[1] However, at that time even so-called public schools required tuition, and Johnson's family struggled to afford the payments.

When the barber of Johnson City retired, Sam bought his chair and tools with a loan and began practicing on his friends to gain skill at cutting hair.

[1] Johnson had to quit going to high school because of health problems, and his parents sent him to live on his uncle Lucius Bunton's ranch in Presidio County for several months.

[2] When he returned home, Johnson had ambitions to become a teacher; however, the hill country had no state-accredited high schools and no colleges at that time.

After a few years of plentiful rain and no flash floods, he had gained enough income to hire a number of farm hands and begin trading in cotton futures contracts in Fredericksburg.

According to Lady Bird, Lyndon’s wife, he planned to join the Christadelphian Church, where his father, mother and sister were members, toward the end of his life.

To reduce competition by Republicans and Populists, the state legislature in 1901 passed a poll tax, which had the desired effect of disfranchising most blacks, and many Latino and poor white voters.

[7] From 1867 to 1874 the Reconstruction era Republicans in the Texas Legislature had raised taxes to provide for the first universal free education, and to start establishing welfare institutions such as hospitals, to serve the people.

He won the election against his Republican opponent by winning large margins in Johnson City as well as the small towns along the Pedernales River.

During his term he worked with two other legislators, "Honest Buck" Gray and Claude Hudspeth, to support Populist causes such as an eight-hour workday for railroad workers and a franchise tax for corporations.

Although many Texans worked on this project, previous attempts had failed because of lingering questions over jurisdiction and because legislators balked at the asking price of $65,000 to purchase the fort.

Although Joseph Weldon Bailey had been one of the most prominent populists in the country at one time, in 1906 his opponents had accused him of taking large legal fees from railroads, lumber companies, and Standard Oil.

[16] When Bailey, backed by a number of railroads and oil companies, arrived at the Texas State Capitol, his forces bribed nearly all 133 members of the House of Representatives to vote in his favor.

[16] Party officials in all four counties encouraged him to run for a third term, but because of his financial problems, Johnson left the legislature, returning to his farm in the Hill Country.

[16] In November 1917, a special election was called to fill a vacancy in the 89th district, the seat Samuel Johnson had vacated ten years earlier.

His son Lyndon later noted, "My daddy went busted waiting for cotton to go up to twenty-one cents a pound, and the market fell apart when it hit twenty".

He did well in selling real estate, so much so that he hired a local teenager as a chauffeur and paid a staff of cleaning ladies to handle household tasks for his wife.