Strangers to Us All Lawyers and Poetry

Clyde Beecher Johnson

(1871-1936)
West Virginia


Men of West Virginia
(Chicago: Biographical Publishing Co., 1903)(
Vol. 1)

Clyde Beecher Johnson is the oldest son of James L. and Anna C. (Martin) Johnson and was born June 17, 1871, on a farm in Pleasants County, West Virginia. He began teaching at the age of 17 and taught until he was in his mid-20s. He began the study of law in 1883 under the tutelage of A.M. Campbell of St. Marys and was admitted to the bar in February, 1895. He began the practice of law in Sisterville but returned, in less than year, to Pleasants County, where he took up politics. In 1902, Johnson took on a law partner, E.R.B. Martin, to form the firm, Johnson & Martin. Johnson was also a businessman and had some dealings in real estate. As of 1924, Johnson is reported to have moved his practice to Charleston, West Virginia, where he was in partnership with William G. Conley. In 1922 he was elected state senator from the Eighth District. The biographical sketch of Johnson in Men of West Virginia concludes with the observation that "Mr. Johnson is a book lover, and a man of cultivated literary taste. He is said to have one of the best private libraries in the State."

[Sources: Ella May Turner (ed.), West Virginia Verse of Today 112 (Scottdale, Pennsylvania: Mennonite Publishing House, 1924); Men of West Virginia, Vo1. 1, 61-63 (Chicago: Biographical Publishing Co., 1903)]

See also: Geo. W. Atkinson, Bench and Bar of West Virginia 379-381 (Charleston, West Virginia: Virginian Law Book Company, 1919)][online text]; Men of West Virginia 61-63
(Chicago: Biographical Publishing Co., 1903)(Vol. 1) [online text]

Poetry

Clyde Beecher Johnson, Rhyme and Reason (Pittsburgh: Press of Republic Bank Note Co., 1914)