William Preston Johnston, 1831-1899

 

William Preston Johnston’s friendship with JLN is thought to have begun in Louisville, his hometown, during the 1840s, and to have continued after the Civil War when Warren Newcomb gave money to Washington College (after 1870, Washington and Lee University). There, Johnston began his teaching and administrative career, in part because the Lee family knew him so well. For the Virginia school, Warren Newcomb provided money to create the Sophie Newcomb Fellowship Fund, and later, after her husband’s death, JLN worked with Johnston to build a library in his memory. Newcomb Hall still stands at Washington and Lee as one of five buildings forming the Colonnade, a National Historic Landmark.

In 1880, Johnston left Virginia to become president of Louisiana State University and A&M College. Johnston left LSU in 1883, and in 1884, he became the first president of the Tulane University of Louisiana, a private institution created through the donation of Paul Tulane and the transfer of all properties of the state-funded University of Louisiana. He remained in this position until his death in 1899. At Tulane, Johnston was an adept fundraiser, and called on Ida Richardson when he wanted to raise money for the education of women in New Orleans. It was Richardson who directed him to JLN.

Johnston was the son of Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston and himself served in the Confederate army. His father was considered something of a superman, but William Preston Johnston was sickly, so much so that he was posted to be an attendant, albeit a highly placed one, to Robert E. Lee and later, Jefferson Davis. After the war, he quickly became known as a progressive educator in regards to the South’s white population, taking a bold stance in favor of women’s education. He also had other talents and interests that make him an interesting example of the wide range of people comprising JLN’s network of friends and acquaintances. He was the author of two books of poetry and a Shakespearean scholar, particularly interested in Hamlet. He was one of the few southerners elected to the American Antiquarian Society in the late nineteenth century.

At the same time he promoted liberal ideas about women’s education and a New South, he remained devoted to the “Lost Cause of the South.” He was said to have visited Jefferson Davis in prison often and to have been in contact with him especially during Davis’ last days in New Orleans where he died in 1889. JLN’s correspondence with Johnston tells nothing of this story but her friendship with him does suggest attitudes worth exploring by others.

Johnston was cognizant of her lifestyle, different as it was from that of most women, and of her temperament as one that could be easily offended, certainly, wary. However, he respected both a desire to hide her identity and to work to promote the college. She asked him to write to her using “plain envelopes, not the Tulane University ones.” At the same time, she approached him as an equal, telling him how other schools were advertising, how they showed their campuses in printed pamphlets. He became her partner in plans for the Newcomb chapel, and in her comparison with other colleges, notably Wellesley. She called him dear “friend” and sent him wishes for his “welfare” and “success” though she was not always happy with all his work.

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