Sacramento County
Biographies
HON. GROVE L. JOHNSON
The subject of this sketch, Hon. Grove
L. Johnson, was born in Syracuse, Onondaga county, state of New York, March 27, 1841.
His father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather were
born in America. His mother, her father and her grandfather were all
born in America. He can therefore truly claim he is an American in
the fullest sense.
Mr. Johnson's father died when he was
but fifteen years of age, since which time he has supported himself by his own
exertions. He studied law in the office of Sedgwick, Andrews &
Kennedy, the leading law firm of Syracuse, N. Y., and was admitted to the bar
April 2, 1862, just six days after he became twenty-one. He early in life
took an interest in politics as a Republican. Although but fifteen years
of age he made many speeches for Fremont in 1856 and when but nineteen years old he campaigned for Lincoln in 1860. He was elected school commissioner of the
city of his birth in 1862, although not twenty-one years old and could not take
his seat for some time, awaiting his majority.
The fact that his brother was serving
as a commissioned officer in the west was the immediate cause of the coming of
Mr. Johnson to California in October of 1863, when he arrived in Sacramento after a tedious overland journey from Atchison, Kans., in a stagecoach that covered the distance in twenty-two
days and nights. Immediately after his arrival he was made
quartermaster's clerk under his brother and served in that capacity in California, Arizona and Washington. During April of 1865, with the close of the war, he
received an honorable discharge and in May of the same year he returned to Sacramento, which city he has since considered his home, although
public duties often have called him temporarily to other points. After
having held a position as chief deputy in the county assessor's office for two
years he was made swamp land clerk for the board of supervisors of Sacramento
county, being the first to hold the office, also the sole incumbent, for at the
expiration of seven years, the swamp lands were formed into different districts
instead of being managed by the board of supervisors, hence there was no longer
need for a swamp land clerk of the supervisors.
After having held a position as clerk
of the surveyor-general of California
for two years Mr. Johnson opened an office in Sacramento, Cal., for the practice of law May 1. 1873. Since that
time he has risen to a high rank in his profession, and not alone in his home
city, but throughout the entire commonwealth and indeed the whole great
west. Deliberate in action, logical in thought, ripe in experience and
concise and clear in his reasoning and most eloquent in his addresses, he
possesses the attributes of a successful attorney and has won his laurels
worthily and well. He was very successful as a criminal lawyer and during
his practice lost only two cases. He defended seventeen persons accused
of murder and saved all but one from hanging. He won the Hurtado case, when the Supreme Court of California, upon
the strength of his argument, changed the rule of testimony in murder cases
where temporary insanity was the defense.
He carried to success the litigation
growing out of the attempt to take the State Capital from Sacramento to San
Jose. In other
important lawsuits he won decisions from the Supreme Court against learned and
able antagonists and at times obtained decisions that were new to our
state. He has always been a friend to the poor and has done more unpaid
work as a lawyer than any other man in California.
The building up of an important
clientele did not engross his attention to the exclusion of public
service. Always he has stood for what was best for the interests of the
city and commonwealth. In a long and influential public career he has
proved absolutely honest and incontestably courageous and perhaps no citizen of
Sacramento has done more than he in the molding of public
opinion. As a member of the State bar Association and as president for
more than twelve years of the Sacramento Bar Association, he has maintained an
intimate association with matters of law and jurisprudence. With justice
he might be denominated a Nestor of the bar, not only on account of his long
service as a practitioner, but also in recognition of his deep knowledge of
fundamental law. As a public speaker either politically or on general
topics he has no superior in the west. He always captivates his
audience.
From young manhood Mr. Johnson has been
active in the work of the Republican party. At
the California Republican state conventions of 1884, 1888, 1892, and 1908, he
officiated as chairman of the committee on resolutions and also wrote the party
platform that was adopted by the delegates. During 1896 he was a delegate
to the St. Louis national convention of his party. Elected to the
assembly in 1877, two years later he was chosen to serve as state senator for
four years. In 1894 he became a member of congress from the second
congressional district of California. Two years later, when again
nominated, he suffered defeat with the balance of the republican ticket.
At the elections of 1898, 1900 and 1902 he was chosen a member of the state
assembly and would have been re-elected in 1904 had not illness prevented him
from being a candidate. Elected to the state legislature in 1906, he
served with such distinction and fidelity that he was again chosen for the same
position in 1908. In each session he was chairman of the judiciary
committee. Every bill of a general nature introduced before the
legislature was read by him. So painstaking was he in the presentation of
every important matter to the members of his committee that they were
accustomed to remark, as they proceeded to the judiciary committee room, where
they were going to "Johnson's law school," No measure
associated with his public career has been more important than that of securing
while a member of congress the placing of the work of improving and cleansing
the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers on the regular appropriation schedule, so
that appropriations are made each year for the work without special orders,
thus entirely removing a great public measure from the realm of politics.
The first marriage of Mr. Johnson took
place in Syracuse, N. Y., and united him with Miss Annie W. de Montfredy, who was born in Syracuse and died in 1903 in California. September 1, 1908, he was united in marriage with Miss Helen Alice Hassett,
a native of San Francisco and a daughter of Hon. W. J. Hassett,
ex-mayor of Sacramento. By his first marriage he became the father of five
children, namely: Albert M., who died in Oakland in 1907 at the age of
forty-six years; Josephine, Mrs. A. R. Fink, of Sacramento; Hiram W.,
now governor of California; Mabel, Mrs. Bruce L. Dray, of Pasadena;
and Mary, Mrs. H. E. O'Neal, of Tacoma, Wash., who died in Sacramento. The eldest son, Albert M., ranked as one of the most brilliant and
promising attorneys of the state and as one of the most eloquent orators in the
west. The inspiration of his career is not forgotten, although its
untimely end was a source of deep regret to friends.
From May, 1911, to February, 1912, Mr.
and Mrs. Johnson traveled in Europe, making an extensive tour, and not only for purposes of
pleasure and recreation, but also in the interests of research and study.
Upon his return he gave a series of interesting lectures concerning the old
world, dwelling particularly upon its people, history and institutions, its
present status and future possibilities. In the midst of a career
embracing large public interests and important private duties, he has not
remained aloof from fraternal associations, but has enjoyed his comradeship in
a peculiar degree. At this writing he is a member of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows and of all its branches, the Improved Order of Red men,
the United Ancient order of Druids, the Foresters of America, the Knights of Pythias, the fraternal Order of eagles and the benevolent
and protective Order of elks. He has served as great sachem of the
Improved Order of Red Men of California and Grand Master of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows of California and is a P. C. F. of the Foresters and a P.
C. of the Knights of Pythias and a P. N. A. of the
United Ancient Order of Druids. He is an honorary member of the
Typographical union, having received that recognition of his services in the
legislature in behalf of the printers of California.
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.
Source: Willis,
William L., History of Sacramento
County, California, Pages 500-503. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1913.
© 2005 Sally Kaleta.