Roy M. Johnson was born in Cashton, WI on July 11, 1881.  He graduated from Union College in NE and moved to Battle Creek, MI in 1900 to learn the printer's trade. After the Spindletop discovery, he moved to Beaumont, TX and worked at the Beaumont Enterprise and Beaumont Journal. He moved to Ardmore in 1907 to work at the weekly Statesman that he would later own.

Eventually, Mr. Johnson entered the oil and gas business when he and his associates leased about six thousand acres of the Healdton field. 

He married Odessa Otey of Huntsville, TX on April 27, 1913. Odessa and Roy had a son, Otoe Goree. 

Source:  Petroleum and Natural Gas Register 1917-1918 p. 502 (public library)