William Decker Johnson

SPOKEN of more than once as a probable possessor of Bishop’s Orders, Rev. William Decker Johnson, President of Allen University, Columbia, South Carolina, is eminently qualified by character and attainments for every duty that the great African Methodist Episcopal Church may lay upon him.

        He was born in Calvert County, Maryland, March 19, 1842.  At an early age he moved with his parents to Baltimore where he attended private schools. He was converted in 1861, and the same year, by Bishop A. W. Wayman received license to exhort. and received an education of ample scope at Lincoln University, from which he was graduated in 1868. Having entered the Ministry of the Church referred to above, he began active work in connection with the Florida Conference the year following the close of his College life, but in 1873 was transferred to the Georgia Conference.

        Rev. Johnson’s Christian spirit and comprehensive outlook upon the needs of the young people of his Race, in 1884, at the meeting of the General Conference at Baltimore, elected him Secretary of Education; he brought new life and systematic management into this important department of Church labor, and had the honor of presenting the first Educational Report to the General Conference at its convention at Indianapolis in 1888. For twelve years he ably filled this important post of duty without neglect of his Ministerial obligations which were made more onerous by the duties of Presiding Elder in Valdosta District of the Georgia Conference.

William Decker Johnson, D. D., L. L. D., who departed this life in Athens, Ga., 1909; aged, 68 years, leaving a widow and seven children, most of whom are grown. He was at the time of his death a member of the South Carolina Conference; his last appointment being Aiken. Dr. Johnson was a Connectional character. He had on two occasions received a liberal vote for the office of Bishop.

         Information taken from:  The Sons of Allen: together with a sketch of the rise and progress of Wilberforce University, by Horace Talbert, 1906. pp. 244.

And from: Afro-American Encyclopedia: or, the thoughts, doings, and sayings of the race, by James T. Haley, 1895, pp. 590-591.

And from: http://search.ohiohistory.org/