Mrs. Lydia Bernhardina Johnson Biography


	This biography appears on pages 34, 37 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				MRS. LYDIA BERNHARDINA JOHNSON. 

	South Dakota is proud of the record of Mrs. Lydia Bernhardina 
Johnson, the wife of Julius H. Johnson of Fort Pierre. As lecturer and 
lawyer she has gained wide reputation and her clear and forceful 
presentation of the subjects of which she treats shows that she has 
mastered every phase of the point at issue. She has done effective work 
in club organizations, on the political platform and in behalf of 
progressive measures dealing with the most vital and significant 
problems of the age. Mrs. Johnson was born in Sweden, March 6, 1875, a 
daughter of Jacob Erik and Caroline Ulrika (Erickson) Carlsson, the 
former for almost forty years a teacher in the schools of Sweden. It 
was in that country that Mrs. Johnson acquired her early education and 
after coming to the new world she entered the high school of West 
Superior, Wisconsin, from which she was in due time graduated. She next 
became a student in the University of Minnesota and won the Bachelor of 
Literature degree in 1900. Later she studied for the bar and was 
graduated from the University of South Dakota with the Bachelor of Laws 
degree in 1912. 

	It was on the 19th of June, 1901, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that 
she became the wife of Julius H. Johnson, now a prominent lawyer and 
lecturer of South Dakota. Their home is in Fort Pierre, although public 
work calls them in many sections of the state. They are parents of a 
little daughter, Charlotte Amelia Johnson. In the Lutheran church they 
bold membership and Mrs. Johnson is also well known in club circles. 
She became a charter member of the Fort Pierre Woman,s Club and her 
activity in the local organization led to her selection for state 
offices. She served as corresponding secretary from 1906 to 1908 and as 
president of the South Dakota Federation of Women's Clubs from 1908 to 
1910 inclusive. She was likewise president of the South Dakota Equal 
Suffrage Association in 1909 and 1910. She is an advocate of the 
principles of the progressive party and was chosen by the national 
committee as a campaign speaker in 1912. She belongs to the Eastern 
Star, and is also an active worker in the Woman's Christian Temperance 
Union. Her interests are wide and she is active in that great field of 
social service where men and women are working together for the benefit 
and uplift of the race. On the lecture platform she has been widely 
known and extensive travel in Europe has given her a broad view of 
vital questions. She has been a close and discriminating student of 
many points now uppermost in the public mind. The following titles of 
her lectures indicate the extent and breadth of her investigations and 
researches: The School-Our Social Center; Domestic Science; Club Work-A 
Social Service; Equal Suffrage-Civic Duty; Child Labor and the Minimum 
Wage; Legal Status of Women; and Social and Industrial Justice. In all 
these Mrs. Johnson is doing much to solve the problems connected with 
the sociologic and economic questions of the day and her work is 
fruitful of good results.