Joseph Ellis Johnson (December 19, 1785 – February 27, 1877) was a farmer, businessman, and politician who served as United States Representative and became the 32nd Governor of Virginia from 1852 to 1856, the first Virginia governor to be popularly elected as well as the only Virginia governor from west of the Appalachian mountains. During the American Civil War, he sympathized with the Confederacy, but returned to what had become West Virginia for his final years. Early life and family Born in Orange County, New York, Johnson moved with his widowed mother Abigail Wright Johnson (1753-1839) and four siblings to Belvidere, New Jersey in 1791 and then to Winchester, Virginia (possibly after a long detour to Suffolk, Virginia) before moving across the Appalachian Mountains to Bridgeport in what became Harrison County, Virginia (and then West Virginia) in 1801. The sixteen-year-old Johnson soon got a job helping Ephraim Smith, a local gentleman farmer suffering from ill health, and came to manage Smith's land. Three years later, on May 14, 1804, he married one of his employer's daughters, Sarah Smith (1784-1853). At least five of their children died before the age of 11. However, their son Dr. Benjamin Franklin Johnson (1816-1855) and daughter Catherine Selina Minor (1824-1900) survived and married, although both moved from the area (to Franklin County, Ohio, and Baltimore, respectively). Career By 1807, in addition to farming, Johnson rebuilt the Smith mill (built circa 1803) on Simpson Creek, which he bought from Smith's widow and heirs. In 1811, the Harrison county government ordered a bridge built about a quarter mile above "Johnson's Mill", the first bridge built in Harrison county outside Clarksburg. Johnson initially became active in local politics as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party (aligned with President Thomas Jefferson). He became the local constable in 1811 and formed one of two or three companies of "Harrison riflemen" that fought the War of 1812. In 1814, Captain Johnson and Captain John McWhorter of the other company led their riflemen to Norfolk, where Johnson and his men helped keep the peace until the war's end in 1815, while McWhorter's men headed west under General (and future President) William H. Harrison to fight in Ohio. Johnson's men were first assigned to the Sixth Regiment of Virginia militia, then to the Fourth Regiment. When Johnson returned to Harrison County, voters elected him to represent them in the Virginia House of Delegates,