with a bottle in each saddlebag. If a man's life were ruined by
drink, it was considered little different from his having lost an
arm. No one considered that a person lacked religion simply
because he drank. Professor Johnson was ahead of his time in
his theories of the evils of drinking and its inconsistency with
the Christian life. Lizzie took this belief as well as a deeply
religious nature from her father.
When Professor Johnson started his school, he also started
the custom of inviting preachers of different denominations to
hold services at the Institute, so that it became a religious as
well as an educational institution. Services were held each
Sunday; every boarding student was obliged to be present, and
ranchers, farmers, and stockmen living in the northeastern part
of Hays County also attended. It was the first institution of
the kind in that section of the country, and when no preacher
was available, Professor Johnson himself did not hesitate to
talk or lecture on the stories of the Bible.23 In warm weather
16Mrs. John E. Shelton, Statement Concerning Elizabeth E. Johnson
Williams.
17Emmett Shelton, Statement Concerning Elizabeth E. Johnson Williams,
MS., Archives, University of Texas Library.
18Thomas Jefferson Johnson to Lizzie Johnson, March 22, 1867, letter
in custody of J. E. Shelton, Jr.
1Emmett Shelton, Statement Concerning Elizabeth E. Johnson Williams.
20T. U. Taylor, "Johnson Institute," Frontier Times, XVIII, 226.
21Mrs. John E. Shelton, Statement Concerning Elizabeth E. Johnson
Williams.
22Ibid.
23T. U. Taylor, "Johnson Institute," Frontier Times, XVIII, 231.351
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 50, July 1946 - April, 1947, periodical, 1947; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101117/m1/426/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.