Junius Ward was a grandson of the Col. Robert and Jemima (Suggett) Johnson family of Scott County, Kentucky. This was an extraordinarily powerful political and economic family dynasty, whose members extended their influence by developing cotton plantations throughout the Mississippi Delta. Like Ward, many members had plantations in Washington County along the Mississippi River near Greenville, Mississippi. One of Ward's cousins, Lycurgus Johnson, owned Lakeport Plantation on the other side of the river near Lake Village, Arkansas. Many of these family members had plantation houses in the deep South and summer residences and plantations in Scott County, Kentucky.