Colonel Robert Johnson (1745-1815) of Orange County, Virginia established Johnson's Station at Great Crossing on North Elkhorn Creek in 1783 as the first permanent pioneer settlement in what is now Scott County, Kentucky. In 1785, he and his wife, Jemima Suggett Johnson, became charter members of Great Crossing Baptist Church. Johnson served as a member of the Virginia and Kentucky legislatures and helped frame the first and second constitutions of Kentucky. He also supported the advancement of education in Kentucky. Robert and Jemima Johnson had eleven children and numerous descendants, and by the mid-nineteenth century the Johnsons had become one of the most politically and socially influential families in the American South.