The city was founded in 1913 west of the spot of the former Witherspoon's Ferry on Lynches River, where General Francis Marion received his commission for the Revolutionary War.

In use during the American Revolution, Witherspoon's Ferry was the site where Francis Marion accepted command of the Williamsburg Militia in 1780.

Witherspoon, executor, for a term of 14 years, "in trust for and having the sole benefit of the incorporated Presbyterian Church at Aimwell on the Pee Dee River."

In 1819, former South Carolina Governor David R. Williams, son-in-law of John Witherspoon, obtained these ferry lands.

The 1850 census of Williamsburg County shows William Johnson, a man of considerable wealth for his time and place, living just below where the American Legion stands in Johnsonville today.

As the stagecoach passed east over the Lynches River on the ferry, a Johnson slave in charge of the ferry mules announced the number of passengers with a blast from a fox horn: one blast for each passenger, thus informing Mrs. Johnson of the number of places that should be set for dinner.

South Carolina Highway 341 passes through the center of town as Broadway Street, leading west 20 miles (32 km) to Lake City.

This eight-mile-wide crater is not well defined at the surface and was discovered by magnetic anomalies and supported by the study of well drilling cores.

[11] The city hosts the annual Johnsonville Heritage Festival, which began in 2011 to celebrate the area's ties to the American Revolution.

The 2022 Heritage Festival saw the event move from Odell Venters Landing back to Johnsonville's downtown Broadway Street location.

The current council makeup consists of: Joseph Stevens "Steve" Dukes, former mayor, was the city's longest serving public figure.

[13] Edward "Dwight" Carraway, Jr. (1956-2019), a resident of Johnsonville, was South Carolina's youngest person elected to public office in June 1976 (age 20).