Alexander Soule Johnson was the youngest member of the Bogus Legislature at 23 years of age. He was born at the first Methodist Mission to the Shawnees in 1832. After early schooling at the Shawnee Manual Labor School with Indian classmates, he was sent to Central College in Fayette, Missouri where he studied under the Reverend Nathan Scarritt. In 1849, when Alexander was 17, Scarritt moved to the Shawnee Mission to start the "Western Academy" and Alexander followed him. In this academically rigorous school, Alexander Johnson completed his studies in 1851.
His first job after school was as clerk in J.G. Hamilton's store in Westport. Later he worked as clerk at A.T. Ward & Company, soon becoming a partner with Ward and later a partner in the successor company, J. Siddelsburger & Company of Kansas City. Siddelsburger was the leading forwarding and commission house in Kansas City, with a large share of the lucrative Santa Fe Trail trade before 1854. When Kansas became a territory, Johnson was appointed Deputy United States Surveyor. He surveyed Government lands in Johnson County and the lands of the Shawnee Indians under the terms of the new treaty. He continued as government surveyor until 1858, when he was given charge of the Manual Labor School and farm. He continued in that post until the mission closed in 1862. [Cutler, History, Shawnee County]
Johnson took no part in the pro-slavery Kansas Militia and did not interest himself in the Law and Order Party. He voted for Lincoln in 1860 and at the outbreak of the Civil War, openly declared for the Union. He organized a military company, subsequently made a part of the Thirteenth Infantry Regiment, Kansas Militia, of which he became Lieutenant Colonel. The Regiment was called into service October 9, 1864 to repel General Price's expedition to Western Missouri. It saw action at the Battles of Byram's Ford on the Big Blue River on October 22 and in the Battle of Westport on October 23. With the defeat of Price's army at Westport, the final effort by the Confederates west of the Mississippi was broken. [Union Regimental Histories, Kansas 13th Militia Infantry]
The AT&SF Railroad was chartered in 1859.
Construction began in 1869.
Johnson was elected to the Kansas State Legislature as a Republican from Johnson County in 1866, and took a prominent part in railroad legislation. During his term of office, Johnson was hired by the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad to manage its land holdings. In 1870 he switched to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad where he worked as appraiser of railroad lands, tax commissioner and finally as land commissioner. As land commissioner for the Santa Fe, he was instrumental in the development of a large part of southern and western Kansas where the railroad had been granted enormous holdings. [Cutler, History, Shawnee County] The town of Johnson City in Stanton County, laid out in 1885, was named for him. Johnson died at his large home in Topeka on December 9, 1904.
