Buckingham Notables: Rev. Thomas Nicholas Johnson

Mount Zion Baptist Church, Photo by Joanne Yeck

Rev. Thomas Nicholas Johnson was one of Buckingham County’s best educated and longest-lived minsters.  First studying with Elijah G. Hanes at Humanity Hall Academy when it was at Physic Springs, he went on to Virginia Baptist Seminary (later Richmond College).  In addition to his ministry, he may have founded a school in Buckingham.  Click here to learn more:

Buckingham Schools: Rev. Thomas N. Johnson

In Virginia Baptist Ministers, his biography begins:

This sketch is based on an article by Rev. Dr. L. R. Thornhill in the Religious Herald upon the life of Rev. Thomas Nicholas Johnson. He was born June 20, 1812, in Buckingham County, Virginia, near Mount Zion Baptist Church. Although his parents were not Christians, he early made a profession of his faith in Jesus. His father died when he was eight years old, leaving a widow and two sons. He was convicted of his sins at a meeting when the venerable minister, walking down the aisle and speaking to persons about their souls, said to him: “Young, Tommie, but not too young to die.” The boy had prepared an answer for the preacher, but he had been approached at an unguarded point; the arm of conviction had reached him. When sixteen years of age he took a decided stand for Jesus, and three years later determined to become a minister.

In July, 1836, he was ordained, the presbytery consisting of Elders P. P. Smith, William Moore, and Joseph Jenkins. After laboring as a missionary of the General Association of Virginia, in 1837 he accepted a call to Sharon, Mulberry Grove, and Enon Churches, in Buckingham County, Virginia. He remained as pastor at Sharon seventeen years; at Mulberry Grove, with two short breaks, for fifty-seven years; at Enon first only a short time, but later was there for eleven years, and still later for twenty-one years. His other pastorates were at Fairmount and Mount Shiloh, in Nelson County, and Hebron and Liberty Chapel, in Appomattox County.

For more about Rev. P. P. Smith, click here:  Buckingham Notables: Rev. Poindexter Patteson Smith

To be continued . . .