San Francisco County
Biographies
WALTER
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Although he was educated for the practice of law, and made an outstanding success in this profession, Walter Samuel Johnson has achieved a brilliant reputation as a promoter and executive in the business world, and is now president of the American Box Corporation, which is the largest manufacturing coalition of its character on the Pacific coast.
Walter S. Johnson was born in Saginaw, Michigan, on November 10, 1884, and is a son of the late Alfred A. Johnson and his wife, Mary (Calkins) Johnson. The Johnson line extends back to ancestors who settled in America in the early part of the eighteenth century and who came here from England. The first of the family lived in Virginia. Alfred A. Johnson was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1857, and was there reared and educated. In 1880, he went to Saginaw, Michigan, where he conducted a music store, and also a similar enterprise in Detroit. In 1888, he came with his family to Tulare, California, where he engaged in the same business with material success. In the later years of his life, he retired to a ranch near Modesto, California, and there lived until his death on November 21, 1912, when he was fifty-seven years of age. His wife was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1857, descendant of an old family of that state, and daughter of Gilman and Harriet (Masters) Calkins. She is of English extraction, and her lineage may be traced back to royal ancestors. During the early years of her life, Mrs. Johnson was an author of consequence, and she contributed much of her writing to the San Francisco Bulletin. She now resides in Mill Valley, California. It is an interesting fact that Mr. Johnson had three hundred and nineteen relatives who fought in the Civil war on the Union side, and seventy-nine who participated in the Revolutionary war.
Walter S. Johnson was the third in order of birth in a family of three daughters and three sons. He attended the grade and high schools of Oakland, California, and a business college in Thatcher, Arizona. His law education was acquired at the University of California, which institution conferred upon him the Bachelor of Laws degree in 1914. However, when he was seventeen years of age, he began to earn his own living, and his first employment was in the circulation department of the San Francisco Bulletin. He remained here for three years and attained the position of circulation manager. He then resigned and established book and stationery stores in San Francisco and in Modesto, California, under the firm name of Johnson, Incorporated, of which he was president and manager. He conducted this business from 1906 until 1911, when he sold out, and during the following three years he attended college and the university, completing his professional training. From 1914 until 1917, he engaged in the practice of law in San Francisco, but his legal career was interrupted in the latter year by the entrance of the United States into the World war, the details of which are noted in a later paragraph of this biography. He did open a law office in Stockton, California, for a period after his return from the army in 1919, but in this same year he formed a partnership with H. V. Tarter and C. A. Webster in the lumber business in Stockton, under the firm name of Tarter, Webster & Johnson, Inc., of which he is president. In 1928, Mr. Johnson formed the American Box Corporation with a capital stock of two and one-half million dollars, and in so doing effected the merger of the Stockton Box Company of Stockton, California; the Associated Lumber & Box Company of Dorris, Califoria; the firm of Tarter, Webster & Johnson, Inc.; the Arizona Box Company of Phoenix, Arizona; the Harbor Box & Lumber Company of Los Angeles; the General Box Distributors of Fresno and Watsonville; the Stockton Box Distributors, and the American Box Corporation of California. This is now the largest corporation of its kind on the Pacific coast, and the business of the concern extends to all parts of the world. In the employ of the corporation there are approximately six hundred individuals. Prior to his establishment of the American Box Corporation, Mr. Johnson held a number of other positions which are significant in the history of his career. In 1922, he was elected president of the Associated Lumber & Box Company of San Francisco, also vice president of the Mercantile Box Company of this city. In 1928, he was president of the American Box Company of Delaware, also of the Bay Shore Park, Incorporated; and was a director of the American Box Corporation of California. He is vice president of the Stockton Box Company; vice president of the Harbor Box & Lumber Company; and a director in all the subsidiary companies connected with the corporation of which he is president. He is a member of the National Association of Wooden Box Manufacturers, and was the first chairman of the Pacific coast division of this organization.
Mr. Johnson was married on November 18, 1914, in Modesto, California, to Miss Mabel Brady, who was born in Abilene, Kansas, a daughter of Mansfield W. and Carolyn (Ouderkirk) Brady. She traces her descent to Hugh Brady, who settled in Virginia in 1720. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are the parents of three children, namely: Gloria Calkins, Jeaneal Carolyn, and Walter Samuel, Jr. The family home is at 1041 Ashmount avenue in Oakland, California.
When the United States declared war against Germany in 1917, Mr. Johnson entered the officers training camp at the Presidio, where he remained three months, and then was commissioned a first lieutenant in the signal corps of the United States Army. In July, 1918, he was commissioned a captain, and was afterward located at Vancouver Barracks, Washington, at Camp Meade in Maryland, and Aberdeen, Washington, at which latter point he was adjutant of the Gray’s Harbor district of the Spruce Production Division of the United State Army Air Service. In May, 1919, he was honorably discharged at Governor’s Island, New York, with the rank of captain. He then held a like commission in the infantry division of the Officers Reserve Corps, but resigned from this office in 1922.
Mr. Johnson is a Mason, belonging to Delta Lodge, No. 471, F. & A. M., in Stockton, California. He also belongs to the Sons of the Revolution (Los Angeles division); to Carl Ross Post of the American Legion in Stockton; to the Claremont Country Club; the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce; the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce; the Commonwealth Club; and the Los Mochis Chamber of Commerce in Sinaloa, Mexico. He retains his interest in legal affairs, and holds membership in the San Francisco and the California State Bar Associations. His political support has been given to the republican party, and his church is the Episcopal. He is a member of the wood utilization committee of the United States Department of Commerce. Mr. Johnson has been a devotee of golf, of hunting and all outdoor life for many years, and sincerely relishes the companionship of his many friends. He is a moving figure in the affairs of San Francisco and the bay district, and he is numbered among those loyal citizens who are pushing this cosmopolitan community to the forefront of the world’s cities.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Byington, Lewis Francis, “History of
San Francisco 3 Vols”, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1931. Vol. 2 Pages 358-361.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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