George A. Johnston, born on August 14, 1847, in Guernsey County, Ohio, was a notable resident of Mitchell, South Dakota. The son of George and Margaret (Simpson) Johnston, he moved from Ohio to Iowa in 1856, and later to South Dakota in 1876. A Civil War veteran, he served in the Seventh Iowa Cavalry. Johnston pursued a career in law, real estate, and politics, including terms as a state senator and mayor of Mitchell. He married Clara R. Hallowell in 1882, and they had two children, one of whom survived infancy. Johnston was also a prominent Freemason and community leader.
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. He is 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 stanch 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 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 1870, 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 this 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 2nd 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 was 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.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.