Waldo P. Johnson

Born in Bridgeport, Virginia (present-day West Virginia), Waldo Porter Johnson attended public and private schools, graduated from Rector College (Pruntytown, Virginia) in 1839. He studied law and was admitted to the bar, commencing practice in Harrison County, Virginia in 1841. He moved to Osceola, Missouri in 1842 and continued the practice of law, and served in the Mexican–American War as a member of the First Missouri Regiment of Mounted Volunteers. In 1847 he was a member of the Missouri House of Representatives and was elected circuit attorney in 1848 and judge of the seventh judicial circuit in 1851. He resigned in 1852 and resumed the practice of law.

Johnson was a member of the peace convention of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending American Civil War; he was 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. He served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and attained the rank of lieutenant colonel of the 4th Missouri Infantry Regiment, and was appointed a member of the Confederate States Senate to fill a vacancy.

From August 1865 to April 1866, Johnson resided in Hamilton, Ontario. He returned to Osceola and resumed the practice of his profession. Johnson was president of the State constitutional convention in 1875 and in 1885 died in Osceola. Interment was in Forest Hill Calvary Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri.[1]

His son was William Tell Johnson, a lawyer and judge.[2] Waldo Johnson was a nephew of Joseph Johnson, a U.S. Representative and Governor of Virginia.

• List of United States senators expelled or censured

• United States Congress. "Waldo P. Johnson (id: J000179)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2008-02-13

• "Waldo P. Johnson". Find a Grave. Retrieved February 13, 2008.