Charles A. Johns

Charles Johns was born to James McClellan Johns and Elizabeth Ann Darby Johns in Jackson County, Missouri.[1][2][3] In 1858, the family immigrated to the Oregon Territory and settled in the Willamette Valley.[1] Charles was then educated in the local schools of Marion and Linn counties.[1] For college he attended Willamette University in Salem, where he graduated in 1878 with his Bachelor of Arts.[1][3] He was admitted to the bar in 1881.[1] The following year Johns married Mabel Ellis with whom he fathered three children.[1] He would also have three children by his second wife Elizabeth Busch.[1]

After being accepted to practice law, Johns then became a judge in Polk County, Oregon, in the Willamette Valley from 1883 to 1885[2] and served as mayor of Baker City in Eastern Oregon from 1900 to 1908.[1][3] He was also a lieutenant colonel on the staff of Oregon Governor Theodore Thurston Geer.[1] In 1912, Charles Johns moved to Portland, Oregon, where he practiced law.[1]

On June 4, 1918, Johns was appointed to the Oregon Supreme Court to replace Wallace McCamant by Governor James Withycombe after McCamant resigned.[4][5] Johns then won election to a full six-year term that same year, but resigned on October 7, 1921,[4] following his appointment to the Supreme Court of the Philippines[1] by U.S. President Warren G. Harding.[3] In 1924, he served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention from Philippines.[2] Johns served on the Philippine court until dying in office on January 11, 1932, at the age of 74.[1]