1895-1990

Married: Maggie Piercey, 1919

Daughter: Margaret J. Ferrell

2 Grandchildren, 2 Great-Grandchildren

James C. Johnson was born in Clinton County (Albany), Kentucky, in 1895. He was one of ten children. As a young man he lost all the fingers of his left hand in an accident while working in a sawmill.

Despite his disability, he was determined to achieve and saw education as the path to that goal. He attended Berea College, Berea, Kentucky, and Milligan College, Elizabethton, Tennessee; then began his first career as a schoolteacher. He taught school in Pickett and Trousdale Counties before moving to Wilson County.

In 1919 he married Maggie Piercey of the Centerville community in Wilson County. When their only child, daughter Margaret, was young; Mr. Johnson moved his family to the Taylorsville community, where he began a teaching job at Taylorsville School. There he also began farming. He grew tobacco and vegetables and raised a few head of cattle.

As livestock farming took hold in the Middle Tennessee area in the 1930’s, Mr. Johnson saw a need for area farmers to be able to buy and sell their animals locally. About his time he gave up teaching and embarked on a second career as an agricultural entrepreneur. With a business partner, he opened the Wilson County Livestock Market, and went on to start similar ventures in Hartsville, Lafayette and Cookeville. Although he eventually sold his interest in the markets, the Lebanon market (generally known as the "sale barn") was always a special place to him. In fact, he continued to visit the "sale barn" regularly right up until the time of his death in 1990.

In the1950’s and early 1960’s, Mr. Johnson worked for Commerce Union Bank (now Bank of America) as a farm appraiser. He bought a farm in the Shop Springs community where he raised beef cattle. He was an active supporter of 4-H cattle shows, and one of his proudest moments in that arena came in 1961 when his grandson showed the Grand Champion steer at the Wilson County 4-H Livestock Show.

His passionate belief in the investment value of pastureland for livestock farming led to Mr. Johnson to start a real estate company with partner Billy Hobbs. Their firm, Johnson & Hobbs Real Estate, specialized in farm properties. Through Mr. Johnson’s effort and enthusiasm, Johnson and Hobbs became one of Lebanon’s leading real estate auction firms in the 1960’s and ‘70s.

Mr. Johnson took great pride in Wilson County and was an active participant in civic life. "Mr. Jim" as he was known to many, served as Wilson County Trustee from 1944-46, and later as an alderman for the City of Lebanon in the early 1960’s. He was a member of the Lebanon Lions Club, Wilson County Sportsman’s Club and the College Street Church of Christ. He was one of the owners of Wilson County Fairgrounds when it was located on the Coles Ferry Pike, and served as President of the Wilson County Fair Association for several years in the late 1960’s and 1970’s. The success of the fair in its early years left a legacy that enable the development of the Wilson County Fair into the nationally known event it has become today.

Throughout his life Mr. Johnson’s love of cattle farming never diminished, and over the years he owned several properties on which he raised beef cattle, including his home and farm on Hartsville Pike in Lebanon (part of which in now the Johnson Heights subdivision).

Because of the passion and vision of men like James C. Johnson, livestock farming grew to play a dominant role in the mid-20th century economy of Wilson County and Tennessee. "Mr. Jim" is fondly remembered by the re-telling of stories by many beef cattle producers and the people of Wilson County.