Blog no. 42

James Harle “Jimmy” Johnston was born on December 10, 1889, in Cleveland, Bradley County, TN, to James Harvey “Uncle Jimmy” Johnston and Fannie Adelia Julian. He had 5 siblings and their names were Myrtle Beatrice Johnston, Warren Bishop Johnston, Clifton Mareena Johnston, Wheeler Roger “Doc” Johnston, Anna Mack (Johnston) Johnson, and Julian Adelia (Johnston) Harrill Smith.

Sometime between 1910 and 1913, Jimmy married Nora Bell Jones. They had 5 children. Their names were James Hunter “Jimmie” Johnston, Dorothy Johnston, Ruth Evelyn (Johnston) Kile, Harris Gregg Johnston, and Caroline Virginia (Johnston) Jones. Their daughter Dorothy, in 1928, contracted the Typhoid Fever and died at the age of 13. Another daughter of Jimmy, Caroline, wrote a story about her father in the book, Spring Hill Everybody Has a Story, on page 238.

On May 3, 1911, Jimmy began his 13 year journey in Major League Baseball with the Chicago White Sox. Though he started his career with the white sox, he would move to different teams like the Brooklyn Robins (now the Los Angeles Dodgers), Chicago Cubs, Boston Braves (now the Atlanta Braves), and the New York Giants (now the San Francisco Giants). With the Brooklyn Robins, he went to the 1916 and 1920 World Series’. In the 1920 World Series, on the opposite team, the Cleveland Indians, was his brother, Doc. That World Series would be the first World Series to hold two siblings playing on opposite teams. A fun fact about Jimmy is that all of his managers ended up being inducted into the Hall of Fame. They were Hank O’day, Hugh Duffy, Dave Bancroft, Wilbert Robinson, and John McGraw.

According to his daughter, Jimmy used his years savings from baseball to buy a beautiful 110 acre farm on Highway 31, in Spring Hill, TN, which is no longer standing due to a fire at the home. He and his family spent a good 5 years in Spring Hill, but the Great Depression caused them to have to move in 1933.

Sadly, on February 14, 1967, in Chattanooga, TN, Jimmy died at a local hospital. He was buried in Forest Hills Cemetery, in Chattanooga, TN. He will forever be remembered as the one of the greatest players of his time.