Harry McClure Johnson

Early life

Harry McClure Johnson went to Peoria High School and graduated as the Salutatorian in the Class of 1903. After he graduated from Princeton University in 1907, he studied law at Northwestern University Law School. There he received the degree of LLB (the Latin abbreviation of Legum Baccalaureus, also known as the Bachelor of Laws) in 1910. McClure Johnson received Highest Honors for General Excellence as Academic senior honormen Bachelor of arts course in History, Politics and Economics from Princeton University. He moved for a short time to Chicago where he was associated with the law firm of Scott, Bancroft & Stevens from 1912 to 1915.

Military life

In 1915 and 1916 he attended two of the military training camps for civilians, but owing to a major surgical operation in 1917 he was unable to undertake military duties until the latter part of 1918 when he was commissioned a first lieutenant, serving in the office of the quartermaster general at Washington D.C. After leaving the army Harry spent more than a year as assistant counsel of the Emergency Fleet Corporation construction division, in Philadelphia. Subsequently, his practice took him to the Pacific Coast in British Columbia and California. Later he established his headquarters in Chicago where he had been practicing for more than ten years.

He served in the United States Army in 1918. After the Armistice and during the years 1919 and 1920 he was engaged as counsel in the Legal Department of the United States Emergency Fleet Corporation in Philadelphia.

Life as a Lawyer

Returning to practice in Chicago in 1921 he joined the predecessor of the firm of which he was a partner at the time of his death - Offield, Mehlhope, Scott & Poole. While with that firm he specialised in the law of trademarks and unfair competition. His thorough knowledge of that subject and his experience in conducting litigation involving nationally known trademarks impelled him to take an active and highly useful part in shaping the amendments which have been made during recent years in the trade mark statutes. He participated in the drafting of many of these amendments, gave generously of his time to the work of the Trademark Section of the American Bar Association, and his many arguments before the committees of Congress on Patents and Trademarks were a valuable public service in the interest of sound legislation.

Alpine Club of Canada

As a life member of the Alpine Club of Canada he climbed Mount Robson, and Mount Assiniboine in the Canadian Rockies. In 1910 Harry McClure and his cousin Myra King Ellison and her father Price Ellison (Chief Commissioner of Lands) and 20 others went on as expedition to Vancouver Island in Canada with an goal to find a potential for a park in the island centre. The team left the town of Campbell River, British Columbia and travelled inland up the Campbell River to the Upper Campbell Lake. Later a party of nine scaled the Crown Mountain (Vancouver Island, British Columbia). Following the ascent, the party continued down Butte Lake in British Columbia, up to Price Creek and wound up at the Port Alberni. This expedition led to the 1911 opening of the first park in British Columbia called Strathcona Provincial Park. On 7 August 1912 he and his cousin climbed Mount Little which is on the border between Alberta and British Columbia. He took many photos of these mountains. He had a very good singing tenor voice. He rode horses in Oklahoma Valley, Vernon, British Columbia, and on his Uncle Price Ellison's Ranch.

His Death

He died at the age of 46 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada where he was visiting his mother (Elizabeth "Gaga" Breading Mcilvaine Johnson), from a sudden attack of influenza which developed into pneumonia. His five children he had when he died were Mansi (almost 8 years old.), McClure (almost 7 years old), Elizabeth (5 yrs. 3 mos.), Sarah Jane (2 1/2 yrs.), and Priscilla (4 months old). His wife Helena Modjeska Chase Johnson, (who was then only 31 1/2 years old), remained a widow for over 33 years ( from 1932 till 1965). In his personal life Mr. Johnson's outstanding traits were his unyielding Integrity and his helpful and unfailing Loyalty to his friends.