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completed her womanly duties, that she might be ready for the never-varying rule of their lives. Much of latent powers does he owe to her indefatigable zeal and encouragement, and he cannot forget those evening hours, years ago, when the mighty scintillations of natural genius first began to dawn, which ultimately converted the tailor boy into the Senator, and subsequently into the President of his country.

Year after year she has watched him, as he has risen step by step, and is with him now, willing and earnest as when in life's bright morn they were married.

The later years of Mrs. Johnson's life have been crowned with the honors her husband's successes have won, but her younger days are fraught with most interest to all who can appreciate true worth and genuine greatness of soul.

In her girlhood, she was the purest type of a southern beauty, and like her mother, was very graceful and agreeable in her manners. I have heard persons say her mother was the handsomest lady in all that region of country, and her old neighbors stoutly maintain that Mrs. Johnson is the image of her Her extreme modesty denies the imputation that she was the belle of the county.

While their means increased as time passed, and the caroling of their little children gladdened their home, Mr. Johnson received his first substantial proof of the confidence of the community in which he lived, in his election as "alderman." How intense must have been the joy of the good wife as she saw her pupil progress. ing in a career he was so well fitted to occupy!

At this time, their residence was situated on a hill, just out of Greenville, simple and plain in its surroundings, yet the resort of the young people of the village. The college boys, as they passed to and fro on errands, always stopped to enjoy a chat with their "Demosthenes," and were ever welcomed by the genial, frank manners of the gentle wife.

Fresh laurels crowned the alderman's brow when he was chosen Mayor, and for three terms he filled the position with credit, winning for himself an enviable reputation for honest deeds and correct principles.

Little has been written of Mrs. Johnson, mainly from the fact that she always opposed any publicity being given to her private life, and from the reluctance of her friends to pain her by acceding to the oft-repeated requests of persons for sketches of herself. In a conversation not long since, with her, she remarked "that her life had been spent at home, caring for her children, and practising the economy rendered neces sary by her husband's small fortune."

An impartial writer cannot be swayed by such natural and creditable sentiments, nor is it just that a woman who has been the means of advancing her hus band's interests so materially, and occupying the position she does, should be silently passed by. She deserves, as she receives, from all who are fortunate enough to know her, the highest encomiums; for by her unwearying efforts she has been a stepping-stone to her husband's honors. Patient and forbearing, she is universally liked, and if she has an enemy, it is from no fault of hers, nor does she number any among the acquaintances of a lifetime.

Like Mr. Johnson, she has very few living rela tives; her children having neither aunts nor uncles, and years ago deprived of both grandmothers. Mrs. Johnson's mother died in April, 1854, and his parent lived until February, 1856; each having been the object of his tenderest care, and living to see him holding the highest position his native State could bestow. There was not two years' difference in the deaths of these two mothers, and it is the unspeakable happiness of their children to know that as the wick burned low, and the lamp of time went out, all that peace and plenty could devise for their happiness they received, and their departure from earth was rendered calmly serene by the assurance that their work was well done and finished.

When the civil war, which snapped the cords of so many old persons' lives and hurried them to premature graves, sounded its dread tocsin through East Tennessee, it was a source of mournful satisfaction to know that those two aged mothers lay unconscious of the approaching conflict which was to bathe that section of the State in blood. The tall grass grew unharmed, and no impious hand desecrated the resting place of departed virtue.

During the meetings of the. Legislature to which Mr. Johnson was repeatedly called, Mrs. Johnson remained at Greenville; and while he sought honors and support away from home, she found compensation for his prolonged absence in the knowledge that she best promoted his interest when she lived within their still slender means. Her children received the benefit of

her ripe, matured experience, until one by one they left their home; two to marry and dwell near her, and the youngest to be a comfort in her days of suffering. Her home in Greenville was thus described in 1865: "Just down there, at the base of this hill, stands a small brick building with a back porch, and around it the necessary fixtures. It stands on the corner of the square, near where the mill-race passes under the street on its way down to the little mill. That is the first house Andrew Johnson ever owned. It now belongs to another person. Almost directly opposite the mill, whose large wheel is still moving, but whose motion is scarcely perceptible, you will see a rather humble, old-fashioned looking, two-story brick house, standing near the south end of Main street. It has but one entrance from the street. In front of it stand three or four small shade-trees. The fences of the lot and windows of the house show evident signs of dilapidation, the consequences of rebellion and of rebel rule. Like many other windows in the South, a number of panes of glass are broken out and their places supplied with paper. Glass could not be obtained in the Confederacy. As you pass along the pavement on Main street, by looking into the lot you will see several young apple-trees, and in the spaces between two of them are potatoes growing. In the rear of the kitchen stands a small aspen shade-tree, and down there in the lower end of the lot is a grape-vine trained upon a trellis, forming a pleasant bower. Scattered over the lot are a number of rose, currant, and gooseberry bushes. At the lower end of the lot, and just outside,

stand two large weeping willows, and under their shade is a very beautiful spring. This is the residence of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States. Up the street stands his former tailor shop, with the old sign still on it. And in an old store-room up the street are the remains of his library. At present, it consists principally of law books and public documents, most of his valuable books having been destroyed by the rebel soldiers."

In the spring of "'61," Mrs. Johnson spent two months in Washington with her husband, then a Senator, but failing health compelled her early return to Tennessee. Long and stormy were the seasons which passed before she again met Mr. Johnson, and how changed were all things when they resumed the broken thread of separation, after an interval of nearly two years!

At her home quietly attending to the duties of life, and cheered by the frequent visits of her children, she was startled one bright morning by the following sum

mons:

66

“Office Provost MARSHAL, April 24th, 1862. "MRS. ANDREW JOHNSON, Greenville,

"Dear Madam:- By Major-General E. Kirby Smith I am directed to respectfully require that you and your family pass beyond the Confederate States' line (through Nashville, if you please) in thirty-six hours from this date.

"Passports will be granted you at this office.

แ Very respectfully,

"W. M. CHURCHWELL,

"Colonel and Provost Marshal."

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