 After the bill's passage Johnson was appointed by Governor Stevenson to the institution's inaugural Board of Regents, which convened in Wheeling on April 20, 1870. Johnson and his fellow board members began a competition among West Virginia municipalities for the location of the new institution for the deaf and blind; the three finalists were Wheeling, Parkersburg and Romney. The board selected Wheeling, which offered its Female College campus. However, after the board's adjournment Female College supporters, unwilling to see the school closed, pressured city authorities to rescind their offer. At the board's June 23, 1870 meeting, Johnson and his colleagues unanimously selected Romney's proposal offering the Romney Classical Institute campus and an adjoining 15 acres (6.1 ha) of property on behalf of the Romney Literary Society. When the institution's site was finalized, the board reconvened on July 20, 1870 in Romney at the old Romney Classical Institute campus and selected its academic faculty and personnel. H. H. Hollister of the Ohio Institution for the Deaf and Blind was chosen as the school's first principal, and Johnson was appointed principal teacher of its School for the Blind.
