Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-03-16
BAPTIST MINISTER
| MADE A MILLION
Clergyman Laid Up Treasure
on Earth as Well as in
Heaven.

Lay UP for yourselves treasures IN
heaven" says the Bible.
Lay them up In heaven and earth
at the same time" says Rev. John T.
M. Johnston, minister of the Baptist
Church and millionaire president of
the National Reserve Bank, of Kan
sas City.
In a discussion of the currency bill
in Congress last month, Speaker
Champ Clark left his chair to speak
for the bill. In his speech he said:
There are two persons to whom
never talk, but always question
James j. Hill, the railroad builder
and Rev. DR.. John T. M. Johnston, of
Kansas City, a Baptist preacher, who
had sense enough to make three or
four million dollars. DR.. Johnston
told me the currency bill would pre-
vent all the money from drifting into
New York, and would break up the
gambling on the New York Stock Elk
change, and that is one reason why
l am for 1t, for 1 believe Dr. Johnston
knows"
DR.. Johnston says: I'm his excess
of love for me, Champ Clark puts my
wealth at more than it really is.
am fifty years old, and l would be
| happy IL / were as rich as he says.
figure that maybe I might be able to
clean up a million now.
4 DIR. Johnston was for several years
| pastor of the Delmar Avenue Baptist
i Church in st. Louis. He was asked
recently how he came to leave the
pulpit for the banking business.
why, just dropped into the bank
| ing business naturally. You know,
Jesus was a business man. The
earliest record we have of any OF HIS
sayings He replied to a question with
the answer that He was going about
His fathers business
In a recent Sunday sermon in the
/ Calvary Baptist Church, IN Kansas
! City, where he was in charge of the
Young Mems Bible class, DR.. john
ston recited the following verse of an
old hymn:
/ / love to tell the story-more Wonoer-
full it seems
Than all the golden fancies and all
our golden dreams.
'SThat verse literally expresses my
feelings throughout my life" ne SAID:
IT love to tell the wonderful story o.
! Christ AS | am the president OF q
bank, and have been fairly successful
in attaining many of the golden fan
cies and dreams of earlier life, some
might think that l put gold above re-
ligion. But / love best to preach the
Gospel, and after that comes the
money making"
DR.. Johnston held the pastorate OF
a church and the presidency OF bank
at the same time for twenty years:
! Now he has no regular pastorate, put
breaches nearly every Sunday either
in Kansas City or some town near by.
He is big, smooth-faced and hearty
looking. His face is more that OF the
minister than of the banker. 1t seems
to hold more of cordially than OF
alertness. Only the eyes. sharp ana
reckoning, betray the financier. But
he is as good a banker as ne is u
minister, and the two pastorates ne
held. and their Importance, one IN
Jefferson City and the other in st:
Louis, attest that he is quite as yood
| a minister as banker.
| A financier DIR. Johnston certainly
| is He became a poor orphan IN Boone
! county. Mo-. when he was only twelve
years old He had heard talk of the
| great chances to get rioa in the new
country of Oklahoma, md as ne
wanted to get rich, and that quickly
he walked to Boone county. Mo-, TO
| Oklahoma, and walked barefooted'
The Commercial Club, of Kansas
i City. made trade trip on a speclai
train recently down into Oklahoma
i and DIR. Johnston went along. lie
sat for hours at the car window as
the train went through Oklahoma
and gazed out. A friend asked MIN
Whv he was so interested in the land
"This country through which we
are passing was the best financial
friend l ever had" he explained
when 1 was only twelve years old;
and an orphan, ] walked barefooted
into this country with only 81 in my
pocket. I herded cows, and once car
ried an Indian maiden across o
stream after making a ford by throw
ing rocks in ahead of me.
"I worked hard as boy, and ]
studied hard at night. At fourteen
years of age / had educated myself
sufficiently to teach a school here in
the Indian Nation. Finally l had
enough money to return to Missouri
at the age of sixteen and start clerk
ing in q store in Boone county. When
I was nineteen / bought out the store.
AT twenty-one | established the
Bass-Johnston Banking Company in
Ashland, Mo; Then began to preach;
MY father, John T.. M. Johnston, had
been a Baptist preacher. and my
mother had always prayed that
might be preacher, too, and that
prayer has been answered.
While young Johnson was clerking
In Ashland, Mo-. he attended the
High School. Then he took vacation
from UuSluSSS lullS eIOuSl 10 10 10 al
commercial college in st. Louis, and
to the Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary in Louisville, Ky. He did
this after he became a banker and
was making money fast.
As soon as he came out of the
seminary he assumed the pastorate
of the First Baptist Church, in Jeffer-
son City, and for ten years vacillated
between the State Senate and the
penitentiary. being chaplain of both.
In 1902 he was called to the pastor
ate of the st. Louis church.
Meanwhile he was getting rich from
his banks. Besides the bank in Ash
land, Mo-, he had established another
in Denison, Tex. In the following
year he acquired stock in banks
in Oklahoma and Texas. He estab-
lished the largest bank in Muskogee
and put his son in charge of 1t.
In all his active life DR.. Johnston
, has been deeply interested In finance.
His deep study of the currency ques-
ton has won the encomiums of