James Montgomery Johnston Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1532-1533 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	JAMES MONTGOMERY JOHNSTON, one of the representative citizens of 
Clark county, was born at High Point, Moniteau county, Missouri, on the 
14th of June, 1867, being a son of Francis and Sarah A. (Montgomery) 
Johnston, the ancestry in both lines traced back to staunch old Scotch 
Presbyterian stock, though the subject has no authentic genealogical 
record of either family. The father of the subject was engaged in 
farming in Missouri and there died when the latter was a child of but 
six years, being survived by his widow and six children, while his 
financial circumstances were such that his  family were left in somewhat 
straitened circumstances. The parents were very strict Presbyterians and 
reared their children under the most careful and punctilious discipline, 
the home environment being of the best in this regard. Mr. Johnston 
early began to assume his share of responsibility, being taught by his 
devoted mother to be honest and industrious, and assisting as he could 
in the work of the home farm. The father died in 1873 and Mr. Johnston 
thereafter continued to reside on the old homestead with his mother 
until he had attained the age of fifteen years, and in the meanwhile he 
attended the local schools. His mother then sold the Missouri farm and 
in the spring of 1883 immigrated with her children to South Dakota and 
located in Maydell township, Clark county, where she and her son and 
daughter elder than our subject filed entry on government land. Here Mr. 
Johnston continued to assist in the farm work and to attend the public 
schools as opportunity afforded, while he was later able to supplement 
this discipline by one year's course of study in the college at 
Redfield, Spink county. In the intervening years he has acquired a good 
farm of six hundred and forty acres in Maydell township, this county, 
and he has been duly prosperous in connection with the development of 
the agricultural and stock-growing resources of this section of the 
state. He has made excellent improvements on his place, and his landed 
estate may be approximately valued at twelve thousand dollars. 

	In politics Mr. Johnston has ever been a staunch adherent of the 
Republican party, having cast his first presidential vote in support of 
Benjamin Harrison after the admission of South Dakota to the Union. He 
has always taken an active part in the supporting of such reform 
measures as have promised to result in the moral and social good of the 
community, and has been specially active in the temperance cause. In the 
autumn of 1890 he was elected to the state legislature, and was chosen 
as his own successor in November, 1902, thus serving as a member of the 
seventh and eighth general assemblies, while in the latter he was 
chairman of the house committee on engrossed and enrolled bills. On the 
23d of June, 1894, Mr. Johnston became a member of the Modern Woodmen of 
America, and in the same has held the office of camp clerk and deputy 
head consul, while in the latter capacity he had charge of the 
establishment of twenty-five local camps in the state, and was a 
delegate from South Dakota to the meeting of the head camp, in St. Paul, 
Minnesota, in June, 1901. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church and has held several positions of trust in connection with church 
affairs, having been twice a lay delegate to the conference and being a 
member of the board of trustees of the local church. He is not married.