William Bullein Johnson

William Bullein Johnson (June 13, 1782 – October 2, 1862) was an American Baptist minister, one of the founders of the South Carolina State Baptist Convention in 1821, and later was the first president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1845 to 1851. Johnson is also the founder of Johnson Female Seminary, later renamed Johnson University, in 1848, the predecessor to Anderson University.

Early years Johnson was born on June 13, 1782, on John's Island, South Carolina, near Charleston and was educated at home in Georgetown, South Carolina by his mother and by private tutors. His mother was of the Particular Baptist faith, believing that the redemptive work of Christ only applied to those who were saved. As a child he met President George Washington and Dr. Richard Furman, pastor of the First Baptist Church Charleston, who made a great impression on him. He attended Brown University, receiving a degree in 1804. He had intended to become a lawyer, but was converted during a Baptist revival in 1804, and devoted the rest of his life to Christian service. He married Henrietta Hornby in 1803. One of their eight children who reached maturity, Francis C. Johnson, became a Southern Baptist missionary to China in 1846. The Caldwell-Johnson-Morris Cottage home of William Johnson in Anderson, South Carolina. Returning to South Carolina, after serving again as pastor of the Columbia church Johnson moved to Greenville, South Carolina where he was principal of Greenville Female Academy, and founded a Baptist church in the town. Johnson was one of nine men who formed the South Carolina State Baptist Convention in 1821. He succeeded Richard Furman as president of the convention and served from 1825 to 1852. Later known as Johnson University, the institution did not survive Johnson's death and the onset of the Civil War. The legacy of Johnson University continued, however. Its presence in the community left a lasting impression on the local young people of that day. As the late Anderson College professor, Charles S. Sullivan, said, "the continuity that runs through the life of a community from one generation to the next is expressed in cultural traditions as well as in visible institutions. Shortly after the turn of the century, those who fondly remembered the impact that Johnson University had on the community developed a compelling vision of resurrecting the institution in the form of Anderson College which later became Anderson University. The home in which Rev. Johnson lived in the City of Anderson was still standing as of 2014. His portrait hangs in perpetuity in the Truett Cathy Old Common Room in Merritt Hall on the Anderson University campus.