FRANK T. JOHNSON

    Among the officials of Sacramento county is numbered Frank T. Johnson, who is filling the office of county sheriff.  He has long been in the public service and at all times has been faithful to the trust reposed in him, so that he commands and enjoys the confidence and regard of all with whom he is brought in contact. A native of Sacramento, he was born April 12, 1855, his parents being Benjamin F. and Sarah E. (Taylor) Johnson.  The Johnson family is of English lineage, while the Taylors are of Scotch descent, and a brother of Mrs. Johnson married into one of the old French families of St. Louis.  The father was born in New York about 1817, and in 1849 after some years residence in Missouri, he joined "The Argonauts" and went to California in search of the "golden fleece."  The journey was made by way of the isthmus of Panama to San Francisco, whence Mr. Johnson made his way direct to Sacramento and there resided until his death.

    He became well known throughout the state by reason of his connection with hotel interests and his prominence in political affairs.  He was the proprietor of the Blue Wing and afterward of the Magnolia Club, a leading hostelry of California.  He was elected a member of the first city council of Sacramento.  Subsequently he resigned a political office which paid two hundred dollars per month, because the body of which he was a political member pursued a course which he considered detrimental to the people.  This is the first and only instance on record in that city of a man resigning so lucrative a position for conscientious or even other reasons.  His hotel, the Magnolia Club, was a favorite resort and therein he entertained many of the most prominent and distinguished men of the state.  Under its roof political records have been made and unmade to a greater extent than in any other hotel in the state.  The case of David C. Broderick and Gwinn, the celebrated controversy over the United States senatorship, was instituted and planned in the Magnolia Club house.  Mr. Johnson died in Sacramento at the age of sixty years, and the community thereby lost one of its leading and influential citizens.  He was married in St. Louis in 1852, to Miss Sarah E. Taylor, who was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Three years previously he had located in California and with his bride he returned to the Golden State.  She was a sister of Daniel G. Taylor, a prominent resident of St. Louis who served as mayor of that city.  Mr. and Mrs. Johnson became the parents of three children, our subject and two sisters, who reside with their brother.

     Frank T. Johnson pursued his education in the public schools of Sacramento, completing his course by graduation in the high school of that city.  He subsequently entered the employ of Ed Cadwallader, a real estate and insurance agent, for whom he acted as clerk and manager from 1874 until 1879.  He then resigned his position to accept the office of deputy state treasurer, to which he was appointed by John Weil,  the state treasurer at the time when G. C. Perkins was elected the chief executive of California.  At the conclusion of his service there he entered the employ of the California State Bank as assistant cashier and teller, continuing to serve in that capacity for two years, when he resigned and joined the former state treasurer, Mr. Weil, in the real estate and insurance business.  That connection was continued for several years and the firm enjoyed a good business, receiving a liberal patronage.  Their connection was dissolved when John Henry Miller retired from the position of auditor and recorder, and Mr. Johnson was appointed to fill the vacancy.  He discharged his duties so promptly and faithfully that he was elected to the office and for three terms served, retiring in 1894, as he had entered the position, with the good will and confidence of the public.  Further political honors awaited him, for he was then elected the sheriff of Sacramento county in 1894, and in 1898 was re-elected, so that he is the present incumbent. He is strictly fair and impartial in the discharge of his duties and his name awakens a feeling of confidence in all the law-abiding citizens and a feeling of terror in those who are not amenable to the laws  which protect our liberties, our homes and our lives.

      Mr. Johnson exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the Republican party, with which he has affiliated since casting his first presidential vote for Rutherford B. Hayes.  He was reared as a Congregationalist and has always attended the services of that church.  In fraternity circles he is very prominent, is the past master of Washington Lodge, F. & A. M., also belongs to the chapter and commandery and is a Noble of the Mystic Shrine of San Francisco.  He has served also as the president of Sunset Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West and is a charter member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.  A man of unswerving integrity and one who has a perfect appreciation of the duties of citizenship and the higher ethics of life, Mr. Johnson has gained and retained the confidence and respect of his fellow men, and is distinctively one of the leading citizens of Sacramento, with whose interests he has always been identified.