Oscar G. Johnston
c. 1917
Member of the Mississippi House of Representatives
from the Coahoma County district
In office
January 1908  January 1920
Personal details
Born(1880-01-27)January 27, 1880
Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.
DiedOctober 3, 1955(1955-10-03) (aged 75)
Greenville, Mississippi, U.S.
Political partyDemocrat
SpouseMartha Anderson (m. 1905)

Oscar Goodbar Johnston (January 27, 1880 - October 3, 1955) was an American politician and public officer from the state of Mississippi.

Early life

Oscar Goodbar Johnston was born on January 27, 1880, in Jackson, Mississippi.[1][2][3][4][5] He was the son of John Calvin Johnston and Emma Elizabeth (Goodbar) Johnston.[1][2][3][4] John Calvin Johnston was the deputy state auditor of Mississippi for several years.[1][2][3] When Oscar was in his youth, Oscar attended public and private schools in Jackson, Kansas City, and Memphis.[1][2][3] He graduated from the Kentucky Military Institute in 1899 as the salutatorian of his class.[1][2][3] He then studied law, going to the University of Mississippi for one term, before switching colleges and graduating from Cumberland University with a law degree and as the class orator in 1901.[1][2][3][4] He first practiced law at West Point, Mississippi, in 1901.[5]

Political career

State Legislature

Johnston was first elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives, representing Coahoma County as a Democrat, on November 5, 1907.[1][2] In the 1908 and 1910 sessions, he served on the Judiciary, Federal Relations, Corporations, and Mississippi Levees committees.[1] He was re-elected on November 7, 1911, for the 1912 and 1914 sessions.[1][3] During those sessions, he was the chairman of the Judiciary committee, and also was served in the Fees and Salaries, Mississippi Levees, Constitution, Drainage, and Rules committees.[3] He was re-elected once more in November 1915, where he served on the Judiciary, Mississippi Levees, Railroads, and Insurance Committees.[1] In the 1916 session, he attempted to run for Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives, but lost in a three-way race to Martin Sennett Conner.[6] He left the Legislature to serve in the Tank Corps as a private in World War I, and was commissioned a lieutenant in 1919.[4][5]

Run for Governor

Following service in WWI, Johnston attempted to run for Mississippi Governor in 1919.[4][7] However, he lost the second primary to Lee M. Russell.[4][7]

Organizations

He became the president of the Delta & Pine Land Company of Mississippi in 1929.[4] In 1933, he was appointed the Director of Finance for the newly created Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA).[4] In 1938, he founded the National Cotton Council, and served as president of that organization until his retirement.[5]

Personal life and death

In 1905, he married Martha Anderson.[1][2][3] He died on October 3, 1955, in Greenville, Mississippi.[4][5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Mississippi Department of Archives and History (1917). The Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi. Department of Archives and History. pp. 847–848.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Mississippi Department of Archives and History (1908). The Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi. Department of Archives and History. p. 1045.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mississippi Department of Archives and History (1912). The Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi. Department of Archives and History. pp. 414–415.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Johnston, Oscar Goodbar". Mississippi Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2021-03-21.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Congress, United States. Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. A257–A258.
  6. Nelson, Lawrence J. (1999). King Cotton's Advocate: Oscar G. Johnston and the New Deal. Univ. of Tennessee Press. ISBN 978-1-57233-025-2.
  7. 1 2 Mississippi Department of Archives and History (1923). The Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi. Department of Archives and History.
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