JOHNSON CITY

city, seat (1858) of Blanco county, south central Texas, U.S., on the Pedernales River, 40 miles (64 km) west of Austin. The hometown of President Lyndon B. Johnson, it was founded in 1879 by James Polk Johnson, a forebear of the president, and was incorporated in 1944. It is a ranching supply centre and tourist base for the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Site, designated in 1969. The Johnson City Unit of the site includes the frame house (1901) where Johnson spent his boyhood and the Johnson Settlement, a restored ranch home owned in the mid-19th century by Sam Ealy Johnson, the president's grandfather. The LBJ Ranch Unit in Gillespie County, near Stonewall, 13 miles (21 km) west, includes the president's birthplace (a reconstructed late 19th-century farmhouse) and the family cemetery where Johnson is buried. The Lyndon B. Johnson State Park (269 acres [109 hectares]) is nearby, with a visitor centre containing Johnson family memorabilia. Hereford cattle, sheep, and goats are raised in the surrounding rolling hill country, and the city is a grading point for wool, mohair, and turkeys. Pop. (1990) 932. city, Washington county, northeastern Tennessee, U.S., lying in the Great Appalachian Valley, 98 miles (158 km) east-northeast of Knoxville. In the 1760s farmers and iron-makers settled in the vicinity. Following the arrival of the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad in 1857, a settlement grew up around the water tank; it was called Johnson's Depot after Henry Johnson, the town's first postmaster. In 1859 it was renamed Haynesville for Landon C. Haynes, later a Confederate senator, but was renamed for Johnson again in 1861. The economy depends on diversified agriculture (cattle, alfalfa, and poultry), a burley tobacco market, and manufactures, which include telephone and electrical equipment, textiles, hardwood flooring, hospital supplies, chemicals, clothing, furniture, tools, and building materials. There is mining and quarrying (limestone) in the area. A Veterans Administration Center (Mountain Home) serves a five-state area. Educational facilities include East Tennessee State University (1911) and Milligan College (founded in 1866 as Buffalo Male and Female Institute). Inc. 1869. Pop. (1990) city, 49,381; Johnson CityKingsportBristol MSA, 436,047; (1994 est.) city, 51,573; (1995 est.) Johnson CityKingsportBristol MSA, 454,056.