State Historical Society of Missouri

JOHNSON, Waldo Porter, (nephew of Joseph Johnson), a Senator from Missouri; born in Bridgeport, Harrison County, Va., September 16, 1817; attended public and private schools; graduated from Rector College, Pruntytown, Taylor County, Va., in 1839; studied law; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Harrison County, Va., in 1841; moved to Osceola, St. Clair County, Mo., in 1842 and continued the practice of law; served in the war with Mexico as a member of the First Missouri Regiment of Mounted Volunteers; member, State house of representatives 1847; elected circuit attorney in 1848 and judge of the seventh judicial circuit in 1851; resigned in 1852 and resumed the practice of law; member of the peace convention of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 17, 1861, to January 10, 1862, when he was expelled from the Senate for disloyalty to the government; served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War; attained the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Fourth Missouri Infantry; appointed a member of the Senate of the Confederate States to fill a vacancy; resided in Hamilton, Canada, from August 1865 to April 1866; returned to Osceola, Mo., and resumed the practice of his profession; president of the State constitutional convention in 1875; died in Osceola, Mo., on August 14, 1885; interment in Forest Hill Cemetery, Kansas City, Mo.