Miles S. Johnson is one of the leading men in Nez Perces County, being at the present time County attorney and one of the most prominent practitioners of the country, a keen student of human nature, thoroughly posted in the lore of the law, and a pronounced success on the public rostrum.
Mr. Johnson was born in Portland, Oregon, on July 2, 1871, being the son of Jasper W. and Mary E. (Post) Johnson. The father is a lawyer, born in Indiana in 1836 and still practicing in Denver, Colorado. He was brigadier general of the Pacific troops at Olympia during the war and was first County judge of Umatilla County, Oregon. The mother was born in New York in 1843, came to Oregon City in 1853, via Panama; her father, John D. Post, was a graduate of Yale College, coming to the coast in the same year that his daughter did, and acted as president of the first college on the coast, it being located at Oregon City. Later he returned to New York and was connected with various institutions of learning. His mother came of the Pierpont stock that founded Yale.
Our subject was reared and educated in Portland, where he remained until the early part of 1892. At that time he went to Aspen, Colorado, being admitted to the bar there, having completed the course of reading that was begun in Portland. He practiced in Colorado and Utah until 1897, having access to all the courts. Then returned to Portland and engaged in the political campaign of 1898, stumping the state for the Republican Party. In July, 1898 he came to Lewiston, and opened an office. In 1900 he was nominated for County attorney and after a stubborn fight was elected with three others of his ticket.
On June 5, 1901, Mr. Johnson married Miss Sarah G. Sweet, niece of Edward A. Temple, president of the Bankers’ Life Association of Des Moines, Iowa, who raised this lady. The wedding occurred at Chariton, Iowa. Mrs. Johnson, who was born in that town on September 24, 1876, has two sisters, Harriett Sweet and Mrs. Kate Rose. Mr. Johnson has the following brothers and sisters, Clara W. Knight, Thurston L., Harry B.
He is a member of the K. of P. and the Artisans. Mrs. Johnson is a member of the Episcopalian Church. Mr. Johnson is strictly a westerner in every true sense of the word, and has a good practice in Lewiston and adjacent country.
His grandfather William was with Whitman in the early days, and his aunt, Mrs. Mary Clymer, was with Spalding at the time of the massacre, and narrowly escaped. Hezekiah Johnson, his great uncle, was the first Baptist missionary on the Pacific coast. His uncle, John A. Post, was postmaster for years at Boise, Idaho.
Mr. Johnson has a fine home in Lewiston, where his estimable wife presides with gracious dignity, making it a centre of refined hospitality. He has a fine practice and stands high among his confreres as also with the people, being a man of sound principles and with a noble sense of honor and justice.
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Source: An Illustrated History of Northern Idaho, Embracing Nez Perce, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903