 The bill establishing the school was presented to the West Virginia House of Delegates for a vote, and before it became state law the words "deaf and dumb" were inserted before "blind" throughout its text. The final version of the bill establishing the West Virginia Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind became state law on March 3, 1870. At the time of the institution's establishment Johnson was only 24 years old, and is credited by West Virginia historians as the founder of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind. Serving on the school's inaugural Board of Regents, he was later selected as its principal teacher. The school began its first academic session on September 29, 1870. Johnson taught in its blind department continuously for 43 years, until his death in 1913. In addition to his educational work, Johnson wrote prose and poetry and was a member of the Romney Literary Society.
