Hiram Johnson was born in Sacramento on September 2, 1866. His father, Grove Lawrence Johnson, was a Republican U.S. Representative and a member of the California State Legislature whose career was marred by accusations of election fraud and graft. His mother, Annie De Montfredy, was a descendant of a family of French Huguenots who had emigrated to escape religious persecution after the Edict of Fontainebleau. Annie was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution as the result of her descent from Pierre Van Cortlandt and Philip Van Cortlandt. Johnson had one brother and three sisters.