DUANE
Duane's take
The way the official marker tells it, here's the story of a house in Blanco County that turned out to matter quite a bit to the rest of the world. In 1913, Sam Ealy Johnson Jr. and his wife Rebekah Baines Johnson bought a residence that would shape a family — and, eventually, a nation. Sam, born in 1877, was no ordinary neighbor.
The man was an educator and a six-term Texas legislator. Rebekah, born in 1881, was an educator and a journalist in her own right. Together they moved into this frame house and raised five children within its walls.
Five. That's a house that had to work for a living. The place itself had been built back in 1901 — simple Classical details, decorative bargeboards of milled wood, each wing just one room deep so the light could find you and the breeze could follow.
You can read the family's years there right in the architecture: porches, open and enclosed, added on over time, the house growing around them like a good story adding chapters. Now, Sam passed in 1937, and Rebekah in 1958. But before Sam Johnson left this world, something happened on that east porch that 1937 that nobody in the county was likely to forget.
The eldest son — Lyndon, born in 1908 — stood on that east porch and launched his very first campaign for Congress. First campaign. The beginning of an ascent that would carry him all the way to the United States presidency.
It started right there, on a porch, in Blanco County, on a house one room deep built for light and ventilation. Sometimes the breeze that finds you carries further than you think.
What the marker says
Sam Ealy Johnson Jr. (1877-1937) and his wife Rebekah Baines Johnson (1881-1958) bought this residence in 1913. Sam, an educator and six-term Texas legislator, and Rebekah, an educator and journalist, raised five children here. The frame house was built in 1901, with simple Classical details and decorative bargeboards of milled wood. Each wing is one room deep for light and ventilation. Various porches, open and enclosed, indicate additions over the years. In 1937, the Johnson's eldest son, Lyndon (1908-1973), launched his first campaign for Congress, and his ascent to the U.S. presidency, from the east porch. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965.