William Andrew Johnson

William Andrew Johnson (February 8, 1858 In a 1927 interview, a newspaper account stated that "[William Johnson's] dearest playmate was a grandson of the president, and no great distinction was made between the two small boys, the white boy claiming as ancestors his grandfather, the chief leader of the nation, and his grandmother the first lady of the land, while the other little boy was a slave, born in bondage, the property of the little white boy's grandfather." The little white boy in question is most likely Andrew Johnson Patterson, born 1857 to David T. Patterson and his wife Martha Johnson, oldest daughter of Andrew and Eliza Johnson. One of Andrew Johnson's granddaughters gave William A. Johnson piano lessons at 10 a.m. daily.

In the late 1920s, William Johnson recalled living on Cedar Street in Nashville when Andrew Johnson was military governor of Tennessee amidst the ongoing American Civil War. He told a reporter a story of that era: "He was trying to keep Tennessee in the Union, and as he spoke on the capitol grounds, two shots were fired at him by secessionists. The bullets entered trees near him...My mother had me with her near Marse Andrew when the shots were fired. She took me and ran as fast as she could, not stopping until she got to the basement of the house, which was on Cedar Street."

Alexander Gardner took this photo of Lincoln's second inauguration at the U.S. Capitol. Andrew Johnson was quite drunk for his own swearing-in earlier in the morning; he is the individual in the front row, far right, holding his hat over his face. Lincoln was assassinated 42 days later and Johnson succeeded him as President of the United States. (The Photographic History of the Civil War, 1911)

According to Andrew Johnson's great-granddaughter Margaret Johnson Patterson in 1943, William and his mother Dolly stayed in Tennessee while most of the rest of the family moved to the White House in Washington, D.C. in 1865. Per William Johnson, he did go to Washington when Johnson was installed in the White House, "There Marse Andrew made me his body servant, and I was with him until he died...When his suits needed pressing he would order me to heat the big flat iron and he would do his pressing. I guess it was the same iron he used to press suits with when he was a tailor in Greeneville...I used to sleep by the door of his bedroom. He would go to bed generally about 9:30, but every night about 12 he would get up and walk the floor for half an hour or more. Seemed like he was thinking. Sometimes he would mutter things out loud. Then he would go back to bed and sleep soundly." In the late 1930s, Johnson recalled some of his work in service to the Johnsons:

Per the younger Johnson, "After he came back from Washington I was with him all the time. I slept right in the same room with him."

Andrew Johnson mentioned William Andrew and his sister Elizabeth in the last letter he ever wrote, which was sent to his daughter Mary Johnson Stover ahead of a visit to her house in Carter County, Tennessee: "William is very anxious to come and perhaps I may bring him as he is...desirous to see Liz and the children." William A. Johnson stayed in Andrew Johnson's room after the former president and recently elected U.S. Senator suffered a stroke at his daughter Mary Johnson Stover Brown's home in 1875. William Andrew Johnson was with Johnson through his final illness, hardly sleeping over the course of the former President's decline, and was with him when he died. Neither William A. Johnson, nor Liz and her children (who were also likely present in the home)

In 1881, a visitor to Greeneville reported that "some colored people" were living in the old Andrew Johnson tailor shop and were taking good care of the building; this is likely William and his mother Dolly. In the 20th century a Greeneville newspaper stated, "Older citizens will remember the elaborately decorated and delicious cakes that occupied the place of honor at the big parties which the late Col. and Mrs. J. H. Doughty gave, which were baked by William Johnson."

The death date of Johnson's mother, Dolly Johnson, is unknown, but the National Park Service (which administers the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site in Greeneville) estimates that she died between 1890 and 1892. Her children seem to have all departed Greeneville for Knoxville after her death; in 1891, there is an entry in the Knoxville city directory for Johnson, Wm, c, pastry cook Hotel Hattie.

Turn of the century In the early 1900s, Johnson worked baking cakes and pies at a Tennessee business called Hattie House. Later in life he recalled that U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt stayed at the Cumberland Hotel when he visited East Tennessee.

1920s William A. Johnson never married. The last member of immediate family, his older sister Florence Johnson Smith, died in 1920. Beginning in the 1920s, William A. Johnson became a minor celebrity in East Tennessee. He lived at 325 Douglas Street in Knoxville, and was interviewed a number of times for newspaper articles and radio programs. He was sometimes included in events commemorating Andrew Johnson. For instance, in 1923 he was present for a ceremony in which Andrew Johnson's descendants donated the President's "old tailor shop" building to the state of Tennessee.

Similarly, in 1925 a Nashville paper reported that William A. Johnson was to appear at a Memorial Day celebration at Rutledge, Tennessee, along with former Tennessee governor Alf A. Taylor. After the fact a Knoxville newspaper reported that a Congressman attended, that the old Johnson Tailor Shop building was celebrated, and that "A silver dollar [that] belonged to President Johnson was on exhibition. His slave was introduced to the audience and spoke briefly." A couple of days later the same paper reported, "The stage was decorated with cut flowers, and on a table belonging to Andrew Johnson there was a huge cake, baked by William Andrew Johnson, a slave of President Johnson, the cake being donated by Andrew Johnson Patterson, a grandson of Andrew Johnson." In 1927, Johnson was hired as the cook at the Rutledge Inn in Rutledge, Tennessee, and spoke to a newspaper about his history with Andrew Johnson, about whom he spoke with "tender regard." A reporter from the Columbia Record of Columbia, South Carolina visited the hotel and recorded some of Johnson's reminiscences:

[He] would rather tell of "Marse Andrew" than do anything else in the world. His name is William Andrew Johnson, but to hundreds he is known as "Uncle William." ¶ "Anybody would have known Marse Andrew was a tailor in his younger days," he says. "He always did mend his own clothes, even when he was President. He'd sew his buttons on, and press his own clothes." ¶ "Marse Andrew was a real brave man. One time I saw him making a speech in Nashville, and somebody took two shots at him. A lot of 'em chunked rocks. But he went right on talking." ¶ "That man sure enjoyed eating. He liked, best of all, oven baked light bread with butter and syrup made of white sugar. He was crazy about medium broiled steak. And he liked buttermilk, too." ¶ And on for hours will talk "Uncle William" if given a chance. Around Christmastime 1929, William A. Johnson solved the "case of the stolen drapes" at the Andrew Johnson Hotel when he noticed a woman leaving with curtain fabric hanging out of the back of her suitcase. The assistant manager chased her down and found she was also carrying towels, a coffee pot, and spoons from other regional hotels.

1930s William A. Johnson baked cakes and pies at Herbert Weaver's Café beginning in 1930; photographed here in 1931, the cafe was located on the ground floor of the now-demolished Sprankle Building on Knoxville's Union Avenue. (McClung Historical Collection at Lawson McGhee Library, Knox County Public Library system)

By fall 1930, Johnson had left his job as a doorman and returned to cooking and baking; he prepared 5,000 donuts for the grand opening of a 24-hour coffee shop on Union Avenue, which was run by Herbert Weaver and Harry O'Neil. Johnson worked every day but Sunday from about 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. "or when I get my pies and pastries baked." Herbert Weaver and his wife Frances (Curtis) Weaver were Johnson's friends and often helped him with transportation and advocated for him. Roosevelt visited East Tennessee on November 17, 1934, to promote the Tennessee Valley Authority projects of his New Deal program, specifically the Norris Dam. However, the 1934 introduction did not occur and the paper published a photo of a forlorn-looking Johnson with a "WELCOME" ribbon pinned to his jacket. The program notes for the episode state: "A dramatic sketch presented a slave auction of early days, and later portrayed President Johnson on his deathbed, still accompanied by the faithful William Andrew. The old former slave now works in a Knoxville restaurant." The two "sat in the back of a Knoxville restaurant" and had a long conversation about Johnson's work, his family, and his lifelong connection to the Andrew Johnson family. Pyle's interview with Johnson, originally datelined February 3, 1937, has become an oft-cited 20th-century source on the later life of President A. Johnson and on his personal ownership of slaves before the Civil War and Emancipation. They discussed Johnson's childhood memories of the elder Johnson"Mr. Andrew Johnson would hold me on one knee and my sister on the other, and he'd rub our heads and laugh"and how William Andrew nursed Andrew Johnson for the final six days of his life, as he suffered from a series of debilitating and ultimately fatal strokes, as well as the younger Johnson's disappointment at not getting to meet Franklin D. Roosevelt on his trip to Norris Dam. An U.S. Secret Service man (alternately described as a "G-man from Louisville, Kentucky") was sent to chaperone him and the two traveled by train to D.C. "You know, my folks used to live here," Johnson told a Knoxville reporter tagging along. The week after Johnson's visit to D.C., Mrs. Herbert Weaver drove Johnson to Greeneville to visit Mrs. Andrew J. Patterson, Andrew Johnson's granddaughter-in-law and the wife of his childhood companion, and her daughter Mattie Patterson.

In early December 1937, U.S. Senator George L. Berry submitted legislation to provide Johnson with a a month federal pension. Berry's legislation likely did not pass as six years later U.S. Senator Kenneth McKellar requested the same, at which time Johnson was said to be in the "alms house."

Johnson was invited to be a guest on Gabriel Heatter's We the People radio show on the CBS network between Christmas and New Year's. Producers paid travel expenses for Johnson and a companion (termed a "guardian" by the newspaper), as well as a per diem for both. Johnson was accompanied to New York by Mrs. Herbert Weaver; Johnson was still working as a pastry chef at Weaver's Grill on Union Avenue. The trip was said be Johnson's second out-of-state travel since the American Reconstruction era, the first being his trip to D.C. to visit with Roosevelt. While in New York, Johnson visited the headquarters of the NAACP and was interviewed by the United Press. He said that despite his age, "I feel good because I never lived a rowdy life. I've smoked in late years and I take a toddy now and then, but I don't overdo either." At the time the December 30, 1937 episode aired from 6:30 to 7 p.m. on the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network, William Andrew Johnson was the only Knoxvillian who had ever been interviewed on We the People.

This miscaptioned photo, which appeared in several Scripps-Howard papers, prompted Johnson to call in a correction via Bert Vincent; "It should be Andrew Johnson instead of Andrew Jackson.

...'And I'm not 93 either,' William says. 'I'm just about 78 years old.'"

Later years The following year, 1938, Johnson spoke at a Tennessee Emancipation Day celebration at Chilhowee Park.

Johnson is one of the last surviving slaves in this section. January 1 was designated as Emancipation day but Andrew Johnson freed his slaves August 8 and Negroes of East Tennessee have always observed that date as Emancipation day. The celebration this year has been changed to August 9 because August 8 is on Sunday. The Knoxville Red Cross came through. According to the home superintendent, Johnson had been ailing for quite a while before he died. Meanwhile, amateur Knoxville historian Bill Murrah worked on the family tree of Sam Johnson. Sam Johnson was William A. Johnson's uncle, and is often credited with initiating the August 8 celebration of Emancipation in Tennessee. Murrah eventually connected by telephone with a man in Louisville, Kentucky, named Ned Arter, who was one of Sam Johnson's great-great-grandsons. Arter had no idea of his family's connection to U.S. President Andrew Johnson. He did, however, have a mysterious artefact stored away in his closet: a silver-handled cane engraved with the names Franklin D. Roosevelt and William A. Johnson. Circa 2011 there were plans to publish William Andrew Johnson's scrapbook online via the Digital Library of Appalachia.