Attorney Hale Johnson was an American politician. He was born in Montgomery County, Indiana and was the son of John B. Johnson. According to historian Nathaniel Haynes, "Mr. Johnson's father, Dr. John B. Johnson, served as assistant surgeon during the Civil War. His grandfather was a Baptist minister who was a chaplain in the War of 1812. At the age of seventeen he enlisted in Company D, 135th Indiana Infantry. He, with his father's family, came to Illinois in 1865."
Johnson was a lawyer and became mayor of Newton, Illinois

Newton, Illinois

Newton is the county seat of Jasper County, Illinois. The population was 3,069 at the 2000 Census and subsequently reported as 3,141 by a local newspaper in mid-2000. Newton is home to a large coal-fired power plant and Newton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area.-Geography:Newton is located at...

. Johnson left the Republican Party

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 because it did not support an amendment to the United States Constitution

United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...

 mandating national prohibition of alcohol. He then became "one of the most effective, prominent and influential" prohibitionists in the country, according to one biographer. In 1896

United States presidential election, 1896

The United States presidential election held on November 3, 1896, saw Republican William McKinley defeat Democrat William Jennings Bryan in a campaign considered by political scientists to be one of the most dramatic and complex in American history....

, he was the Prohibition Party

Prohibition Party

The Prohibition Party is a political party in the United States best known for its historic opposition to the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages. It is the oldest existing third party in the US. The party was an integral part of the temperance movement...

 candidate for governor of Illinois. Later that year, he became the party's candidate for vice-president

Vice President of the United States

The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...

 and campaigned in over 30 states.

Johnson was shot to death by a farmer, Harry Harris of Bogota, Illinois, in Newton, in Jasper County, Illinois

Jasper County, Illinois

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, while trying to collect a debt that Harris had refused to pay even after being ordered to by a court. Johnson was with a local sheriff when he was shot in the face by a shotgun and killed instantly; Harris was grabbed by the sheriff, but not before he swallowed a fatal dose of poison. Harris died from the poison hours later. Johnson is interred in the Riverside City Cemetery in Newton, Illinois.