Robert Johnson (1760–1820) was a Scots-Irish immigrant who settled in what is now Monroe County, West Virginia around 1785, giving Johnson's Crossroads its name. He married Catharine Doran in 1785, and the couple built a heavy log house sturdy enough to serve as a fort during periods of Indian unrest. Together they raised 13 children in the fertile limestone valley near Wolf Creek.

The Crossroads grew into a small but thriving community, with a two-story country store and post office, a blacksmith shop, a log Methodist meeting house, and a one-room schoolhouse. Johnson himself was appointed to Monroe County's first Board of School Commissioners in 1818.

He wrote his will in 1817, providing for his wife Catharine and all 13 children, and died in 1820. He was laid to rest in the cemetery on land he had donated now Johnson's Crossroads Cemetery, home to 63 known burials, including Revolutionary War veteran Jacob Doran and 11 Civil War veterans.