186 I NAILED IT! ISABELA GOV JOHNSTON

I NAILED IT! ISABELA GOV JOHNSTON

Troy Alexander Gozum Miano

16 January 2024

At long last, a few minutes ago, I was able to capture the profile of William Hartshorne Johnston Jr., the first governor of the Province of Isabela. The search took a quarter of a century. I started scribbling the background of the province in 1990, at the age of 16 while collecting data for the historical development of my beloved town Cabatuan. In the 1982 book, “Isabela” published by the Provincial Government of Isabela, “R. Johnson” was listed as the first governor of the province with no other data supporting the name.

In 2001, I was able to draft my version of the history of the province during the centennial of the capture of General Emilio Aguinaldo. In 2006, I published the “Chronological History of Isabela” to commemorate the 150th founding anniversary of the province. I was able to research again the whole name of the American governor by browsing the pages of the minutes of session and reports of the 2nd Philippine Commission or Taft Commission (1900-1916) that revealed the name - “William H. Johnston”. However, in other records of the Commission, the incorrect surname “Johnson” also appeared.

When I assumed office as head of the Isabela Museum & Library (IML) at the capitol in Ilagan, I got hold of the archives section and started translating, reading and digitizing the minutes of the session of the Provincial Board of Isabela dated since 1909. The books are considered the oldest existing of its kind in the country. In my many research works and publications of local historical articles, I was still in vain in capturing data and photo of the 1st Governor of Isabela.

Before I stepped down as head of the IML in 2022, I made sure that all the historical records of the province are properly documented and kept for the consumption of the next generation of Isabeleños and of course for the SGLG (Seal of Good Local Governance). I wrapped up my stint at the capitol by showcasing permanently the photos of the Governors, Vice Governors and Assemblymen/Congressmen of Isabela. It saddened me to see the blank space which is reserved for the photo of the 1st Gov.

I hoped and prayed that the custodians of the records of the American colonial government in the Philippines would be uploaded in the websites most especially the details of American soldiers who served in the Philippine-American War. The long wait was over for the net particularly the ebook, googlebooks, govinfo.gov, rootsweb.com, ancestry.com, newspapers.com, genealogybank.com, and eventually Wikipedia revealed my long overdue research.

William Hartshorne Johnston Jr. was born on October 19, 1861 in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States (U.S.) to Colonel William Hartshorne Johnston (1824-1896), a U.S. Army paymaster and Mary Neele Johnston. He was raised and educated at various Army posts and in Saint Louis, Missouri, and attended Washington University School of Law from 1876 to 1879. While living in Saint Louis, Johnston also worked as a salesman for the Scudders-Gale Grocery Company.

In 1878, Johnston enlisted in the Missouri Militia and rose to sergeant in the Lafayette Guard of Saint Louis before moving to Prescott, Arizona in 1881. While in Arizona, he obtained a commission as a first lieutenant in the territorial militia's Prescott Rifles company, and he served until 1883. From November 1881 to October 1883, he was an Army paymaster's clerk.

In February 1883, Johnston was a resident of New York City when he competed for a Congressional appointment to the U. S. Military Academy. He was selected by a panel that made a recommendation to Representative Roswell P. Flower (1835-1899), but was subsequently declared ineligible because he did not meet the one-year state residency requirement. In July 1883, he was appointed a second lieutenant in the U. S. Army directly from civil life, subject to completion of an examination by a board of officers. When Johnston took the competitive examination, he placed first of 96 candidates. His commission in the 16th Infantry Regiment was confirmed in October.

In 1887, Johnston graduated with honors from the Infantry and Cavalry School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In 1894, while assigned to the faculty of first Western Military Academy in Alton, Illinois and later Saint Louis University, Johnston attended law school at Washington University and graduated his LL.B. degree in 1897. At graduation, Johnston was awarded the honor of Prize Essayist of his senior class.

In June 1888, Johnston married Lucille Barat Wilkinson (1869-1917), a great-granddaughter of Major General James Wilkinson (1757-1825) and had a daughter, Genevieve Johnston who lived in Saint Louis and became a nun at Villa Duchesne Convent of the Sacred Heart in Saint Louis. In 1923, widower Johnston married Isabelle Gros in Paris, France.

During the Spanish–American War, Johnston served in Cuba with the 46th U.S. Volunteer Infantry as a major while he was captain in the regular army in the 16th Infantry during the Philippine-American War. Johnston was mustered out of the volunteer service and was appointed military governor of Isabela Province together with Mr. Francisco R. Dichoso as provincial secretary, Mr. George W. Povey as provincial treasurer and Atty. Bartolome Revilla (who would later become representative of Rizal province in the 1st Philippine Assembly) as provincial fiscal. Governor Johnston served from August 24, 1901 up to April 8, 1902. He was replaced with the election of a Filipino civil governor, his secretary, Francisco R. Dichoso.

Governor Johnston served for only seven and half months or 228 days as provincial government head. Philippine Commission records particularly the Annual Reports of the Secretary of War, Volume 5 revealed that Governor Johnston noticed the poor sanitation of cemeteries and notified the municipal presidents of the province of their obligations or face strict penalties. Furthermore, he also advised the municipal presidents to coordinate with the parish priests regarding the issue. Moreover, he informed the most reverend archbishop of the Catholic Church regarding the excessive charges for marriages, baptisms, funerals and other ceremonies.

After Philippine–American War, Johnston commanded the 1st Battalion of Philippine Scouts from 1904 to 1906 during the campaign against the Pulajanes in the Visayas, for which he was awarded the Silver Star. In 1907, he returned to the U.S. to attend the Army War College until 1908.

Johnston was a member of the General Staff at the U. S. Army War College from 1914 to 1917. On April 1917, following the American entry into World War I, he was promoted to brigadier general and assigned to command the 180th Brigade, a unit of the 90th Division. He organized and trained the brigade, which he led to France. On August 1918, after arriving on the Western Front, Johnston's brigade was stationed in the Toul Sector as part of I Corps.

In late August, Johnston was succeeded in command of the 180th Brigade by Brigadier General Ulysses G. McAlexander (1864-1936) and was assigned to command the 91st Division, taking over from Brigadier General Frederick Steinman Foltz (1857-1952), who had been in temporary command. Having been promoted to divisional command, Johnston was soon promoted to major general. Under his command, and aided by Colonel Herbert J. Brees (1877-1958) as his chief of staff, the 91st Division took part in the Saint Mihiel offensive and the Meuse–Argonne offensive, for which he was awarded both the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC), the second highest military decoration in the United States Armed Forces, along with the Army Distinguished Service Medal, and the Ypres-Lys campaign.

For his leadership in the war, which ended on November 11, 1918, Johnston was additionally awarded the French Legion of Honor (Commander) and Croix de Guerre with Palm, the Belgian Order of Leopold I (Commander) and the Victory Medal.

In early 1919, the 91st Division was demobilized. Johnston returned briefly to the Army War College's General Staff before deploying once more to Germany in 1920 as part of the American forces occupying Germany. Over the next three years, Johnston played key roles in the occupying force, including chief of staff of American Forces in Germany until 1921, commanding officer of the 1st Brigade until 1922 and as general liaison officer to the French Army of the Rhine until 1923.

In 1923, Johnston returned to the U. S. to command the Fourth Coast Artillery District at Fort McPherson, Georgia. The following year, he assumed command of the 3rd Infantry Division, which he led until his retirement in 1925.

In retirement, Johnston resided in Nice, France where he died on February 19, 1933 at the age of 71, after he suffered a heart attack while attending a Red Cross ball. A memorial service was held in the chapel at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and the honorary pallbearers included generals Stephen O. Fuqua, Harry L. Gilchrist, Samuel Hof, Lytle Brown, John W. Gulick, and Oscar Westover.

At long last, this generation, the next generation and the generation after next can already view a complete pictorial history of the Governors of the Province of Isabela from 1901 to present with the inclusion of the picture of the Honorable William H. Johnston Jr. at the Portraits of Power Gallery at the Isabela Museum and Library.