Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-21
CARVED HIS own WAY
Dead Minnesota Governor
Was SeIf-Made Man.
ORPHANED AT EARLY AGE
Won Political Prominence Through
Strong Personal Following.
WAS URGED FOR PRESIDENCY
Received Support Of His State for
the Democratic Nomination Last
Year-First Native Governor
WAS URGED FOR PRESIDENCY

John Albert Johnson, Governor of Min
nesota, who died this morning. was born
near st. Peter, Mimi. July IS, 1851, of
Swedish parentage. His father, Gustav
Johnson, by trade blacksmith, came to
the United States in the hope that new
associations would free him from the appe-
tite for alcohol. His mother, Caroline
Haden Johnson, married Gustav Johnson
in the brief interval after his coming to
this country before he again fell into hts
old habits.
John johnson was the second son.
When he wc3 three or four years old his
parents left the farm near st. Peter and
took up their residence in the little city
itself. The time of their removal thither
was only year or two after the New
Ulm massacre. when the Indians fell
upon the raw Minnesota town. unpro-
tected because it had sent its young men
south in the Union army. The massacre
was near enough to st. Peter to make a
move into the town a good piece of wis
dom.
The city, however, drew Gustav John
son back into his old habits. BY the time
John reached his thirteenth year his
father was SO far beside himself that he
sold out his interest in the blacksmith shop
for 5000 and vanished. Inside the year he
reappeared, a tattered wreck, whom a
neighbor turned away from his own door
step. village physician diagnosed his
and John Johnson's father was sent away
to the county poorhouse, where not
long afterward he died.
John left school forthwith. His mother
had ambitions for him and wanted the
thirteen-year-oid boy to get some learn
ing in his head before he undertook to
earn living. But John refused. He
went to work as a clerk in a grocery
store. suppementing as best he could
what his mother made taking in washing
Two years later he switched to a drug
store, and managed to make enough
money to release his mother from drudg-
cry. When John was twenty years old he
was offered job in general store at an
advance of $50 month. TIE boy took
the offer, and had time to read after dark.
Becomes Acquainted With Literature
The story is told of the clerk Johnson
that neighbor found him reading a
cheap novel, thought 1t was pity, and
introduced him to Prescott and Sir Walter
Scott. THE Conquest of Peru THE Con-
quest OF Mexico and "Ivanhoe'' were to
John Johnson what Robinson Crusoe,"
Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" and
Weems' Life of Washington" were to
Abraham Lincoln.
After a time Johnson became a time
keeper for a railroad construction gang.
He showed no particular ability, no espe-
cial enthusiasm in his work. He merely
laughed through 1t with sort of Swedish
determination, and kept his mother his
younger brother and his sisters in the
essentials of life. But he had succeeded
in making friends with everybody in
town.
When he was twenty-five the St. Peter
Herald was In need of an editor. Four
well-to-do democrats turned to John John
SON as the best man they could think of.
He had never done a bit of newspaper
work, but he took the position, neverthe-
II Io1
Of everything that went on in ST. Peter
and knew what the people wanted to
read.
John Johnson's first nomination to pub
lie office was in 1884; The democrats of
the county picked him as cand date for
the state senate. In this first campaign
Johnson failed to overcome the normal
republican majority, but four years later
he stretched his ropes more carefully. He
perceived that state senator could rea-
sonably be supposed to fight shy of ma
tional issues and confine himself to the
affairs of his own state. He was elected.
He served at two regular sessions and at
one extraordinary session of the state leg
islature. His record, clean and straight,
did not show Johnson to have the quail
ties OF a great legislative leader He was
to most of his colleagues a good-na tured
but rather easygoing man who at the
same time was great vOte-getter.
Marries Miss Preston.
Almost simultaneously with the begin
ming Of his career in politics John Johnson
was married to Miss Gilmore Preston, a
dra wing teacher. Johnson was thirty
three and Miss Preston was twenty.
In 1902 a number of the democratic
leaders decided on Johnson as fitting
candidate for the governorship. Mime
sofa is strongly republican state and
Johnson said that 1t was a forlorn hope.
He contented himself with running again
ton, hv-
row majority.
That he did net win was one of the
fortunate circumstances of his career.
Had he entered the senate for the sec