George A. Johnston Biography


	This biography appears on pages 851-853 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	GEORGE A. JOHNSTON, who has maintained his home in the city of 
Mitchell for nearly a quarter of a century, is a native of the old 
Buckeye state, having been born in Guernsey county, Ohio, on the 14th 
of August, 1847, a son of George and Margaret (Simpson) Johnston, the 
former of whom was born near Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Ireland, 
while the latter was born in Pennsylvania, whither her parents 
emigrated from the north of Ireland, the ancestry being of staunch 
Scotch-Irish extraction. The father of our subject came to the United 
States as a young man and here turned his attention to the great basic 
art of agriculture. He was a man of studious habits and strong 
intellectuality, impressing his individuality upon the various 
communities in which he lived and ever commanding unqualified esteem. 
He removed from Ohio to Iowa in 1856, becoming one of the pioneers of 
that state, where he was engaged in farming until 1880, when he came to 
Mount Vernon, South Dakota, where he and his wife passed the remainder 
of their lives, his death occurring in 1887, and hers in 1889. Mr. 
Johnston was an uncompromising abolitionist in the crucial epoch 
leading up to the Civil war, and was one of the conductors on the 
historic "underground railway," through which so many fugitives were 
assisted in gaining freedom. He was a forceful public speaker and 
effective debater holding very radical views and ever showing the 
courage of his convictions, but he was too honest and too inflexible to 
prove a successful politician. His religious faith was thoroughly 
orthodox and both he and his wife were devoted members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. They became the parents of nine children, of whom 
four are living at the present time.  

	George A. Johnston, the immediate subject of this sketch, 
completed the curriculum of the public schools and then continued his 
studies in the Iowa College, at Grinnell. Iowa, where he remained three 
years. After leaving college he was identified with the nursery 
business for some time, and he defrayed the expenses of his collegiate 
course by teaching in the public schools. He met with an accident in 
the gymnasium of the college, breaking his left wrist, and this injury 
led to his leaving the institution prior to graduation. In 1876 Mr. 
Johnston came to South Dakota, then a portion of the great undivided 
territory of Dakota, and located in Canton, Lincoln county, where he 
entered the law office of Bailey & Gifford. having previously devoted 
no inconsiderable attention to the reading of the law. In the spring of 
1877 he went to the Black Hills, his intention being to engage in the 
practice of law in that locality, but expenses at the time were very 
high and his means were limited, and thus he consulted expediency and 
abandoned the law to engage in civil engineering and contracting, in 
which connection he was identified with the construction of the toll 
road between Deadwood and Centennial Prairie, while during the time he 
also engaged in prospecting in the neighboring districts. In the late 
fall of 1877 he returned to the eastern part of the state and later 
went to Iowa, where he engaged in teaching for some time, as did he 
later in South Dakota, thus continuing to follow the pedagogic 
profession about two years. In the spring of 1879 Mr. Johnston filed 
entry on government land near the present city of Mitchell, and of this 
property he still retains in his possession one hundred and sixty 
acres. He has consecutively maintained his residence in Mitchell since 
1879, and here he was for some time engaged in the practice of law, 
having secured admission to the bar of Iowa in 1876 and to that of the 
territory of Dakota two years later. Finally he became identified with 
the real-estate business, in which his operations became so extended 
and successful that he withdrew entirely from the practice of his 
profession, and he has ever since continued to be identified with the 
important line of enterprise mentioned.  

	At the time of the Civil war Mr. Johnston manifested his youthful 
patriotism and ardor by enlisting as a private in Company H, Seventh 
Iowa Cavalry, being but fifteen years of age at the time, and he 
continued in active service for a term of three years, at the 
expiration of which he received his honorable discharge. From his youth 
up he has manifested a deep interest in public affairs and has been an 
active factor in the councils of the Republican party. In 1875 he was 
elected railroad commissioner of Dakota Territory. After the admission 
of South 'Dakota to the Union, in 1890, he was chosen a member of the 
first state senate, in which capacity he was retained for three terms, 
his effective labors in the connection being an integral part of the 
legislative history of the state during that period. He has held 
various offices of local trust, including that of mayor of Mitchell and 
member of the board of commissioners of Davison county. He has been a 
delegate to the territorial and state conventions of his party, and in 
1892 was a delegate to the Republican national convention, in 
Minneapolis, as an alternate. Fraternally, he is affiliated with 
Resurgam Lodge, No. 31, Free and Accepted Masons: Mitchell Chapter, No. 
16, Royal Arch Masons; St. Bernard Commandery, No. 11, Knights Templar; 
and El Riad Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the 
Mystic Shrine, in Sioux Falls. He is one of the prominent and popular 
members of the fraternity in this state, and in 1891 served as grand 
master of the grand lodge of South Dakota. He also holds membership in 
Ransom Post, No. 6, Grand Army of the Republic.  

	On the 2d of July, 1882, Mr. Johnston was united in marriage to 
Miss Clara R. Hallowell, a daughter of Rev. Peter Hallowell, a 
clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal church, and at that time a 
resident of Blackhawk county, Iowa, this marriage being solemnized on 
the day of the assassination of President Garfield. Mr. and Mrs. 
Johnston became the parents of two children, a son who died in infancy, 
and Lucile, who remains at the parental home.