Edwin Stockton JOHNSON, Congress, SD (1857-1933)

JOHNSON, Edwin Stockton, a Senator from South Dakota; born near Spencer, Owen County, Ind., February 26, 1857; moved with his parents to Osceola, Iowa, in 1857; attended the public schools; engaged in the mercantile business; moved to Wheeler County, Nebr., in 1880; homesteaded and engaged in agricultural pursuits; returned to Osceola, Iowa, in 1881 and was employed as a bank cashier; moved to South Dakota and established the Citizens’ Bank of Grand View, S.Dak., in 1884; also engaged in agricultural pursuits; later established a number of banks in South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1888 and practiced; prosecuting attorney of Douglas County 1892-1893; member, State senate 1894-1895; retired from the banking business in 1902 and engaged in the real estate and loan business at Platte, S.Dak.; member of the Democratic National Committee 1904-1916; unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Governor in 1912; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1914 and served from March 4, 1915, to March 3, 1921; declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1920; chairman, Committee on Revolutionary Claims (Sixty-fourth and Sixty-fifth Congresses); resumed his activities in the real estate and loan business; died in Platte, S.Dak., July 19, 1933, interment in Pleasant Ridge Cemetery, Armour, S.Dak.

Bibliography

Pressler, Larry. “Edwin S. Johnson.” In U.S. Senators from the Prairie. Vermillion, SD: Dakota Press, 1982, pp. 70-76.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present