This is an article about the Minnesota legislator and House Speaker. For the former Governor of Minnesota, see John Albert Johnson

John Albert Johnson

This is an article about the former Minnesota governor. For the former Minnesota legislator and speaker of the house, see John A. Johnson.John Albert Johnson was an American politician. He served in the Minnesota State Senate from January 1897 to January 1901...

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John A. Johnson (born July 9, 1883 in Litchfield, Minnesota

Litchfield, Minnesota

As of the census of 2000, there were 6,562 people, 2,624 households, and 1,653 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,748.4 people per square mile . There were 2,741 housing units at an average density of 730.3 per square mile...

, died February 3, 1962) was a Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 politician and a Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives. He served three decades in the Minnesota legislature, twenty of those years in the Minnesota House.

Johnson was a hardware store owner in Preston, Minnesota

Preston, Minnesota

Preston is a city in Fillmore County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 1,325 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Fillmore County. The Root River runs through it, and Mystery Cave State Park is nearby...

 when he was first elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives

Minnesota House of Representatives

The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower house in the Minnesota State Legislature. There are 134 members elected to two-year terms, twice the number of members in the Minnesota Senate. Each senate district is divided in half and given the suffix A or B...

 in 1920. He caucused with the Conservative caucus

Caucus

A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement, especially in the United States and Canada. As the use of the term has been expanded the exact definition has come to vary among political cultures.-Origin of the term:...

 in the then-nonpartisan legislature. In 1925, he was elected Speaker of the House, a position he held until he left the legislature in 1931.

Johnson served as postmaster

Postmaster

A postmaster is the head of an individual post office. Postmistress is not used anymore in the United States, as the "master" component of the word refers to a person of authority and has no gender quality...

 of the house during his time out of office, and returned to the legislature as a representative in 1939, serving ten years, most of that as chair of the Municipal Affairs committee. In 1949, he moved to the Minnesota Senate

Minnesota Senate

The Minnesota Senate is the upper house in the Minnesota Legislature. There are 67 members, half as many as are in the Minnesota House of Representatives. In terms of membership, it is the largest upper house of any state legislature. Each Senate district in the state includes an A and B House...

 after winning a special election. He retired from the legislature in 1959.