Political Junkie -- MD

Q: Driving to a soccer tournament last weekend, we crossed the Governor Johnson Bridge into St. Mary's County, Maryland. What can you tell me about Gov. Johnson? I have no memory of him. -- Jason Greenberg, North Potomac, Md.

A: You wouldn't, unless you were 200 years old. Thomas Johnson was the first governor of Maryland, winning election in 1777 and serving two years. (Maryland didn't join the union until 1788, when it ratified the Constitution.) Prior to his election as governor, he was a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he strongly supported independence from England and was an ally of Gen. George Washington. It was Johnson who nominated Washington as commander-in-chief of the American forces in 1775. After independence, he served in the Maryland state assembly and later as chief justice of Maryland's state supreme court. In 1791, President Washington named him as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, where he served until 1793, resigning because of poor health. He died on Oct. 26, 1819.

from the Political Junkie -- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1788344&columnId=1930201