Henry Simpson Johnston
Henry Simpson Johnston
“I am prouder of the day in my life when I gaveled the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention to order in Guthrie than any other.”
Biography
Oklahoma Governor Henry Simpson Johnston was born in Indiana, graduated from Baker University and Kansas Methodist College (now Kansas Wesleyan University), and came to Colorado at the age of twenty-four to study law. He was admitted to the bar in 1881 and settled in Perry, Oklahoma, in 1893. He served on the Territorial Council in 1897 and was the Noble County attorney from 1901 to 1905. Johnston served as a member and was the temporary presiding officer of the Constitutional Convention in 1906 and was President Pro Tempore of the first Oklahoma State Senate. His term as Governor of Oklahoma began in 1927 and ended with his impeachment in 1929. In 1932, he was elected to the State Senate representing District 10 and served in the 1933 and 1935 state legislatures. He returned to practice law in Perry until his death in 1965.
Fun fact
In 1980, Oklahomans from across the state descended on the front lawn of the Perry home of late Gov. Henry Johnston to pore over items, including the house, which were sold to the highest bidders. An estimated 400 people attended the sale which brought about $25,000.
Oklahoma connections
Johnston made the Land Run of 1893 to open his law practice in Perry, Oklahoma.