Charles A. Johnson Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1224, 1227-1228 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				CHARLES A. JOHNSON. 

	Enterprise and laudable ambition have brought Charles A. Johnson 
to an enviable position in business circles, he being now president of 
the First National Bank of Fairfax. His birth occurred in Springville, 
Erie county, New York, September 11, 1857, his parents being David and 
Nancy (Quinn) Johnson, who came of English and Irish ancestry 
respectively. The Johnson family was founded in Massachusetts in 1766-
ten years before the Declaration of Independence was written. David 
Johnson was a farmer by occupation and also engaged extensively in 
manufacturing cheese. At the time of the Civil war he attempted to 
enlist but was rejected on account of the condition of his health. His 
grandfather had been a soldier of the Revolutionary war, enlisting 
three times under General Washington. He was at Valley Forge and at 
Princeton and participated in a number of the important engagements 
that brought independence to the nation. Both Mr. and Mrs. David 
Johnson have now passed away, the latter having died at the advanced 
age of eighty-seven years. In the family were eight children, five sons 
and three daughters. 

	Charles A. Johnson, the fifth in order of birth, supplemented his 
public-school education by study in the Elroy Seminary of Wisconsin, 
his people having removed to that state when he was a lad of nine 
years. Owing to illness, however, he was not able to complete his 
course in the seminary. For five years he engaged in teaching school in 
Wisconsin and in 1884 went to Nebraska, settling at Wood Lake, where he 
engaged in general merchandising in the lumber business, in the live-
stock business and in banking for twenty-one years, his activities 
contributing in large measure to the business development of the town. 

	The story of how Mr. Johnson became a banker, which he told 
twenty-five years ago to a number of his old time friends, and since 
then it has been told many thousand times as a joke, is as follows: 

	"In 1885 I had an inspiration that I wanted to become a banker. I 
wrote a letter to Mr. Ben Woods, who was vice president of the 
Merchants National Bank of Omaha, who was acquainted with my father in 
their boyhood days in Erie county, New York. I asked him to write me a 
receipt telling me how to become a banker. He replied by saying there 
was no set rule, and that a knowledge of banking could only be gained 
by actual contact with the business. 

	"My desire was so great that I decided at once to apply myself to 
the contact. I had a fair sized safe which I moved into an empty 
building, and had the name 'Wood Lake Bank' printed across the front of 
the building in large red letters Having procured eleven dollars worth 
of check books and deposit slips I was open for business. This was 
before the days of all your foolish banking laws that so aggravate our 
present day banker. No capital was required and the only law that 
governed your business was your conscience. 

	"The first day's existence of the Wood Lake Bank David Hanna came 
in and deposited five hundred dollars and secured a check book. The 
next day Alf Morris deposited two hundred and fifty dollars and Mel 
Hanna deposited four hundred dollars and Wash Honey deposited one 
thousand dollars Sundry other men made deposits that week of various 
amounts and by Saturday night I had gained sufficient confidence in the 
institution to deposit my own money from my store and lumberyard. 

	"The banking business is done largely on confidence of which I 
have always had a large stock on hand. The ruling rate that small banks 
charged in those days was twenty-four to thirty-six per cent, but I 
deny the charge of ever taking an unlawful interest. I figured that if 
the public were kind enough to furnish us the money to loan, we should 
be satisfied with ten per cent interest. 

	"Having learned the lesson of strict economy which is taught in 
the 'University of Hard Knocks,' of which I was a graduate, I was able 
to save enough money in two years to capitalize the Wood Lake Bank at 
ten thousand dollars. This was prior to the passage of a banking law in 
Nebraska. 

	"I have often thought the simple laws on banking of Confucius, 
the famous sage of China, written over five hundred years before Christ 
and still in force, are superior to our own. When a banker of China 
goes wrong and embezzles the people's money they chop his head off with 
an ax." 

	Since that time Mr. Johnson has established and been president of 
six different banks, all now in flourishing condition. He gained from 
each day's experiences the lessons therein contained. He studied every 
phase of the business from a practical standpoint and as the years 
passed on broadened his interests and connections until he is today the 
foremost capitalist of his section of the state. While engaged in the 
banking business in Nebraska he there acquired many thousands of acres 
of land. In 1892 he came to South Dakota, at once recognized the 
possibilities for development in the western part of the state and 
established a line of stores and lumberyards. He also organized the 
Fairfax State Bank, the only bank in the Rosebud until the railroad was 
built through. He established and is president of the Citizens Bank of 
Bonesteel and the St. Charles State Bank of St. Charles, which he 
visits once a week, giving careful supervision to the conduct of the 
business. He is also president of The Johnson Farm Loan Company of 
Fairfax and his financial connections are now extensive and of an 
important character. Moreover, he is a resourceful business man and his 
efforts and activities have been by no means confined to one line. He 
sees and utilizes opportunities that others pass heedlessly by and when 
once he has determined upon a course he perseveres therein until he has 
reached a successful conclusion. He is called the alfalfa man of his 
part of the state, for he planted the first alfalfa in Gregory county, 
proved that it could be profitably cultivated and has since encouraged 
its planting. He is now cutting six tons to the acre in the year 1915. 
His landed possessions embrace several thousand acres in South Dakota 
and in other states. He has made very judicious investments in property 
and he is an enthusiastic farmer, doing everything in his power to 
produce better farming conditions. He started the movement that has put 
in the Rosebud one hundred silos and has introduced dairy cows there, 
claiming that the final conquest of the Rosebud will be by the dairy 
cow, for he believes that district to be a splendid region for dairy 
purposes. He was individually instrumental in securing the present 
railway facilities of Gregory county. When he thought the time ripe he 
went to Chicago to take the matter up and "dirt was flying" inside of 
ninety days, securing and donating seventy miles of right of way. 

	On the 27th of June, 1886, Mr. Johnson was united in marriage to 
Miss Matie M. Chandler, a daughter of Philander and Miranda Chandler, 
of Ohio. To them have been born three children, namely: Chester A., who 
is engaged in the cattle business and farming in Gregory county; Ava 
Nancy, at home; and Ina, who died at the age of four years. 

	Mr. Johnson and his family are Protestants in religious belief. 
He has attained the thirty-second degree in Masonry, belonging to the 
consistory at Yankton. He is also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine and a 
member of various other orders and fraternal societies. in politics he 
is a republican and is a believer in prohibition. Ever a close personal 
adherent of the temperance cause, he does all in his power to further 
its adoption and he cooperates in every plan and measure that he 
believes will prove of benefit in the upbuilding of city, county and 
state. He has given to Fairfax a library building and many of the books 
which it contains. He also donated the ground for the city park and 
planted the trees. He has long been an advocate of good roads and is 
now grand consul of the Washington Memorial Highway Association. His 
life record, if given in detail, would present a picture of every 
public project of the community in which he lives, for he has been 
identified with all that pertains to progress and upbuilding here. No 
man in his section of the state is more widely known or deserves in 
larger measure the gratitude and goodwill of the public. He came to the 
Rosebud when pioneer conditions existed here, saw its opportunities and 
has worked for public advantage as well as for private advancement. His 
fellow townsmen believe that he would ever sacrifice the latter before 
he would the former and attest that his patriotism is ever shown in 
actual practical work for the public good.