Royal Cleaves JOHNSON, Congress, SD (1882-1939)

JOHNSON Royal Cleaves , a Representative from South Dakota; born in Cherokee, Cherokee County, Iowa, October 3, 1882; moved with his parents to Highmore, Hyde County, S.Dak., March 19, 1883; attended the public schools; was graduated from the law department of the University of South Dakota at Vermilion in 1906; was admitted to the bar in 1906 and commenced practice in Highmore, S.Dak.; assistant State's attorney of Hyde County in 1906 and 1907 and State's attorney of the same county in 1908 and 1909; moved to Aberdeen, S.Dak., in 1913 and resumed the practice of law; attorney general of South Dakota 1910-1914; elected as a Republican to the Sixty-fourth and to the eight succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1915-March 3, 1933); chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of War (Sixty-seventh and Sixty-eighth Congresses), Committee on World War Veterans' Legislation (Sixty-eighth through Seventy-first Congresses); was not a candidate for renomination in 1932; during the First World War he absented himself from the House and on January 5, 1918, enlisted in the U.S. Army; served in the Three Hundred and Thirteenth Infantry as private, sergeant, second lieutenant, and first lieutenant; awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by the United States Government and the Croix de Guerre with gold star by the Republic of France; practiced law in Washington, D.C.; died on August 2, 1939, in Washington, D.C.; interment in Arlington National Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present