Barton Warren Johnson (1833 – 1894) was an American preacher, educator, and author whose ministry and writings significantly influenced the Disciples of Christ during the late 19th century. Born in a log cabin in Tazewell County, Illinois, to parents of pre-Revolutionary South Carolinian and Tennessean stock, he grew up in a rural setting with limited formal education from backwoods schools and borrowed books. At 18, he enrolled at Walnut Grove Academy (now Eureka College), studying for two years before teaching briefly and then attending Bethany College in 1854 under Alexander Campbell. Graduating in 1856, he began preaching on Sundays while teaching in Bloomington, Illinois, and later joined Eureka College’s faculty, serving as its president for two years. Johnson’s preaching career expanded as he took on diverse roles—pastoring in Lincoln, Illinois, serving as corresponding secretary of the American Missionary Society in 1863, and teaching mathematics at Bethany College until Campbell’s death in 1866. He then led Oskaloosa College and its church, editing The Evangelist as it shifted from a monthly to a weekly publication, a role he continued in Chicago and St. Louis with The Christian-Evangelist. His sermons emphasized the Disciples’ plea for primitive Christianity, reflected in widely circulated works like The People’s New Testament (two volumes), Commentary on John, and The Vision of the Ages. Married to Sarah S. Allen in 1858, with whom he had three children, he traveled to Europe and the Middle East in 1889 to enrich his biblical studies, dying in 1894 after a prolific career blending pulpit ministry with scholarship.