Victor M. Johnson

From Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas, Vol II, pg 1076-77

Victor M. Johnson. He whose name heads this sketch is a prominent and highly respected citizen of Lakeport, Ark., and the history of Chicot County gains much of interest by claiming for its pages one so deserving of praise and admiration. Mr. Johnson was born in this county in 1863, and is a son of Lycurgus and Lydia (Taylor) Johnson, both of whom were natives of the far-famed Blue-Grass State. The father gave most of his attention to tilling the soil, and was a gentleman of superior education, having graduated with honors at Bardstown Ky., and ranking among the Kentuckians noted for hospitality, dignity and social culture. He amassed a large fortune during the span of years allotted him, and emigrated to Chicot County, Ark., where he engaged in planting, and passed the latter portion of his life surrounded by the peaceful and beautiful charms of a rural life, free from the busy din of city life, and where, surrounded by all the comforts that wealth can provide, he lived happily and contentedly until he reached his fifty-eighth year. To them were born twelve children, seven of whom are now living, the subject of this sketch being the youngest of the family. The names of these children are: Joel, John H., Bent T., Mary J., Linnie, Theodore, Annie, Carl, Walter L., Julia J. and Victor M.

The subject of this sketch, Victor, attended school during a great part of his early life, and when older entered the Arkansas University, at Little Rock, where he remained a number of years; he attended Bellevue Hospital at New York, and graduated from that celebrated school in 1888, at which date he returnd home to practice medicine, and has been kept busy with his chosen profession up to the present time, and is considered an excellent physician. Besides he has a good deal of real estate, which is valuable and is in a fine state of cultivation. Mr. Johnson belongs to the Democratic party, and while he is not specially active in political matters, yet, at the same time, he is always ready to advance the cause of every worthy enterprise and advance the interests of the community in which he resides.
Lakeport Plantation, Lake Village, Chicot County, Arkansas
Lycurgus Johnson House on Hwy 142, Lake Village
Lycurgus Johnson House, State Highway 142, Lake Village, Chicot County, AR HABS ARK,9-LAKVI,1- (sheet 5 of 11)
Significance: The Lycurgus Johnson House on Lakeport Plantation is an historic treasure. This antebellum grande dame is found in the southeast corner of Arkansas facing the Mississippi River and surrounded by vast cotton fields. The Johnson family founded and lived on the plantation for some ninety years from 1831 until 1921. At the time of the great cotton crash of 1921, Dr. Victor M. Johnson, son of Lycurgus, sold the holdings to the Epstien Estate of Lake Village and moved to Memphis, Tennessee. Having been owned by only two families throughout its long history has helped to preserve the integrity of the plantation house and outbuildings. It has escaped being remodeled, redecorated or extensively modernized. With few exceptions, the house and plantation context remain in their original status quo, retaining a vestige of the gracious air and look of the Old South. Time has had its effect on the buildings. However, in 1984 with a grant from the Arkansas Preservation Program, maintenance has been undertaken to stabilize the condition of the buildings.
[Library of Congress]