[3] In 1813, Johnson commanded a Kentucky regiment at the Battle of the Thames, after which he claimed to have killed Tecumseh in hand-to-hand combat.

[15] In its early days Johnson County, being strongly Southern in its culture, was fiercely Democratic.

In fact, in the 1860 presidential election, the county gave Illinois native and Northern Democrat Stephen A. Douglas a higher proportion of its votes than any other county in the United States.

[citation needed] However, during the Civil War, under the influence of Congressman John Logan, this region of dubious initial loyalty was to provide a number of Union soldiers rivaled on a per capita basis only by a few fiercely Unionist counties in Appalachia.

[16][17] This level of Union service has meant that despite its historic hostility towards Yankee culture, Johnson County has been powerfully Republican ever since the Civil War.

[citation needed] Douglas in 1860 remains the last Democrat to win a majority of the county's vote: the solitary Democratic victory since was when Bill Clinton won a plurality against Republican George H. W. Bush and independent Ross Perot.