The Johnstons of Salisbury. With a brief supplement, concerning the Hancock, Strother and Preston families ..

DUPLICATE NYPL RL

3 3433 07736284 0

<*^^<L/£6d/<rrv Jxm7t<<L/0r*y "*&/'•

>///' ' /s>t

3

.a \/

THE JOHNSTONS

OF

SALISBURY.

WITH A BRIEF SUPPLEMENT

CONCI K NING i II h

HANCOCK, STROTHER AND PRESTON FAMILIES.

1897

Compiled by Wm. Preston Johnston.

PRESS OF

I.. Graham & Son, Ltd., New Orleans,

isra

' ■

• I - J

« « 1

• • ' - 1 . * «

. ' * • « - '

1 * - * * • (

t ■

t . I <

I t I . .

• - * ' ' t , * « •

( < * » < I •

I I * « f ■ 4 <

< r ' i • >

• ' . • ' i ' • i

' > •

< < < < •

' ' . « «

<

• »
r t •

COPYRIGHT, 1897.
WM. PRESTON JOHNSTON.

)3U

CToVi*v\ sT

nr\S\o

H

THIS
"ILY RECORD

IS

DEDICATED

TO

COLONEL J. STODDARD JOHNSTC

AN OLD AND HONORED SCION

OF THE FAMILY STOCK,

BY THE COMPILER,

WHO HAS KNOWN- HIM FROM CHILDHOOD AS A FAITHFUL FRIEND,

A GENIAL COMPANION AND A LOYAL KINSMAN,

BRAVE IN BATTLE, SAGACIOUS IN COUNSEL,

AND UNFALTERING IN EVERY PUBLIC

AND PRIVATE DUTY.

PREFACE.

The chief purpose of this little volume is to
bring into ties of closer amity the scattered
descendants of Captain Archibald Johnston of
Salisbury, Conn. , and especially the younger mem-
bers of his family. The record is often imper-
fect, and in some cases the writer has been unable
to follow out the lines ; but it is hoped that,
this book serving as a basis, some kinsman of a
more enterprising antiquarian spirit may pursue
them to fuller and better results. But, such as it
is, it is a free will offering, in that inherited feeling
of clanship which is condensed into the pithy
saying, " Blood is thicker than water."

The larger space given to some branches and to
certain individuals of those branches is due not to
the partiality of the author, but to the simple fact
that he knew more about them. It was harder in
many cases to condense the information at com-
mand than it was in others to exhume from a
neglected past a few fossil facts of kinsmen that he
feels sure he would have been glad to know and to
acknowledge. Then some lives are more memor-
able, as filled with important events and incidents,
though possibly not happier or more useful to
humanity, than others that have glided tranquilly
away leaving little trace behind. The writer will
be excused then, he hopes, for the larger space

4 Preface.

allotted to kinsmen who have stood nearest to
himself. But there is another reason for this.
The descendants of his grandfather, Dr. John John-
ston, are much more numerous than all the other
branches put together, and, as pioneers, have
lived more stirring lives.

This fact has led to a change in the original plan
of arrangement in the volume. In a genealogical
record the arrangement of branches and persons by
a strict rule of chronological priority would seem
the most natural and logical, and seniority might
well regulate the distribution. But where so little
has been ascertained of some branches and so much
of others, it was feared this might result in confu-
sion. The rule has, therefore, been in some meas-
ure departed from. Captain Archibald Johnston's
other sons and descendants have been placed in
conformity to the rule ; but, for convenience sake,
the family of his third son, Dr. John Johnston
of Kentucky, has been reserved for the last place,
and there grouped.

Again, for similar reasons, the families of Dr.
Johnston's children are not given in order of
seniority, as originally intended, but the male
branches first and then the female.

An apology would be due for intruding into this
volume the Supplement, containing in rough out-
line some family records of the Prestons, Strothers
and Hancocks, were it not that they are in direct
line with one of the main objects of the work.
The book is written, not so much for the old, who
will soon pass away, as for those vigorous

Preface. 5

offshoots who are now budding into the joys of
existence. The writer knows only too well, by
his own experience, that small heed will be given
by them now to the dry details of this little book,
but the time will come when they will turn to it
with a melancholy pleasure, seeking a vicarious
satisfaction in the combined results of other men's
virtues and toil to round out their own fragment-
ary and possibly futile labors and sufferings. This
book contains not only the pedigree of his descend-
ants, running back to Archibald Johnston, but all
such genealogical data as could be obtained that
would enable these novices to trace back their col-
lateral lines, which fortunately are nearly all of
the best.

But it should be said that the Supplement is not
meant for a sufficient history of the families con-
tained in it ; but only in so far as they touch upon
the genealogy of the Johnstons of Salisbury. Very
copious memoirs and memoranda exist illustrating
their position and services to the country, and
those sufficiently interested will refer to them.

In carrying out his purpose, the writer has
been greatly aided by the inquiries and personal
researches of Col. J. Stoddard Johnston of Louis-
ville, Ky., Mr. Anthony S. Byers of Atlanta, Ga.,
and Mr. and Mrs. Edward Elsworth of Pough-
keepsie, N. Y., without whose urgency he probably
would never have attempted this work. He is
also indebted to the late ex-Gov. A. H. Holley of
Connecticut, and to his beloved preceptor, Presi-
dent Noah Porter of Yale College ; to Mr. W. D.

6 Preface.

Hixson, of Maysville, Ky., and Messrs. J.
Truesdale and J. K. Lowrie, of Canfield, Ohio ;
to Mr. Richard Bruff, and to Mr. Harrison Taylor
McClung, of St. Paul, and other members of the
Johnston family, for valuable information and
assistance.

THE JOHNSTONS OF SALISBURY.

DESCENDANTS OF

CAPTAIN ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON.

EN A VANT.

BEGINNINGS.

CAPTAIN ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON.

1732-1789.

A Family Record may have any oue of several
objects. If it be a mere tribute to the self-love of
the people in it, then it may as well be left un-
written. But better motives may inspire such a
volume. We can all remember the Family Bible,
with its brief annals of past generations — " here a
line, there a line" — and yet how significant
to the survivors and successors of the almost for-
gotten dead! The Family Record that puts into
permanent form what we see in the Family Bible
and what we wish to see there has accomplished
a good work. It has drawn closer the ties of
kindred, reminding one that sins of omission and
commission may well be forgiven in view of some
common inherited tendency, which, from circum-
stances, asserts itself in one and passes by another.
When the sainted Wesley saw a drunkard reeling
along the street, he exclaimed, " But for the grace
of God, there goes John Wesley.' In looking
down the lines of a common descent may not the
favored few humbly remember how little they owe
to their own strength, how much to the self-control
of their ancestors, and often how much to the acci-

10 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

dents of fortune, and, thus admonished, lend to
struggling kinsmen such help at least as sympathy
affords ?

Whatever reasons are strongest for printing the
Family Record of a great and powerful connection
hold good and are really more potent with a little
group like that in the present volume. We are so
few. The descendants of an old Revolutionary
patriot, who probably lived his life on the hard
and narrow, but lofty, lines and principles of a
pioneer, a patriot and a Christian, have, in obedi-
ence to what seems a primitive instinct with them,
scattered widely over this broad land. In this
little book they are drawn together, sit down at a
common board, and acknowledge the blood-tie that
binds them into a fellowship of friendly feeling at
least. Fortunately they have for the most part
preserved eminently respectable and useful posi-
tions in their several communities and sometimes
have won the distinction that attends public service.
But it is evident throughout how much is due to
an inheritance from honorable, educated and intel-
lectual ancestors ; and, though the differences are
sufficiently well marked between individuals, a
common strain of vigor, energy, high intelligence
and aspiration, together with public spirit, plainly
runs like sap through this entire family tree.

The descendants of Archibald (sometimes in-
correctly spelled " Archabell " in old documents)
Johnston, of Salisbury Township, Connecticut, are
not able to trace their ancestry beyond him. He
was a pioneer in that section, a large landholder

Captain Archibald Johnston. 11

and a man of substance and an officer in the Revo-
lutionary army. In the old graveyard at Lake-
ville, within a stone's throw of the Hotchkiss
School — an adjunct of Yale — a large marble head-
stone marks his resting place. The inscription on
this tombstone :

IN MEMORY OF

CAPTAIX ARCHABELL JOHXSTON,

Who Died February 14, 1789.

Aged 57 Years.

Is nearly all that remains as a memorial of our pro-
genitor. By his side rest his wife and his second
son, "Captain Daniel Johnston;' and again by
the latter sleeps his only son, Herman, who died
unmarried. All around are the gravestones of the
Stoddards and others, kinsmen of the first wife of
Archibald's second son, Dr. John Johnston, among
whose progeny the old family names often reappear.
This quiet graveyard is set in one of the most
charming landscapes in the United States. It lies
high above the little lake and the village nestling
on its brink, and one looks over field and forest,
swelling hills and smiling intervales to the back-
ground of the near Taconic range, while the eye is
filled with the sense of rural peace and happiness.
It is easy to see why in this busy age the tired
dweller of cities should seek its shades for rest.
But when one perceives how sternly rugged are
the features of the country beneath its crown
of beauty, its attraction for early settlers must be
found in more practical causes. These were,

12 The .Johnstons of Salisbury.

doubtless, chiefly the rich deposits of iron ore,
which led to a small settlement in this town about
1720, and to the establishment there of a forge or
iron works in 1738. This was subsequently known
as "The Johnston Iron Works;" and, at the
time of his death, Captain Archibald Johnston was
owner of this property ; but when or where he
obtained his interest, whether by purchase or
inheritance, is not known. This iron industry was
long a very important one, and is yet carried on
there. In a topographical description of North
America, by Thomas Pownall, London, 1776, the
passage given below occurs. In speaking of the
iron mines in New England, he refers to the
"famous iron works at Incram, in the Manor of
Levington " (Livingston ?), and adds : " There are
two beds of ore which supply this furnace % the one
in the Tachonic mountains near it, and the other
by Salisbury Falls, in Connecticut, about twelve
miles off. The Tachonic ore is richer than that
from the New England bed." He then gives
details of the cost of smelting, etc. These observa-
tions were made in 1754.

But whatever the attraction, Archibald Johnston
did not have far to come. A deed recorded in
Salisbury show7s that in 1771 he styles himself of
"Oblong and Providence, New York." Provi-
dence is now forgotten in New York, but Oblong,
or "The Oblong," is remembered as a narrow
strip of land along the Connecticut border. It is
sufficiently near — only a few miles — for Archibald
Johnston to have carried on business in both States

Captain Archibald Johnston. 13

— in Oblong and at the iron works and his Con-
necticut farm. A few years later, he was thor-
oughly identified with Connecticut and the revolu-
tionary movement there; but, nevertheless, with
his Connecticut company, he joined the New York
volunteers from Duchess county, as will more fully
appear elsewhere. This was parti}' due, doubtless,
to the necessities of the case.

At one time, in its history, a certain James
Johnston owned and managed the iron works, but
his relationship to Archibald is not ascertained,
whether that of father, relative or a stranger ;
most probably the mention refers to his son.

All the facts known to us seem to point to Cap-
tain Archibald Johnston's descent from a Scotch
family settled in Duchess county Xew York. Our
first knowledge of him is as a person of considera-
ble property and influence in the civic and military
life of the community in which he lived. The town
of Salisbury, first settled about 1720, had in 1740
only eleven English and five Dutch families. In
1756, it had increased to 1 100 inhabitants ; in 1774
to 1980, and in 1800 to 2216. In this primitive
community, the pattern of a pure Democracy, he
was one of the leaders. He was allied by the
marriage of his children with the best people. His
son John married Mary Stoddard, daughter of
Josiah Stoddard, a signer of the protest against the
Boston port bill in 1774 ; and Luther Stoddard,
ancestor of the Poet Stoddard, and a Continental
major was her kinsman. Archibald Johnston was
a large landowner ; and among the records of the

14 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

Probate Court are many deeds and mortgages, the
cross index of which, as executed by the Johnston
family, occupies several pages, and extends from
1 77 1 to 1825. In an address on the 100th anni-
versary of Salisbury, delivered by Samuel Clinch,
October 20, 1841, page 50, he says : Among the
original purchasers of the towns of Canfield and
Johnston, in Trumbull county, Ohio, were James
Johnston, Daniel Johnston and others of this town. ' '
Josiah Stoddard was a member of the Legislature
of Connecticut in 1760, 1 761, 1762; James Johnston
in 1805, and Daniel Johnston in 1817, 1818, 1819.
Captain Archibald Johnston died in possession
of considerable property, which, by the terms of
his will, was distributed equally between his wife
and five sons. This will is an interesting docu-
ment, and by the courtesy of Mr. Robert Good-
win, Clerk of Probate Court, we are able to repro-
duce the same herewith. The original is on file in
the Clerk's office, Sharon, Conn.

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF ARCHIBALD
JOHNSTON, OF SALISBURY, CONN.

In ye name of God, amen, this 14th day of Octo-
ber, A. D. 1788, I, Archibald Johnston, in ye
county of Litchfield and State of Connecticut
being weak in body, but of sound mind and mem-
ory, considering to mind my own mortality, and that
it is appointed for all men once to die, I make and
ordain this my last will and testament ; that is to |
say, I first of all give and recommend my soul to
Almighty God who gave it, and my body to a

aIT T nUna1' at ye directi°n of my executors.
And a dwelling and worldly estate which it hath

Captain Archibald Johnston. 15

pleased God to bless me with, I will and dispose of
them in manner following :

Firstly. I will and order all my just debts and
funeral charges to be paid out of my personal
estate, by my executors hereinafter named.

(Item) I will, give and bequeath to my loving
wife, Sarah Johnston, the one-third part of my
personal estate forever. Also I give her one-third
part of my real estate during her natural life. Also,
I give and bequeath to my said wife the sum of
twenty pounds, lawful money, over and above
what is already expected to be given her by my
executors, within the term of one year after my
death.

(Item) I will, give and bequeath to my son
James Johnston, the sum of thirty pounds, lawful
money, which he hath already received of me,
for his being the eldest son.

(Item) I will, give and bequeath to my said son
James Johnston, his heirs and assigns forever, an
equal portion of my estate, both real and personal,
including said note of my son's, and including said
sum of one hundred and four pounds, lawful money,
which sum I have already advanced him as part of
his portion.

(Item) I will, give and bequeath to my son
Daniel Johnston, his heirs and assigns forever, one
equal portion of my estate, both real and personal,
with the rest of my sons, including the sum of
twenty-seven pounds, lawful money, which sum I
have already advanced him as part of his portion.

(Item) I will, give and bequeath to my son
John Johnston, his heirs and assigns forever, one
equal portion of my estate, both real and personal,
with ye rest of my sons, including said sum of
two hundred and four pounds, lawful money,
which sum I have already advanced him as part
of his portion.

(Item) I will, give and bequeath to my son

16 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

Archibald Johnston, his heirs and assigns forever,
one equal portion of my estate, both real and per-
sonal, with ye rest of my sons.

(Item) I will, give and bequeath to my son
Samuel B. Johnston, his heirs and assigns forever,
one equal portion of my estate, real and personal,
with ye rest of my sons.

(Finally) I do hereby constitute, ordain and
appoint my wife Sarah Johnston, my son James
Johnston, and my son Daniel Johnston, all of Sal-
isbury, executors of this, my last will and testa-
ment, declaring this and no other to be my last
will and testament. In witness whereof I have
hereunto set my hand and seal in Salisbury, the
day and date first above written. Signed, sealed,
published and declared by ye said Testator to be
his last Will and Testament, in presence of us,
who at his request have subscribed our names.
(Signed) Archibald Johnston.

Samuel Whitman. (Sealed)

John French.

H. Fitch.

Captain Johnston was a public-spirited man and
took an active part in the affairs of his time. He
took up arms against Great Britain early in the
struggle for American Independence. On October
x9» r775i he was commissioned Captain of the
First Duchess County (New York) Regiment, and
served with his regiment all through the Revolu-
tionary War. The record of his appointment and
service is found in a manuscript volume of Mili-
tary Returns, in the possession of the New York
State Library, and we are indebted to Mr. Geo. R.
Howell, Archivist, for the accompanying certifi-
cate of Captain Johnston's military record :

Captain Archibald Johnston. 17

This is to certify that on page 194 and page 195,
of a manuscript volume entitled ' l Military Re-
turn, Vol. 26," in the custody of the Regents of
the University of the State of New York in the
State Library, are recorded the appointment of
Archibald Johnston as captain of a company in
the First Duchess regiment of the New York
State militia and a memorandum of his commis-
sion on October 19, 1775, which regiment was
under command of Col. Petrus Ten Broeck until
his death in 1778, and then from March 18,

1778, under command of Col.

Morris Graham ; and also that

(Seal of the this said regiment was em-

Un^roSii> vl thP Plo3'ed iu active service in the

York.) Revolutionary war.

George Rogers Howell,

- trchivist.

Witness the seal of the University of the State of
New York.

1776, Captain Johnston was named by "Town
Meeting "oua committtee to receive clothing for
the Continental soldiers, in pursuance of a " recent
act of the General Assembly."

In 1777, he took "oath of fidelity to this State
(Connecticut) before Joshua Porter, J. P.'

On January 11, 1781, by town meeting, a com-
mittee consisting of H. Fitch, Esq., Captain
Archibald Johnston and Timothy Chittenden was
named to investigate a former Committee on Par-
sonage and Schools.

In 1784, we find recorded a deed to Archibald
Johnston, the consideration being 540 pounds of
lawful money. It is worthy of note that while

18 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

numerous deeds are found transferring property to
hiin, few if any can be found conveying it away
from him.

In 1787, Town Meeting, Archibald Johnston was
made Surveyor of Highways.

In 1789, the year of his death, he was elected
School Commissioner.

The frequent mention of his name on the public
records of that time indicates in some measure the
high esteem in which he was held by his fellow-
citizens.

Captain Johnston left a wife and five sons,
James, Daniel, John, Archibald and Samuel B.
The names of all these sons appear frequently in
the State and county records, and mention of them
is made in another part of this work.

This evidence is conclusive that he was a Cap-
tain in the Continental army. There is some
probability that he was also at the capture of
Ticonderoga in 1759. But this is not certain. The
fact that " Captain Archibald Johnston's company
of Connecticut Volunteers ' ' was enrolled October
19, 1775. in the First Duchess County (New
York) Regiment is explained by their close prox-
imity to those troops, and their distance from the
seaboard of Connecticut. The Hudson river and
Canada were their frontier, and the need was
greater there.

It has been said that for all practical purposes
Captain Archibald Johnston was the first of his
family, and we are willing to accept him as the
progenitor. The tradition in the family has

Captain Archibald Johnston. 19

been that he was of Scotch descent. General
Albert Sidney Johnston and his sister, Mrs.
Byers, were strongly of this opinion ; and
Samuel B. Johnston, of Poughkeepsie, son of
Archibald (2d), " always strenuously insisted
upon the ' t ' in his name, and that he was of
Scotch descent." Most of the Johnstons in
America, especially those in the Appalachian range,
where they are very numerous from New York to
Georgia, with their offshoots in the West, are
Scotch-Irish and of a very vigorous type. Of
course, our direct Scotch descent is only probable,
not certain, and we distinctly repudiate all myths
and unverified data. We feel quite confident of
the fact, but have no verified data to connect us
with Ulster or Annandale, though we feel very
clannish with those moss-troopers, about the latest
tamed of the border raiders. Some silent confirm-
ation is added to the family tradition by the very
marked facial characteristics of many members of
the family, who might be mistaken for Scotch
people. To a close observer, differences seem
apparent between the Scotch of Scotland and
their descendants, the Scotch-Irish. However,
these matters are not to be determined here or
now.

These facts are lew and simple, but from them
the sturdy form of old Captain Archibald John-
ston stands out as the hardy progenitor and
patriarch of a bold and honorable line of descend-
ants. His sons scattered westward and southward,
and their progeny extend to-day from the Hudson

20 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

river to the Pacific ocean. In the hot race of life
their eyes have seldom looked back.

It seems strange to residents of old communities
that respectable families should lose the clue to
their descent in brief periods of time, but it is
easily enough understood if one will follow the
fortunes of this family, which is an excellent illus-
tration of the causes of the oblivion that buries
the past. Most of the details of family history,
many of them interesting to us of to-day, have
been forgotten. But in the strenuous contest for
survival and the success that attends a legitimate
ambition, the descendants of Archibald Johnston
have held their place.

The annexed " annals " have a significance to
those acquainted with the early institutions of the
United States, and exhibits a family vivid with the
energy of a young community, and entering into
all the details of its civic and military life with
intelligence and ardor — examples of the organizing \
faculty of their race.

In this little volume we have brought together
such fragments of family history and memorials of
the past as may serve to build a family altar on
which to keep alight the flame of private affection
and public dut3^.

The accounts of the families with which these
Johnstons have intermarried are introduced chiefly
for the sake of the younger generation, who are
thus assisted in tracing back their own lines of an-
cestry. If any lesson can be learned from a study
of these data, it is that respectable families pre-

(

i

Captain Archibald Johnston. 21

serve their standing by not lowering themselves in
their marriages. Heredity is a Nemesis that avenges
unto the third and fourth generations and beyond.

It is a source of pride, too, that our family have
always been found standing up for their rights as
citizens and defending the cause of republican
liberty against lawless power.

If more prominence is given to some than to
others in the sketches included herein, it is be-
cause we know more of them. We lament that
the silence of oblivion buries so many that might
prove most interesting to us if we could rescue
them from the past. After all, however, the writ-
ten word is not fame, and if it were it would be
but empty sound. It is the right doing that abides.

The Scotch Johnstons — sons of the mist and the
morass — have left the modest opinion of their own
tenacity in a stanza of an old Scotch ballad, and we
are not unwilling to be accounted their far away
kinsmen.

11 Within the bounds of Annanda'e,
The gentle Johnstons ride:
They have been here a thousand years.
And a thousand more they'll bide."

" The Gentle Johnstons, of Annandale," had for
their crest a winged spur, into which symbol
each era can read its own interpretation. And
with it they had the motto, Semper ParaUis, and
1 sometimes its Scotch equivalent, "Ready, aye,
ready !" We will not borrow from them, but we
may not unworthily, or inaptly, adopt as a motto

22 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

of our own, probably the last words written by Gen-
eral A. S. Johnston in the cover of his pocket map
before the battle of Shiloh,

" En Avant! "

I

ANNALS.

Extracts from the Records of the Town
of Salisbury, State of Connecticut.

I

1734. James Johnston, Collector (?).

March 29, 1771. Deed from J. Bickford, of Salis-
bury, to Archibald, Johnston, of
Oblong, Duchess county, New
York.

Dec. 1, 1772. Deed from John Benton, of Sal-
isbury, to Archibald Johnston, of
Oblong.

Dec. 21, 1774. Deed from Young Reriden, Ob-
long.

March 23, 1776. (70 or 78, date indistinct) Archi-
bald Johnston and others ap-
pointed in town meeting to be a
committee to receive clothing for
the Continental soldiers, as di-
rected by a late act of the Gen-
eral Assembly.

Nov. ii, 1777. Archibald Johnston took the oath

of fidelity to this State (Connecti-
cut) before Joshua Porter, Justice
of the Peace.

24 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

Jan. ii, 1781. In Town Meeting: Voted that

we " chuse " a committee to call
to account the former and pres-
ent committee of Parsonage and
School interests in this town, so
far back as the last settlement
with said committee. Noted that
H. Fitch, Esq., Captain Archi-
bald Johnston and Timothy Chit-
tenden be a committee for the
above purpose, who are to make
report to this or a future meeting.
1782. James Johnston , Lister and School
Commissioner.

March 20, 1784. Deed to Archibald Johnston, of

Salisbury ; five hundred and forty
pounds consideration.

1786. Captain James Johnston elected
Constable.

1787. Town Meeting : Archibald John-
ston chosen Surveyor of High-
ways.

April 10, 1787. Execution served against H.

Fitch on house and lot. Sold at
auction, James Johnston, Consta-
ble, "doing the business for
Archibald."
1787-1794. Ziba Loveland, Grand Juror.

Dec. 1, 1788. Archibald Johnston bought 1

piece of land sold for taxes.
1789. Archibald Johnston, School Com-
missioner.

Annals. 25

Nov. 14, 1789. John Johnston, of Salisbury, deed

to James Johnston, " all my right
and title," etc.
April 11,1791. Ear-mark for Widow Sarah John-
ston's cattle recorded.
Dec. 5, 1 79 1. Town Meeting : Captain James

Johnston elected Selectman ; also
Lister, 1790.

1792. Deed from Samuel B. Johnston

to , "A portion of his

father's estate."

1792. John Wheelery, of Salisbury,
married to Abigail Johnston, of
New Milford, by Jeremiah Day,
Minister at New Preston.
Oct. 30, 1792. Deed from Daniel to James John-
ston, half of a forge or ironworks
in Salisbury, known as "John-
ston's Forge," and being half of
forge that Captain Archibald
Johnston died possessed of.

1792. Captain James Johnston selected
School Commissioner.

1795. Ensign James Johnston chosen
Constable.

1798. Captain James Johnston, School
Commissioner.
Dec. 20, 1798. Deed, Archibald, No. 2.

1800. Captain James Johnston suit with
* I Nathaniel Buell, Tax Collector.

Town meeting directs Selectman
to settle.

1803. Walter Johnston, married.

26 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

1803. James Johnston, Surveyor of
Highways.

1803. James and Walter, Taxes, in
company.

1804. James Johnston, Commissioner of
Roads.

Feb. 25, 1804. Lydia, wife of Captain James

Johnston, died at Salisbury.

1804 to 1809. Sarah Johnston, Taxes.

1805. Herman Johnston, petition on
roads and river.

1806. Herman Johnston, Selectman.
1806. Walter Johnston, married.

1808. Walter Johnston, Constable.

1809. Herman Johnston, Commissioner
to sell old meeting house.

1 8 1 o. Herman Johnston , Commissioner.

1810 to 1824. Daniel Johnston, Selectman.

1 8 10. Walter Johnston, Constable.

181 2. Captain Johnston. Bridge called

" Johnston's Bridge."
1812. Titus Johnston, Tax List.

1 8 14. Josiah Johnston, Taxes.

18 1 5. Marshall Johnston, Taxes.

18 18. Daniel Johnston appointed dele-
gate to form a Constitution of
Civil Government agreeable to
the Act of the General Assembly.

1 8 19. Herman Johnston, Grand Juror.
1822. Eliza Anne Iyoveland, married.
1828. David West, of , married

Harriette Loveland.
1828. Phoebe Berry and William Lov \l
land, married.

tb
T

h

JAMES AND DANIEL JOHNSTON

AND

THEIR FAMILIES.

//I

I

I.

It

•

"

■d

JAMBS JOHNSTON

James Johnston was the eld< »n of Captain

Archibald Johnston, who in his will leaves him
thirty pounds on that account as a birthright. The
date of his birth we do not know. The "Annals '

printed herewith show him to have been an active

business man and a public-spirited citizen, accept-
ing the burden- ot civic life as they were placed
upon him. James Johnston married a certain
Lydia. wl. surname we know not. and who

died in Salisbury, February 28, 1804. In our
Annals we first find him mention' - Lister

and School Commissioner in 1782 ; and in 1786 as
Constable: as Lister in 1790: - selectman in
1 79 1 : as School Commissioner in 1792. and again
in [798, and as Commissioner of Roads in 1S04.
In 1S05, he was a member of the Legislature. In
1787, he was recognized by the Court as " doing
the business for Archibald. " He came into pos-
session of the Iron Works, which had been his
father's, by various conveyances of their shares
from his brothers, and seems to have made the
management of those works his business.

Some confusion exists as to the children of James
Johnston. He left two children certainly, and a
third, Herman, is mentioned in the History of
Trumbull County, Ohio. One of his sons seems to
have been known as Walter in Connecticut and as

30 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

Colonel Edward Walter in Ohio. It is not quite
certain that he is to be identified with the Walter
of the Annals, but it is the most probable supposi-
tion. Walter's marriage is recorded in Salisbury
in 1803 or 1806, or both. (We are not sure this is
an error or a second marriage. ) The Herman men-
tioned by the Ohio historian may have been the
Walter's son, Herman, or he may have been the
nephew of James Johnston and the son of Daniel,
who was also interested in the land purchase in
Ohio. But of this we have no certain knowledge.
Walter is mentioned as Constable in 1808 and 18 10.
The venerable Governor Holley in 1873 says that
he knew James and his son Wr alter very well, and
that his ' ' father purchased quite an estate from
those two gentlemen about forty years since. The
father died in Salisbury, the son in Ohio.' Mr. *
Truesdale, the local authority on Canfield history,
says he is buried in Canfield, and gives details that j|
assure his accuracy. These will be found at the k^
close of this sketch of James Johnston. James '
Johnston had also a daughter, Sarah, who married '
Captain Ebenezer Mix, of whom there remain- *|
some fragments of tradition.

Mrs. A. Byers, writing in 1862 of this branch,
gives the opinion of Senator J. S. Johnston of thern^
as follows : ' ' Those of our family who were born
and educated in Kentucky never met with our
relatives of the North, but brother Stoddard who
was educated at Yale was acquainted with and 4
visited them and has frequently told me of them.
He said his cousin Mrs. Mix was a highly cultivated

James Johnston. 31

and admirable woman. She had no family. He

had quite as high an estimation of her brother,

Walter Johnston, who, I believe, has raised quite

a large family." She says in another letter:

"Brother said Walter was a man of business, of

high commendation, was wealthy and had six

children ; all seemed to be very promising. He

spoke very highly of his cousin Sally (Mrs. Sarah

Mix); that she was splendidly educated, and was

one of the most refined and elegant ladies he had

ever known. She married Captain Mix, a sea

captain, and lived in elegant style in New York.

Brother always visited her when he went to New

York.' Mrs. Mix left no children, and we have

'ost. trace of Walter's family ; so that these frag-

nentary traditions, set down in the freedom of

^amily intercourse by an aged lady, give about all

we can find out about James Johnston and his

family. No one was more competent to judge on

uestions of manners, or even of convenances, than

enator Johnston, who was a leader in the best

)cial life in the Washington City of that day. He

lade frequent visits to his early home, and found

nere a primitive but pure environment congenial

o his best nature.

James Johnston seems to have engaged in large

md speculations in the West, and later on his

amily removed to Ohio. The following abstracts

from local histories give all that can now be

learned of the fate of this branch of the family.

The slight discrepancies in the writers do not affect

the correctness of their general statements.

32 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

After the Ordinance of 1787, in which Virginia
ceded to the United States the territory north of
the Ohio, the General Government, in settling the
competing claims of Massachusetts, New Jersey
and Connecticut, set apart for Connecticut some
3,800,000 acres, since known as the Western Re-
serve. Connecticut sold 3,200,000 acres of this
land to the Connecticut Land Company, composed
of about 320 of the wealthier citizens of the State,
for $1,200,000, which was converted into a State
school fund. (See American Commonwealth,
Ohio, by Rufus King, pages 225-6.)

It has already been mentioned that " among the
original purchasers of the towns of Johnston and
Canfield in Trumbull county, Ohio, were James
Johnston, Daniel Johnston and others of Salis-
bury township, Connecticut.' On September 2,
1795, the Connecticut Land Company purchased
for $1,200,000 about 1,500,000 acres in what was
known as the Western Reserve, which in part
became Trumbull and Mahoning counties, Ohio.
These were surveyed in 1796 into thirty-five town-
ships. Among the forty-eight original subscribers
was James Johnston, who subscribed $30,000, and
his allotment was 15,914 acres in Johnston town-
ship, which was named for him, and 3502 acres in
Canfield township, which is now in Mahouinj
county. (See History of Trumbull and Mahoning
Counties, H. Z. Williams & Bro. , Cleveland, 1882,
Vol. II, page 400.)

On page 405, this history says: "Johnston
township. The name of this township was doubtless

1

James Johnston. 33

from the original proprietor of the land, Capt.
James Johnston, of Salisbury, Conn., father of the
late Edward Walter Johnston.

" A son and daughter of Captain Johnston, from
whom the township was named, came in (about
1820). Col. Edward Walter Johnston, in 1828, set-
tled just where Dr. Moore Bradley afterward lived,
but subsequently left it for his brother-in-law,
Capt. Ebenezer Mix, who came in later, and
Colonel Johnston moved into the house of his son,
Herman Johnston. Captain Mix died November
21, 1839, aged sixty-three. Colonel Johnston died
December 2, T849, aged sixty-eight."

Mr. J. Truesdale kindly gives me the following
information :

11 James Johnston was never a resident of this
place, but died here January 30, 1820, at about the
age of sixty-two. At the time of his death he was
visiting at the home of a relative (I think) by the
name of James Doud, who I suppose was related
to the captain's wife. His death occurred sud-
denly, being found dead in his bed. His remains
are buried in our village cemetery and marked by
a marble slab and in close proximity to that of his
brother Archibald and wife. James and Lydia,
.lis wife, had two children; Colonel Walter and
'Sally Johnston. The latter married Ebenezer Mix
r ind the three died in Johnston, Trumbull county,
O. Johnston, as you may know, was named after
j'ames Johnston. Sally, the daughter, was noted
for her 'personal appearance and elegance.'
This is all that my papers say of Captain James

34 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

or of his descendants, and this taken largely from
information derived from Thaddeus Bradley, of
Johnston, probably a descendant or relative of the
family and made in 1858 or 1859. Mr. Bradley is
now dead."

And beyond this we lose all trace of this branch
of the family.

J

DANIEL JOHNSTON.
1764-1824.

Daniel Johnston, second son of Capt. Archibald
Johnston, lived the same manner of life as his elder
brother. We have but few facts concerning him.
He was one of the executors of his father's will.
In the annals printed herewith mention is made
of him in the memorandum of a deed executed
October 30, 1792, to his brother James of one-half
the iron works, " known as Johnston's Forge,'
inherited from his father two years before. Still
he was a man well known and long remembered
in his township. Governor Holley, who had busi-
ness transactions with him and his son Herman,
speaks kindly of them in his letters. He was
selectman from 18 10 to 1S24 ; was a member of the
Legislature in 1817- 18-19 ; and, in 1818, was " ap-
pointed a delegate to form a constitution of civil
government, agreeable to (act) of the General
Assembly. ' The word " act " is illegible in the
Tiginal. What was said of the sources of inform-

r

"tion as to James also applies to Daniel.

Mrs. Byers wrote of him : " I had an intimate
iriend who was educated at Yale that told me he
was well acquainted with my uncle Daniel, and
esteemed him very highly ; that he took great

36 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

pleasure in visiting his room for the purpose of
conversing with him, finding him very intelligent.
He said my uncle was then a member of the Leg-
islature, and had been for many years." In
another letter, Mrs. Byers says : " My brother
Stoddard represented Uncle Daniel as a man who
occupied a highly respectable position, was wealthy
and stood high in the estimation of the community,
as regards education, talents and integrity. He
was appreciated, and was frequently elected to the
Legislature. I have been told by gentlemen who
were educated at Yale that they frequently met
with him and sought his society, and were always
agreeably entertained by his intelligent conversa-
tion," and more to the same purport. I am not
aware that he was in the Legislature except in
1817-18-19 ; but it is not unlikely.

Daniel left but one child, Herman, who died
unmarried, December 22, 1839, and is buried by
his father's side. He is named as a Selectman in
1806, as Commissioner to sell meeting-house in
1809, as a Commissioner in 1810, and as a Grand
Juror in 18 19. His branch of the family seems to
have ended with him.

ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON THE SECOND

AND

HIS FAMILY.

GAYLORD, KETCHAM, PLATT, ELSWORTH,

\

ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON THE SECOND.

Archibald (2d), the fourth son of Captain
Archibald Johnston, had a less happy fate than his
elder brothers. James, by virtue of his birthright,
had succeeded to the name and influence of his
father, in the home of his nativity, and lived the life
of a Connecticut farmer of ample estate, and so
with Daniel ; John led an active professional life on
the frontier and lived to see his children honored
throughout the land. Archibald emigrated with
his wife and children to Canfield township, Ohio,
where he and his brothers James and Daniel
had acquired a large landed interest. He had
married (probably in 1790) Rebecca L,oveland.
In the " History of Trumbull and Mahoning
Counties," already mentioned, it is stated, Vol. II,
page 400, "Archibald Johnston settled in Canfield
township in 1804. ' The date of her birth was 1770 ;
and, as their eldest son Newton was born in 1791,
they were probably married at an early age. The
husband in 1790 was only twenty -three years old.
These young people spent their early married life
among the hills of Salisbury, where all their chil-
dren were born. Their venture in pioneer life was
short and disastrous. The journey was made all
the way on horseback to a country then subject to
severe malarial visitations. Father, mother and the

40 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

eldest son Newton were all carried off by fever
within five weeks of each other in the autumn of
1806.

Mr. J. Truesdale, writing in the Mahoning Dis-
patch, April 9, 1897, gives the following account
of Archibald Johnston :

" Archibald Johnston came from Connecticut in
the fall of 1 801 to Canfield 011 foot, in company
with his father-in-law and brother-in-law, Ziba and
John Loveland, referred to in the annals herein.
He returned soon after for his family. They set-
tled on North street, on what is now the Cramer
or Carver farm, in a comfortable log house. In
1806 he purchased the Nathan Moore farm one
and a quarter miles east of the centre, on which
was a large commodious log house located on high,
healthy ground. The families of Mr. Johnston
and Mr. Whittlesey were upon intimate terms.
The latter describes Mrs. Johnston as a noble and
fine specimen of womanhood, having three smart,
active boys. Archibald was a brother of James
Johnston, one of the proprietors of Canfield,
and after whom the township of Johnston was
named.

1 At the election in the township of Canfield
(after the admission of Ohio into the Union of
States), including Boardman, Austin town, Jack-
son and Ellsworth, held June 21, 1803, Archibald
Johnston and William Chichester were elected
justices of the peace. Mr. Johnston died on the
13th of November ; Newton, a son, died Novem-
ber 20, and the wife died December 20, 1806.

Archibald Johnston the Second. 41

The other two sons were very sick, but recovered.
The death register says they died of remittent
fever and typhus fever at the ages of thirty-nine,
fifteen and thirty-six years respectively.'

The two little orphan boys, Charles and Samuel
Berry, after a distressing experience in their new
and strange home were taken back by their uncle
Daniel, who went out for them and who undertook
their nurture during their minority. So unhappy
were the days spent in Canfield that Samuel said he
never returned to it, even in thought, without a
feeling of pain. In their home at Salisbury the lads
grew to early manhood with the limited opportunities
of the time and place. But they had inherited, or
imbibed, a stout self-reliance and all the best quali-
ties of their ancestry and kindred. Most of their
father's means had doubtless vanished in the Can-
field venture, and they went forth literally to seek
their fortunes. Those Johnstons had had too bitter a
taste of the West to care to try again, and took
what was really the bolder step of settling in their
own neighborhood. It is probable that Pough-
keepsie had always been a little metropolis to
Salisbury, and to Poughkeepsie they went. The
story of the two brothers there is the common
American one of what obstacles can be overcome
by strong sense, integrity and manly qualities.

Charles became a lawyer, and was achieving
prominence in political life, when he died at the
age of fifty- two. He served as a member of the
United States House of Representatives in Con-
gress— 1839-41. He left but one child, a daugh-

42 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

ter, and the family line is given in the tables so far
as known. The estimation in which he was held
by his legal brethren is shown in the resolutions of
the bar of Duchess county. It is but a slight
memorial of our kinsman ; but, where so little
remains, we will be pardoned for giving the reso-
lutions in full :

At a meeting of the bar of the county of
Duchess, held at the court house, on the second
day of September, 1845, Hon. James Eniott was
called to the chair and Judge Barculo appointed
Secretary.

On motion, Messrs. Robert Elkinson, Willam J.
Street and E. I. Eldridge were appointed a com-
mittee to prepare resolutions expressive of the
sense of the meeting, touching the recent death of
Charles Johnston, Esq.

The committee, after retiring and consultation,
reported the following resolutions, which were
unanimously adopted, viz.:

Resolved, That we have heard with deep, heart-
felt regret, of the decease of Charles Johnston, a
member of the Duchess county bar. In him death
has deprived us of one whose learning and moral
worth have been conspicuous among us for many
years, of one whose excellent example as a lawyer
and a citizen is a rich legacy left us for our emula-
tion and improvement. We have cherished for
him while living the regard which his many vir-
tues and rare qualities were well calculated to
inspire ; and now that he is dead, as citizens ai
as friends, we feel a mournful satisfaction in e> *>
pressing our respect for his memory and sorrow
for his loss.

Tn particular, we sympathize with his survivin
relations, and beg them to accept a copy of thes

if

Archibald Johnston the Second. 43

proceedings as a slight testimonial of our respect-
ful consideration and sincere condolence.

Resolved, That this bar will, as a body, attend
the funeral of the deceased to-morrow, and that
the proceedings of this meeting be published.

JAMBS EmOTT, Chairman.

S i ■'. \v A kl) B ARCtJLO, Secret a ry.

The younger brother, Samuel Berry Johnston,
lived to attain a highly honorable place in the
community and to die full of years and honors,
leaving descendants who cherish his memory with
the tenderest regrets, lie came at quite an early
age to Poughkeepsie and engaged in the freighting
and forwarding business, in which he continued
until about 1X50. Gradually, he became interested
in many of the industrial and financial enterpris
of the locality, and attained a handsome com-
petency. He was president of the village before
Poughkeepsie became a city, was treasurer of the
Poughkeepsie Gas Light Company, and for many
years was vice president of the Farmers and Man-
ufacturers Bank. Later in life he left this bank
and became vice president of the Fallkill National
Bank, of which his son-in-law, Mr. Elsworth, is
now president. He is faithfully characterized in
the brief extract from a notice of him at the time
his deaih.

11 In the death of Samuel Berry Johnston this
community has lost a prominent citizen. A man
of rare business attainments, of unquestionable
reputation and character, he represented a class of
old business men, now unfortunately almost ex-

44 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

tinct. His genial and social manners won for him
many warm friends from the ranks of the rich and
poor, old and young; but particularly from the
younger classes, who will always gratefully re-
member his encouraging words, pleasant saluta-
tions, eccentric but jovial ways, and his uniform
kindness and hospitality."

Much of the tranquil happiness of Mr. Johnston's
later life is attributed to his fortunate marriage.
His wife, Rebecca Ketcham, was of a family which,
like most of those named in this memoir, was of
old colonial stock and strongly inspired with
republican sentiments of resistance to arbitrary
power. On the paternal side she was descended
from Solomon Ketcham, born in Huntington, Long
Island, 1723, died 1784, and his wife, Hannah,
born 1728, died 1781. His son, Solomon Piatt
Ketcham, born April 6, 1757, died February 19,
1 85 1, was a violent patriot and served both in the
Revolutionary War and the war of 181 2. Rebecca
Ketcham' s maternal ancestor, Richard Piatt,
" landed in New Haven from Hertfordshire, Eng-
land, in 1638, and afterward joined with others in
founding the village of Milford, nine miles from
New Haven. .Among the coping stones of the
beautiful memorial bridge over the Wapanung is a
stone with this description :

•DEACON RICHARD PL ATT.
Obit. 1684.

MARY. HI:? WIFE."

(l

>W

Archibald Johnston the Second. 45

His sons, Isaac and Epenetus. removed to Hunt-
ington, Long Island, in 1666, and are enrolled
among the fifty-seven land owners imprisoned in
New York in 1681 by Governor Andrews, for
joining in the protest against his arbitrary rule.
Isaac Piatt's son Jonas was the father of Jesse.
His son Zophar married Esther Piatt, and was
father of Anne Rogers Piatt, born November 26,
1793, died at Poughkeepsie October 31, 1881, who
married Amos Piatt Ketcham of Huntington, Sep-
tember 9, 181 1. Their daughter Rebecca, still sur-
viving, was the wife of Samuel Berry Johnston.
The family did active service in the Revolutionary
War.

Mr. Edward Elsworth, who married Samuel
Berry Johnston's only child, seems to have suc-
ceeded so naturally to his place, and so exclusively
to represent this stem of the family, that a some-
what more extended notice of him will be accepta-
ble to the readers of this memoir. Besides, we are
greatly indebted to him for his unselfish and intel-
ligent assistance in the discovery and elucidation
of facts in the early history of the family.

Edward Elsworth was born in New York City,
January 6, 1840, removed to Poughkeepsie with his
parents when a boy, graduated from the State and
National Law School there in 1858, has served
two terms as Mayor of the city of Poughkeepsie, is
now a member of the Holland Society and of the
Sons of the Revolution, Trustee and Treasurer of
, 7assar Brothers Institute, Trustee of Vassar Col-
tge and a member of the Executive Committee,

46 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

President of the Fallkill National Bank, and Vice
President of the Poughkeepsie Savings Bank.
Edward Elsworth's ancestors on both sides came
from Holland and settled in New York. His first,
known ancestor on his father's side was Christoffel
Elswaerth, freeholder, in New York in 1655. His
son William married Anna Maria Englebert. Their
son, Theophilus, married Hanna Hardenbrook in
1716. Their son, John, born 1719, married Hester
Roome in 1742. Their son, William J., born No-
vember 28, 1772, married February 15, 1795,
Sarah Hinton. Their son, John (Edward's father),
was born in New York, May 22, 1802, died at
Poughkeepsie, May 22, 1874. He married, June
14, 1832, Martha, daughter of Joseph Van Varick.
The Van Varicks were of an old family in Holland
and Antwerp, having belonged to the nobility
there.

SAMUEL BERRY JOHNSTON.

Samuel Berry Johnston is named in his father's
will as his son, fifth in the order of naming, and
hence probably the youngest. Mr. Samuel Berry
Johnston, of Poughkeepsie, son of Archibald (2d),
always spoke of himself as named alter an uncle.
This would indicate a special affection from that
brother, unless it was the name of their maternal
grandfather. This is all we know of this son. If
his descendants survive we have not discovered
them.

DR. JOHN JOHNSTON

AND

HIS DESCENDANTS.

EDWARD HARRIS.

DR. JOHN JOHNSTON

AND

EDWARD HARRIS.

John, the third son of Capt. Archibald Johnston,
was born July i, 1762, at Salisbury. He was sent
to school in New Haven, and afterward studied
medicine at Litchfield, Conn., and practised his
profession for several years in his native town. In
1783, he married Mary Stoddard, daughter of Dr.
Josiah Stoddard, and a member of one of the larg-
est and most prominent connections in that section.
He emigrated to Kentucky. The date of his re-
moval is uncertain. It may have been as late as
1790, though it is probable that it was at an earlier
date. His father's will, made October, 1788,
charged him with over ^200 advances against
small sums to his brothers. It is true these may
have been made for other reasons, but the most
probable one would be to give him his portion and
start in life. In 1793, he lost his wife, who left
him three living sons, Josiah Stoddard, Darius and
Orramel. Dr. Johnston settled at Washington, in
Mason county, a few miles back from what is now
Maysville. Here he made his home until his
death, in 1831. By an act approved December
*9> I793» ne was named, with Edward Harris

52 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

and others, as trustees of the town of Washing-
ton, to confirm titles and take other corporate action.
The town had been incorporated by the General
Assembly of Virginia in 1786.

In 1794 he married Abigail, daughter of this
Edward Harris, and his wife, Abigail Atkin.
There is an indentured deed existing from John
Johnston and Abigail Johnston, his wife, of Decem-
ber, 1794. She lived about twelve years after her
marriage. She was the mother of eight children.
Dr. Johnston married for a third time, Mrs. Byers,
widow of James Byers. They had two children.

Dr. Johnston's life was a hard one. The coun-
try doctor, on a frontier hardly free from Indian
incursions, called on to practise his profession over
a wide extent of country, with few of the appli-
ances of his craft,- and obliged to rely upon his own
resources in the most trying emergencies, he
shared the experience of so man}' others who have
devoted themselves to this most benevolent of all
callings. He was universally trusted and beloved,
and famous through the country side for his skill.
He worked like a galley slave, but received his
reward chief!}' in the gratitude of his patients.
That he was not a provident or thrifty man may
fairly be inferred from his last marriage, when he
brought home a widow with nine children of her
own, to take charge of his large family. To be
sure, she was used to children. His sanguine
temper and robust nature did not shrink from the
prospect of narrow means and added toil. He
was not anxious to accumulate money, but seems

Dr. John Johnston. 53

to have been very solicitous for the education of his
children. Late in life he became poor, through
the payment of security debts, and his home was
sold at public sale. But his eldest son, Hon.
Josiah S. Johnston, bought it and restored it to
him, and, doubtless, thereafter contributed to the
ease and comfort of his declining years.

Mr. J. S. Chambers, a schoolmate of General A.
S. Johnston, who remembered Dr. Johnston well,
wrote of him as follows :

" I always thought General Johnston inherited
his frank, manly nature from his father. His
mother was a gentle woman ; while the old doctor
was bold and blunt to a remarkable degree. He
had no concealments, and was physically ener-
getic, and mentally bold and independent. He
had a large practice, and was often called into
consultation in difficult, or rather in desperate
cases."

All the old citizens of Washington bear witness
to his industry, skill, talents and probity, and to
his kind and genial temper. General Johnston's
mother is spoken of by others as a woman of
handsome appearance, fine intellect and sterling
worth.

If Dr. Johnston differed materially in character
from his sons, it was in the possession of a more
positive and aggressive temper. As far as we can
now judge from the traditions of family and friends,
Dr. Johnston was of a large and affluent nature,
full of energy, courage and sunshine. He was
self-confident, generous, kindly, unselfish and

54 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

able; and if he had less oi sweetness of temper and
grace of manner than was so conspicuously dis-
played in his children, a good deal may be attrib-
uted to the exacting professional demands upon
him, as well as to the qualities inherited from their
mothers. We have always looked back to him as
the worthy progenitor of a noble band of sons and
daughters.

Dr. Johnston's large family of fifteen children
must have taxed heavily his narrow resources,
especially as he sought to give them the benefit of
a good education. As they approached manhood,
the eldest son, Josiah Stoddard Johnston, found
himself able to assist in the good work. Sufficient
sketches are herein given of him, of John Harris
and of Albert Sidney. The other sons died unmar-
ried. Darius studied law under the Hon. Wm. J.
Barry, of Lexington, Ky. , and became associated
with his brother Josiah in the practice of the law
in Louisiana. Orramel studied medicine in New
Orleans under Dr. Flood, and attended lectures in
Philadelphia, but he and each of the boys, as they
grew up, joined the prosperous elder brother at
Alexandria, Louisiana. Darius and Orramel,
allured by the spirit of adventure and of republi-
can propagandism, joined the Mexican forces then
in revolt against Spain. They expiated their
mistake by long imprisonment in Spanish dun-
geons and cruel treatment, and came home wrecked
in health, Darius to die of a pulmonary disease in
1819, and Orramel to linger a few years as an in-
valid. He practised medicine in Maysville, but

Edward Harris. 55

died at thirty-three years of age. Lucius was a
gifted youth, with a fine oratorical vein. He, too,
went to Louisiana to become a planter, but died in
the second year of his residence there of a preva-
lent malignant fever. He was only twenty-four
years of age, and is remembered as the favorite of
his brothers and sisters. The others died young
and undeveloped in character. Mention is made
of Dr. Johnston's daughters, Mrs. Byers and
Mrs. McClung, in the family sketches ; the other
sons and daughters dying unmarried.

This memoir would not be complete without
some mention of Edward Harris, the father of Dr.
Johnston's second wife Abigail, a picturesque figure
in the local annals of the time.

Edward Harris, the lather of Dr. Johnston's
second wife, was remembered by the survivors of
the days of Kentucky as a typical Puritan, " the
old John Knox Presbyterian of the place," as he
was characterized by a venerable citizen. And he
added, "anecdotes are still told of the spirit and
courage with which he defended his Church.' He
had been a Captain in the Revolutionary Army
and had emigrated from Newburyport, Massachu-
setts, at an early date. He is said to have come West
as agent of the New England Land Company and
settled on the Muskingum river, where Marietta
now stands. However that may be, he certainly
held considerable bodies of land in Ohio, as his
will shows. President Washington appointed him
the first postmaster and military store-keeper at
Washington, Kentucky, which office he filled from

56 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

July i, 1797, to October 1, 1802. He died in 1825
at the age of eighty-four years. Some of his cor-
respondence still extant evinces a man of positive
religious convictions, strong will, practical intel-
ligence and fair education. Appended to this we
print a characteristic letter that illustrates the man.
Fortunately, his argument prevailed and did not
cost him his place. At one time he was the
owner of a large body of land in Ohio, but lost it
by the intrusion of squatters. A memorandum of
his children is also given, taken from his will.

In the City Hall at Newburyport, Mass., is
found the following :

11 Edward Harris, of Newburyport hath in-
formed of his intention to marriage October 5, 1765,
with Miss Abigail Atkin, of said Newburyport."

Edward Harris was married October 29, 1765,
by the Rev. John Lowell, one of the first pastors of
Newburyport.

Edward Harris is said to have been born Sep-
tember 20, 1739 ; died April 6, 1820.

Abigail Atkin (said to be his second wife) was
born April 6, 1748 ; died December 14, 1798.

LETTER OF EDWARD HARRIS TO THE POST-
MASTER GENERAL-

Washington, Ky., June 4, 1800..

Sir — I received yours of the 8th ultimo, enclos-
ing your advertisement for several routes, by which
arrangement I am compelled to relinquish my
place in the department.

No doubt you recollect that in January, 1796, I
enclosed in my letter to you an insulting note

Edward Harris. 57

wrote by D. Vertner, of this place, because I would
not attend the postoffice for him on the Sabbath.
March 16, 1798, is the date of Mr. Burrall's letter,
in answer in which he says that no postmasters
are obliged to make up mails or deliver letters on
Sunday, which gave me great satisfaction to find
that the head of the department paid a deference
to that day.

I was much pleased with a late advertisement of
Mr. Moore's, postmaster of Washington City, that
he would attend office every day, except Sunday.
By all which I expected, I was secure from inter-
ruption on that day which God has set apart for
his worship.

All the blame I am conscious of since I have
kept the office has arose from that quarter.

In all my transactions through life, thus far I
have endeavored to keep a conscience void of
offence toward God and man. And since I am
now to finish my official duties in this line, I make
my solemn appeal to you, whether during my con-
tinuance in office (which has been coeval with
your own) if I have not faithfully (the three first
years when there was next to no pecuniary induce-
ment) performed the duties you enjoined on me, as
I have done the last year, when the emoluments
were increased, and whether I have failed in any
part of my duty.

At the same time I confess that when I entered
upon the duties of my office, it was with the ex-
pectation that as the country populated the emolu-
ments would increase ; knowing at the same time
that I was in the hands of whosoever was Post-
master General, but believed that the man who
filled the office would have respect to those who
were faithful, and had served the country more
for public than for private utility.

From my youth to the present moment I have

58 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

believed that the Sabbath is of divine appoint-
ment, and that it is a statute law of God that the
seventh part of the time shall be kept holy, and
that I am not at liberty to alienate any part of that
day to another purpose than what is expressed in
the divine commands. Under the influence of such
belief no pecuniary advantages will be an excuse
for me to deviate from what my conscience dic-
tates as duty.

I well know I am advocating a principle that
pretty generally meets the sneers of mankind, and
that conscientiousness is too puritanical for the
order of the day — as the word is — but, sir, I am
one of those '75 men so much talked of, and have
made my observations on the morals of the people,
before and since the Revolution, and find them
greatly altered, I wish I could say for the better.

By the present arrangement I am to receive the
mail on Sunday, 11 o'clock A. m., make it up and
dispatch it by 3 o'clock p. m., which will deprive
me of the best enjoyment of my life. Besides, I
have trained up a large family, who are now men
and women, to revere the commands of God, and
it is well known in this place and every place
where I have lived, that I have been careful not
to profane that holy day. What a reproach then
should I bring upon the cause of God, which
should be dearer than life, if I should now rise up
against the moral government of the Deity.

It is true that the temptation comes with more
energy than it could have had at any former
period.

It is at a time when through infirmity I am con-
fined to a sedentary life, and which, under those
circumstances make the present emoluments of
office an object, but yet it is too cheap to barter for
peace of conscience — you easily see my position.
I believe my case a moral one, and but few feel the

Edward Harris. 59

difficulty as I do, and most men, I am persuaded,
will dub them silly. With you, sir, it remains to
remove the difficulty. If you will alter the days
of arrival and departure to any other day than
Sunday, or allow the mail to be lodged, but not
opened until Monday, early in the morning, I shall
esteem it a personal favor conferred on me. With
much esteem I am, sir, and shall ever remain,
Your obedient humble servant,

(Signed) Edward Harris.

This letter is characteristic of the man. At every
turn will be noticed his reluctance to give up the
position he had held through all the difficulties
necessarily surrounding a new office, and just at a
time when the revenues were increasing and the
office becoming really desirable. It does not seem
to have occurred to him that he could hold the
office indefinitely by a compliance with the new
regulations. To do so would have been in direct
conflict with his conscience, and to take such a
step did not even cross his mind. He was sorry
to give np his place, but could not open and dis-
tribute the mail on Sunday.

As this letter was written in June, 1800, and Mr.
Harris was not relieved from duty as postmaster
until October 1, 1802, more than two years later,
it is probable that the obnoxious law was not
enforced.

The will of Edward Harris, signed April 8, 1824,
and probated May 9, 1825, after reciting his relig-
ious beliefs and hopes, and providing for the pay-
ment of his debts and a comfortable maintenance
for his wife, devises the rest of his property among

60 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

his heirs at law; to his daughters, Elizabeth Wilson,
Nancy Greely and Sally Baldwin, and the children
of Abigail Johnston, deceased, and the children of
his sons, John Harris, deceased, and Edward
Harris, deceased. Among other real estate devised
are three tracts of land in Ohio of 540 acres, 280
acres and 100 acres respectively. He also men-
tions other tracts. Edward Harris, Jr., died before
middle age ; John Harris married a Miss Titcombe,
of Philadelphia, and was a merchant there; Nancy
married the Rev. Mr. Greely, of Maine, said to
have been a brother of Horace Greely ; Elizabeth
married the Rev. Mr. Wilson, of the Presbyterian
Church ; Sarah married Mr. Baldwin. Two of her
sons, James and William, settled at Platte City, Mo. ,
as lawyers. Mrs. Anna M. Byers wrote very affec-
tionate reminiscences of her aunts and their
children, of whom she spoke as good and well
educated people.

SENATOR JOSIAH STODDARD JOHNSTON

AND

HIS FAMILY.

SENATOR JOSIAH STODDARD JOHNSTON,

of Louisiana.

(1784-1S33.)

As we grow older the illusions of youth vanish
and we all come to understand the vanity of
human wishes. But it would be hard to find a
more signal instance than in the career of Josiah
Stoddard Johnston. Born among the hills of Con-
necticut, and starting in life with no larger share
of this world's goods than a wholesome nature, a
good constitution and a fair education, he scarcely
ever met a rebuff from fortune in the thirty years
of public life, but ends all with the sigh of the
preacher — " Vanity of vanities; all is vanity."

This he realized at the crest of his prosperity
and popularity when he was for the third time re-
elected to the United States Senate, all parties
uniting in his return; and it has been still more
pointedly emphasized in the oblivion that has
fallen upon his memory. Few, very few, of the
readers of Louisiana history recall the name even
of a man who in his own day was the favorite and
leader in this aristocratic little commonwealth as
long as he lived. He is forgotten. This would
seem less strange if his position had depended on
mere superficial qualities; but, while he was a man

64 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

who combined every charm of manner with solid
qualities of head and heart, his work was chiefly
directed to the welfare of his constituents and to
large questions of national importance. Probably
his misfortune was that, living in an age when
brilliant oratory was the chief claim to distinction,
he lacked the upper flights of eloquence that
swayed the republic with the trumpet notes of Clay,
Webster, Benton and Calhoun. Nevertheless, he
was a trained and forcible speaker in his time,
and a commanding figure in the counsels of his
colleagues. The following incidents of his life
are, in the main, extracted from the Life of Gen-
eral Albert Sidney Johnston. The biographer,
following the careful and affectionate tribute to
him by the Hon. Henry D. Gilpin, in the National
Portrait Gallery, makes one mistake in saying he
studied law under George Nicholas, as that dis-
tinguished jurist died in 1799, when J. S. John-
ston was only fifteen years old. His sister, Mrs.
Byers, states that he studied law with Hon.
William T. Barn-.

Josiah Stoddard Johnston wras born at Salisbury,
Connecticut, November 24, 1784; he was taken to
Kentucky by his father at an earl}7 age. When
tw7elve years old his father carried him to New
Haven, Connecticut, to school, where he remained
some years ; but he completed his academic educa-
tion at Transylvania University, Lexington, Ken-
tucky. His acquirements were solid and his read-
ing choice and various. In 1805 he emigrated to
the Territory of Louisiana, lately acquired from

Senator Josiah Stoddard Johnston. 65

the French, and then sparsely settled by a rude
population. Locating at Alexandria, at that time
a frontier village, he devoted himself to the practice
of law, and rapidly gained wealth and distinction.
His firm yet gentle temper and strong sense of
justice kept him free from the personal collisions
that marked the period and region, and, indeed,
enabled him to maintain the honorable character
of an umpire in an unorganized society, so that he
was called " The Peacemaker ;': while his educa-
tion and talents placed him in the front rank of
the leaders of public opinion. He was elected to
the First Territorial Legislature, and continued a
member of that body until Louisiana became a
State in 1812. He held the position of district
judge from 1S12 to 1S21. Toward the close of the
war, when Louisiana was invaded by the British,
he was elected to the command of a regiment of
volunteers, which he had aided in raising and to
equip which he had from his own means bought a
large quantity of arms and ammunition ; but,
though they joined General Jackson, it was too
late to share in the decisive victory of January 8,
1815. In 1814 he married Miss Eliza Sibley, the
daughter of John Sibley of Natchitoches, a lady
of rare personal and intellectual attractions. After
his death she married the Hon. Henry D. Gilpin
and was long recognized as a leader of Philadel-
phia society. In 1821 he was elected to the Seven-
teenth Congress. He is said to have desired to be
Governor, but Henry Johnson was chosen, and
shortly after Josiah S. Johnston was elected in

66 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

1823 to the Senate of the United States ; in 1825
he was re-elected ; and in 1831 he was chosen
again by a Legislature opposed to him in political
opinion. The successive trusts were justified by
the fidelity and success with which they were dis-
charged ; and his election was due to the convic-
tion that his continuance in the Senate was neces-
sary to the welfare of the State. As a member
of that body, though he did not decline to take
part in the exciting political contests then waged,
his chief attention was directed to the advance-
ment of the materia 1 interests of the country.
Although not a brilliant orator, he was a clear and
forcible speaker, and always commanded the ear
of the Senate. As Chairman of the Committee on
Commerce, and as a member of the Committee on
Finance, he brought to bear an untiring industry
that mastered the details, while it grasped the
principles, of whatever subjects came before him ;
and this not only by the stud}' of books, but by
conference with practical men and by severe, inde-
pendent thought. Hence his reports and speeches,
which were marked by the directness of his mind
and the unselfishness of his political character,
were listened to with respect even by his oppo-
nents, while his amiability and forbearance secured
him a large personal influence. He enjoyed a very
close friendship with Mr. Clay, with whom he was
in political affiliation. He opposed the doctrine of
nullification, and was a leading advocate for a care-
fully guarded protective tariff which, by a judicious
adjustment of duties, should advance American

Senator Josiah Stoddard Johnston. 67

industry. But while he was a close student of the
history and Constitution of the United States, and
a representative diligent in the protection of his
constituents, his position in reference to the com-
merce of the country called his attention to ques-
tions of even wider range. It is to his credit that,
with an enlightened benevolence and enlarged view
of international law, he strenuously pressed upon
the Government the dutv of seeking a mitigation
of the laws of maritime war. To this end he
urged especially that neutral vessels should protect
the goods on board, to whomsoever they might
belong ; and that articles contraband of war should
be limited to the smallest possible number of such
as are of direct use and essential in their opera-
tions.

Mr. Johnston was somewhat below middle size,
of graceful person, handsome countenance and
most winning manners. The testimony of his con-
temporaries represent him as a firm and yet mod-
erate partisan; a statesman of singularly disinter-
ested views; a most steadfast and loyal friend, and
a man of warm and pure affections, cheerful, gen-
erous and honorable. The happy influence of such
a character and career upon a band of younger
brothers can not be overestimated, especially when
they saw virtue crowned with a success which
met neither check nor reverse from its beginning
in 1805 to the close of an honored life in 1833. He
was a man well beloved, and well deserving the
love of his fellow-men. His conduct toward his
brothers not only illustrates the warmth of his

68 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

affections, but exerted a powerful influence over
the destinies of his family. As they approached
man's estate he directed and aided in their educa-
tion, incited them to his home and advanced them
in their professions. His filial care of his father in
his old age has already been mentioned. Alto-
gether, he was a very noble character.

Below is reproduced a letter from Josiah S.
Johnston, to his half brother, Albert Sidney John-
ston, then a lieutenant in the United States army,
stationed at Jefferson Barracks, Mo. In this can
be traced his tender regard for his young friend
and brother. It is a sad fact that this letter was
written so short a time before his tragic death on
the ill-fated Lioness:

My Dear Str — I am now on board the Homer
on my way to Louisiana, with my son William.
The indisposition of my wife detained me until the
13th, when she was so far recovered as to permit
me to leave her.

We called at Washington and saw all our old
friends there, who are all well. I saw Mrs. Pres-
ton at Louisville, who informed me of the health of
your wife and children.

I shall reach Xew Orleans by the 1st of May,
and remain during that month and a part of June.

Since the pacification all parties seem reunited
to the terms of the compromise. The South is
content and the manufacturers are perfectly satis-
fied. The country enjoys at this moment an un-
exampled degree of prosperity, and we can see
nothing likely to interrupt it for many years.
Everything is appreciating in value ; stocks of all
kinds, lands, lots, houses, manufactures, rents,
etc. Property in cities and towns is rising rapidly.

SENATOR JOSIAH STODDARD JOHNSTON. 69

I was glad to see Louisville partaking of the gen-
eral prosperity. It gives indications of considera-
ble improvement, and will doubtless become a
nourishing place. Property will increase in value
to a considerable extent, if no untoward event
occurs. If the Bank of the United States is re-
chartered, or another instituted in its place, it will
give an impulse to business and speculation. At
present I see nothing better than the lots in that
city. They promise, I think, considerable increase
of value in a short period.

It is impossible for one party to advise another
with regard to his location and pursuits of life.
We can not enter into each other's beings and feel-
ings. If money was your chief object, you would
accomplish the purpose more rapidly in Louisiana,
but the climate and low property are objections.
A good estate near Louisville, where there are fer-
tile lands, a healthy climate, and good society,
promises as much independence and happiness as
any other section or mode of life. If you chose to
engage in any active pursuit, many avenues to
fortune are open. New Orleans is a fine theatre
for talents and enterprises of all kinds, and so is
Louisville, Cincinnati, etc.

I duly received the account of Gen. Atkinson's
expedition. He pursued a wise and prudent policy.
If he had hurried on, and been defeated, the
whole frontier would been exposed, while the
timid and wavering Indians would have joined the
Black Hawks and gained possession of the country,
which would have required another year and a more
formidable force and a great expenditure of money
to conquer them. I had a conversation with the
President at the meeting of Congress. He was, I
believe, satisfied with the final result. He thought
the General might in the first instance have felt
the force of the Indians, and, having done so, he

70 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

would have proved himself able to defeat them.
Caution is no part of his policy. The General was
placed in a situation either to suffer defeat by a
prompt movement or censure by a prudent one.
The country is entirely satisfied. It must have
been a very arduous service in which you have
had your share of labor and responsibility.

You will please make my affectionate regards to
your wife.

Affectionately,

J. S. Johnston.
April 25, 1833.

The sad story of this strong man's death is
touchingly told by the Hon. John Harris Johnston
in a letter to Lieutenant Johnston. It was indeed
deplorable that such a man should have been cut
down at such a time. The great love entertained
for each other by these able men is very touching.
The letter of John Harris Johnston is brimming
over with heartfelt sorrow at the loss of his brother,
and tender solicitude for the surviving widow and
son. The letter is printed in full and can not be
read, even now, without emotion.

New Orleans, June 18, 1833.

My Dear Brother — Detailed accounts of the
dreadful disaster on board the Lioness in Red river
will have reached you before this time, confirming
the sad and melancholy loss of life on board.
Among those who perished was our much esteemed
and beloved brother, who, with William, had taken
passage the evening before for Natchitoches. In
an instant, when all on board were unsuspecting,
the boat was, by some unaccountable accident,
blown to atoms by powder, and between fifteen and

Senator Josiah Stoddard Johnston. 71

twenty-five persons were destroyed. Our brother
was instantly killed, and his body was not found
for some days. William, who occupied the upper
berth in the same state room, was thrown to the
middle of the river and saved himself on a plank
or door. He was severely injured and confined to
bed for fourteen or fifteen days. He is restored
and able to walk out. I had left them here the
8th ultimo in good health (after spending several
days with them) for Opelousas, whither I went to
hold the courts in that circuit. They went to
Rapides the next day after I left, and after remain-
ing a few days in Alexandria the}T embarked for
Natchitoches. The news of this awful calamity
did not reach me for some days after. The busi-
ness of the court did not justify my absence from
it, and I have but just returned from the circuit
to my family here, without having been to Rapides.
I had heard of the prevalence of the cholera here
to a great extent, and I hastened to m}r wife and
little boys. I have found them all well and the
disease subsided, and as soon as it will be entirely
safe to leave in the boats, I will go home for the
summer.

In my absence the cholera has raged with great
violence in Rapides on the plantations. It appeared
first on mine and with great malignity. All my
negroes were sick and I lost seven with about two-
thirds of my crop. The disease had abated there,
but was spreading through the parish. The loss
on the plantations has already been great. Many
abandoned their crops and removed their negroes
to the woods. B\- last accounts no cases had
occurred on the plantation of my brother, though
very near to mine.

These misfortunes, all occurring simultaneously,
have been almost insupportable, and I have not,
until now, had resolution to write to you. Being

72 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

convinced of the sad realities of the horrible scene
on the river, which it was almost impossible to
credit, we are left to the . contemplation of the
heavy bereavement which that catastrophe has
occasioned, and to lament and mourn the loss of our
best friend and brother, a loss so irreparable, so
affecting, that to indulge in the recollection of it
would almost drive to madness. I fear to think of
the effect which this shock will have on poor
sister. Her reluctant parting with her husband
and son — the latter almost for the first time — and
her frequent letters since seem to confirm the
existence of some terrible presentiment of the fate
which awaited them. I have written to her, and
without at that time knowing many of the particu-
lars, have endeavored to console her in her heavy
afflictions. She will derive much consolation from
the safety of her son, who is in every way worthy
of her love, and who will live, I hope, to imitate
the example and emulate the virtue of his good
father, and will make himself useful in every situ-
ation. It is very uncertain what course she will
pursue. It is probable she will act on the first
impulse and will come to this country immediately.
We will know in a few days.

I write you under circumstances so unpleasant,
feeling so harrowed and painful, that I must beg
leave to close. Present my affectionate regards to
sister, to whom and to yourself, Mrs. Johnston
asks to be kindly remembered.

Very sincerely and affectionately,

John H. Johnston.

Senator Johnston had only one child, William
Stoddard Johnston, who is mentioned in the fore-
going letter. He was educated in Connecticut,

senator Josiah Stoddard Johnston. 73

and graduated at Yale College. He studied law
and began the practice at Alexandria, La., and,
on the death of his uncle, Hon. John Harris
Johnston, was selected for the responsible and
honorable office of Parish Judge, at the early age
of twenty-two years. He married Miss Maria
Williams, daughter of Archibald Pierce Williams,
a rich planter of Rapides parish, La., and life
seemed opening brightly to him when he died of a
fever, only two years later.

Mr. Johnston left only one child, William Stod-
dard Johnston (2d), who having been brought up
and adopted by his grandmother, Mrs. Henry D.
Gilpin of Philadelphia, has since continued his
residence in that city. Win. Stoddard Johnston
(2d) was educated chiefly near Xew Haven. He
served in Co. A, Corse's Regiment of Virginia In-
fantry, in the Confederate Army. Subsequently he
engaged in business in Philadelphia, but has now
retired. He is a gentleman of the highest integrity
and purest Christian character.

In Rapides Cemetery, Pineville, opposite Alex-
andria, a plain marble shaft, eight feet high,
marks the last resting place of this promising
young man. With him the last of the Johnstons,
who had numbered eight or ten in the parish a few
years before, disappeared from Louisiana for forty
years.

The following is the inscription upon the tomb :

74 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

Sacred
to the memory of

WILLIAM STODDARD JOHXSTOX,

who departed this life on the
xx september mdcccxxx

aoed xxiv years

Parish Judge of the Parish of Rapides

and only son of

Josiah Stoddard Johnston

" If -genius, goodness, piety and truth.
The brightest promise of ingenuous youth,
A wisdom reaching far beyond his years
Could check the current of affection's tears;
Then might the hearts that swell with anguish still
In calm composure this last act fulfil.
But. ah ! Remembrance has no soothing power,
Hope only cheers the melancholy hour:
Hope, that if worthy, at the eternal day.
Each cloud and earthly suffering swept away,
Those parted here, united shall enjoy
That bliss which death nor sorrow can destroy."

FAMILY

OF

JOHN HARRIS JOHNSTON.

JOHNSTON, DAVIDSON, PINTARD,

JOHNSON.

JOHN HARRIS JOHNSTON.

John Harris Johnston, after attending school
in his native county, was taken while a youth to
Rapides parish, La., by his half brother, Hon.
Josiah S. Johnston, and given the advantages of a
thorough education by the best private tutors.
When still in his teens he joined the company of
his brother, and with it went to the defence of New
Orleans, but it did not arrive until a day or two
after the battle. He studied law and was success-
ful in its practice. He was several times elected
to the Legislature from the parish of Rapides, and
in 1830 was chosen Speaker of the House. At
that time there were both French and Spanish
members, and his proficiency in both languages
served him well as a presiding officer. He de-
clined re-election to the Legislature and a proposed
candidacy for Congress, but shortly after was ap-
pointed Judge of the Sixth Judicial District and
filled that office until 1834, when he became Parish
Judge, which office he filled until his death. He
was also a successful planter. His death at the
early age of fort}' was greatly deplored by his fel-
low-citizens, by whom he was admired and be-
loved for man}- estimable qualities. He was a very
handsome man, with pleasing manners and a most
winning address.

JOSIAH STODDARD "JOHNSTON
THE SECOND.

Col. J. Stoddard Johnston, of Louisville, Ky. ,
was the second son of Judge John Harris Johnston,
and is a descendant on the maternal side from a long
line of educated, intellectual and patriotic ancestry.
His mother, Eliza Ellen Davidson, was the eldest
child of a family of eleven, the children of Dr.
Richard Davidson, of New Orleans, La. Dr.
Davidson, son of John and Eleanor Ewing David-
son, was born in Prince Edward county, Va. ,
December 25, 1783. His ancestors came from
Scotland in 1680. Dr. Davidson was educated at
Transylvania University, Ky. , where he graduated
in 1803. He became an assistant surgeon in the
United States Army, and afterward practised medi-
cine in Mississippi, finally settling in New Orleans,
where he was Port physician and a leading mem-
ber of the profession until his death, February 8,
1839. His wife, Eliza Noel Pintard, was the
daughter of John Pintard, a noted citizen of New
York City. John Pintard, the great-grandfather
of Col. J. S. Johnston, was the great-grandson of
Antoine Pintard, a native of La Rochelle, France,
a Huguenot refugee, who emigrated to New York
in 1686, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
John Pintard was at one time one of the most lead-

Josiaii Stoddard Johnston the Second. 79

ing figures in the commercial world of New York,
and always esteemed as a notable exemplar of all
the civic and domestic virtues. He was, after the
loss of his fortune, by endorsing for a friend, edi-
tor of the Public Advertiser in 1802, clerk of the
corporation and city inspector until 1809; secre-
tary of the Mutual Insurance Company, the oldest
in New York; founder of Tammany in 1790 and
its first sagamore; founder of the New York His-
torical Society; a promoter of the first savings
bank, and an officer of many charities, including
the American Bible Society. He was a vestryman of
the French Church of St. Esprit, and translated into
French the version of the Book of Common Prayer
still in use. He died August, 1845. Among
Colonel Johnston's other ancestors was Colonel
Abram Brasher, a member of the first, second and
third Provincial Congresses of New York, a revolu-
tionary officer and a member of the Committee of
One Hundred, when Washington occupied New
York.

Colonel Johnston himself was born in New
Orleans, Louisiana, February 10, 1833. On the
death of his mother, March 23, 1837, nis father,
Judge Johnston, entrusted his three little sons to
the care of their mother's sister, Mrs. Mary David-
son Hancock, wife of Colonel George Hancock, of
Jefferson county, Kentucky. Under their tender
care and judicious tutelage they grew to man's
estate. The eldest son, John Pintard Johnston,
died in his nineteenth year from the sequelcz of an
attack of cholera in the epidemic of 1849. He was

80 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

a very handsome, attractive and gifted youth, with
high aspirations and a rare promise of usefulness
and distinction. The youngest brother, Harris
Hancock Johnston, who was an infant a few months
old when his mother died, was reared by his mater-
nal aunt, Mrs. Mary D. Hancock, and became the
adopted son of herself and her husband, Colonel
Hancock. He received his education in that State
and at the University of Virginia and for several
years prior to the war was a cotton planter in
Desha county, Arkansas. He married Miss Anna
Brooks, of Bullitt county, Kentucky, June 8, 1859.
Upon the breaking out of hostilities he entered the
Confederate Army and served with distinction
upon the staff of General William Preston. In
1864 he was appointed Captain of an independent
company of cavalry assigned to special service in
the river counties of upper Mississippi until the
close of the war. He was distinguished as a
gallant and useful officer. With the exception of
a short interval he was engaged in farming from the
close of the war until his death, May 19, 1877.
He was a man of intrepid courage, of fine business
capacity, much beloved by his friends and of
incorruptible integrity. His widow survived him.
He left no children.

To resume the narrative of Col. J. S. Johnston's
career: he was a pupil of Samuel V. Womack, of
Shelbyville, Ky. , a noted teacher of the classics,
and afterward he became a student in the Western
Military Institute at Georgetown, Ky., where he
remained several years. Stoddard Johnston, as he

Josiah Stoddard Johnston the Second. SI

was generally called, went to Yale College, where
he was graduated in 1853. He studied law at the
Louisville Law School and took his diploma in
1854. In the same year, July 13, 1S54, he married
Miss Eliza Woolfolk Johnson, and became a
planter near Helena, Ark. After an experience as
a cotton planter from 1854 to 1859, he exchanged
his occupation for that of a farmer in Scott county,
Ky. Here he remained until Morgan's first raid
into Kentucky, July, 1862, when he entered the
Confederate Army and served until the end of the
war in many positions of great importance in the
Adjutant General's department, and was present in
twenty- two engagements. He served with high
commendation on the staff of General Bragg, with
the rank of lieutenant colonel, and afterward with
General Buckner until after the battle of Chicka-
mauga, and from then as chief of staff to Gen.
John C. Breckinridge until March, 1865, when the
latter was made Secretary ot War. He remained
with General Echols, who succeeded to the com-
mand, till the close of the war. Among the battles
in which he took part were Perry ville, Murfrees-
boro, Chickamauga, Xew Market, Cold Harbor
and Winchester, in all of which he received special
mention for gallantry. Colonel Johnston was noted
for equanimity, sagacity and devotion to duty, and
his counsel was valued by the most distinguished
officers in the army. He was often thanked in
orders. After the war and a residence for a year
in Helena, Ark., where he practised law, in 1867
he became the editor of the Frankfort (Kentucky)

82 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

Yeoman, the official organ of the Democratic party in
the State. He assisted in organizing the Kentucky
Press Association in 1869, and was its president
from 1870 to 1886 by annual election. He was
Adjutant General of Kentucky in 1871, and served
as Secretary of State from 1875 to 1879. In 1875
he was a candidate for Governor, but failed to
receive the nomination. He was able, however, to
name the candidate. He was secretary and chair-
man of the Democratic Central Committee for many
years. As long as he held this position, which gave
commanding influence in the part}^ management,
his associates scored an unvarying success. A good
deal of the subsequent rapid disintegration of the
party was attributed by his friends to his absence
from their counsels. In 1886 he gave up his
place on the Yeoman, and in 1889 abandoned
political life and removed to Louisville, Ky.,
where hisiprivate business demanded his attention.
Colonel Johnston's energy and business ability
were illustrated in the foundation and development
of the town of Abilene, Tex., which were princi-
pally due to him. This episode in his life would
read almost like a romance. But for his bound-
less hospitality he wronld now be accounted among
the rich men of his generation. Having devoted
a good deal of attention to local history, in con-
nection with the Filson Club and other literary
organizations, he was finally enlisted as the editor
of the " History of Louisville," published in two
large quartos, a work demanding an enormous
amount of labor and research, which he accom-

Josiah Stoddard Johnston the Second. 83

plished with a skill, fidelity and taste rarely found
in similar productions. Colonel Johnston was at
times engaged in various enterprises, developing
the industrial resources of Kentucky and of Texas,
and with a strong native bent for scientific research
and very accurate habits of thought, he made him-
self, next after his intimate friend, Prof. John R.
Proctor, the best practical geologist in Kentucky.
It is probable also that he has no superior in the
knowledge of the flora of Kentucky, and espe-
cially in arboriculture, in which he has always
taken the liveliest interest. Education had no bet-
ter friend in the State, and his addresses have been
marked by a strong advocacy both of high culture
and a popular diffusion of knowledge. As a polit-
ical writer, while wielding a trenchant pen when
occasion required, yet the overflow of a genial and
kindly humor generally robbed his most effective
writing of its sting. Indeed, he is a signal
example of a capacious nature bathing itself in the
sunshine of existence and diffusing to others its
own happiness till the shadows fall. Few men
have done more for others than Stoddard Johnston.

Mrs. Eliza Woolfolk Johnston, the wife of
Col. J. Stoddard Johnston, was the daughter of
George W. Johnson, of Scott county, Ken-
tucky, a man who presents a heroic figure in the
annals of Kentucky. His father, William John-
son, was an officer in the War of 1812; and his
grandfather, Robert Johnson, of Orange county,
Virginia, was an early pioneer in Kentucky, dele

84 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

gate to the Virginia Legislature and member of the
convention which framed the first Constitution of
Kentucky. George W. Johnson was born in
Scott county, Kentucky, May 27, 1811. He was
educated at Transylvania University and studied
law, but early relinquished its practice and became
a farmer. He served as member of the Legisla-
ture in 1838-39, and was nominated as Democratic
candidate for Lieutenant Governor in 1851, but
declined. He was prominent in the councils of his
party, and was several times offered the nomination
for Congress, but early announced his purpose to
accept no office of profit. In 1852 and in 1856 he
was the Democratic elector for the Ashland dis-
trict. In 1861, when the neutrality of Kentucky
was violated by the Federal government, he went
South and entered the Confederate service. When
the Provisional Government of Kentucky was
organized at Russellville, Ky. , in November, 1861,
he was chosen Governor. Upon the evacuation of
Kentucky he accompanied the Confederate army,
and at the battle of Shiloh served the first day
upon the staff of Gen. John C. Breckinridge. His
horse having been killed in battle, although he
bore the nominal rank of brigadier general, he
joined a company of Kentucky infantry as a pri-
vate, and next day carried a musket in the battle,
where he fell mortally wounded. He was a man
of great force of character, of strong intellect
and moral worth. He married Anne E. Viley,
daughter of Capt. William Viley, of Scott county,
Kentucky, and left seven children.

ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON

AND

HIS FAMILY.

ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON

Albert Sidney Johnston was one of the most
conspicuous figures of his times in the United
States, and, as his life has been written carefully
and in detail, and all the respectable biographical
dictionaries contain more or less accurate notices
of his life, no extended account of him will be
necessary in this little volume. Sufficient biblio-
graphical data will, however, be appended to
enable any who desire to know more fully the
features of his eventful and noble career to do so
intelligently. His high personal qualities, the
vicissitudes of his fortunes and his heroic death at
the head of the Confederate Arm}- in the moment
of victory have won for him the respect of the
victors in a fratricidal contest, and the lamenta-
tions of the vanquished, who are convinced that on
his arm rested the final issue of the contest. His
memory has received honorable and generous
treatment, for the most part, by the Federal writers
and soldiers, while the Southern people have
invested it with all the sacred emblems that a
tender and sorrowful retrospect could suggest.

Albert Sidney Johnston was the youngest son of
Dr. John Johnston and his wrife Abigail Harris,
and was born in the village of Washington, Ky. ,
February 3, 1803. His earl}' life was passed
among people who were intellectually well culti-

88 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

vated and of an elevated moral tone and yet passed
their lives in the primitive simplicity of a frontier
settlement. His father's sturdy, robust nature and
life of unwearying toil as a country physician set
a fine example of manly traits for his many sons;
and Albert Sidney, like the others, grew up with
strong convictions of duty, honor and aspiration.
I have not mentioned in my biography of General
Johnston how he came to have a name unique in
combination so far as we know. His father was a
very pronounced republican, and one of his favor-
ite heroes was Algernon Sidney, the Whig martyr;
so that when his youngest son was born he deter-
mined to name him for that illustrious patriot.
Fortunately, his eldest son, who had just reached
manhood, was at home, and with much difficulty
persuaded him that so famous an appellation was
too heavy a load to start a boy with in life. The
father gave up the Algernon, on condition that
Sidney might form part of the name. Josiah S.
Johnston, with what we think singular good taste,
framed the name that has since passed into his-
tory.

Albert Sidney Johnston got fair teaching at the
country schools, and was sent to Transylvania Uni-
versity at Lexington, Kentucky, then the most
famous institution of learning in the West. Here
he did well ; but his brother Josiah, by this time
prominent in political life in Louisiana, took him
in charge, and in due time had him appointed a
cadet from Rapides parish to the United States
Military Academy at West Point. General Johnston

Albert Sidney Johnston. 89

more than once said to the writer : "I am more
indebted to my brother Josiah Stoddard for what-
ever I am than to any other man. ' ' Senator John-
ston was an excellent example of manhood for his
younger brothers to look up to. Albert Sidney
Johnston won a high reputation at West Point
among the cadets as well as with the faculty. He
was graduated eighth in his class, though his
standing in mathematics was much higher, and he
became Adjutant of the Corps, then regarded as
the first military distinction. His first appoint-
ment was to the Second Infantry, but after a short
interval he was transferred to the Sixth Infantry,
of which he was made Adjutant. On the 20th
January, 1829, he married Henrietta Preston, of
whom a short account is given in connection here-
with, and a fuller one in the Life of General Albert
Sidney Johnston. Lieutenant Johnston's married
life was passed principally at Jefferson Barracks,
below St. Louis, and the only episode that stirred
its almost Arcadian tranquillity was the Black
Hawk War, in which he took an important part as
Adjutant General. An authentic account of this
is given in his life, and, indeed, all the official
reports must be finally traced to his own. In the
simple performance of his duty he won a good deal
of prestige and the confidence of his fellow-officers,
but missed the rewards that spring from political
patronage. This was greatly due, however, to an
independence of spirit that stood, perhaps, too
much aloof from the ordinary paths to place and
power. Mrs. Johnston's illness led to Lieutenant

90 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

Johnston's resignation from the United States
Army, April 24, 1834, and ^er death in August,
1835, to an entire change in his career.

In August, 1836, Albert Sidney Johnston went
to Texas and offered himself as a mounted volun-
teer in the arm}- . He had strong letters and testi-
monials, but did not choose to avail himself of
them. General Rusk's eye singled him out in the
ranks as one in a thousand, which perhaps was
not difficult to do ; and, having discovered his
identity, at once made him Adjutant General of
the army, with the rank of colonel. Captain
Price (History of Fifth Cavalry) doubts this fact
as not a priori probable. Not probable from
his point of view, perhaps ; but true, nevertheless,
as it came from General Rusk himself, and was
entirely in accordance with the spirit of the time,
the man and the occasion. The victory of San
Jacinto in the previous April had, owing to the
anarchy in Mexican counsels, virtually settled the
independence of Texas ; but this was not apparent
to the foresight of any human being. The pre-
ponderance of power and resources was so tremen-
dous that it was felt that any really energetic dis-
play of force by Mexico could sweep the feeble
infant republic and its inhabitants from the earth.
Its fate trembled in the balance. President Hous-
ton believed in and acted upon an opportunist
policy ; and, as it prevailed at the time and event-
uated in annexation, it is not to be condemned,
though it was maintained at a great expenditure of
blood and suffering on the frontier. General John-

Albert Sidney Johnston. 91

ston, who became the Senior Brigadier General of
the army, December 22, 1836, held a different view,
and felt that, in a trial of arms, he could in a single
campaign conquer a peace that would ensure a
rapid and secure development of the republic.
Those who knew him then and since had faith in
his plans, but the policy of inertia controlled the
Texan government. This led to an estrangement
that had important consequences in his career.
General Johnston never had the opportunity to
fight a battle with the Mexicans, and first met
them in lorce, as a subordinate, at the Battle of
Monterey, after the annexation of Texas.

When Mirabeau B. Lamar became President in
1839, he appointed General Johnston Secretary of
War. The most important act of Johnston's
administration of this office was the removal of the
Cherokees from the disputed territory in North-
western Texas, to which they laid claim. This
was only effected after two severe battles on the
River Neches, in which he had the actual, though
not the nominal, command. The result was the
redemption of two-thirds of the territory of Texas
from savagery to civilization. Vigorous and
aggressive measures against the merciless Coman-
ches opened the northwestern frontier to settlers,
and foiled the machinations of Mexico, which had
used this weapon to harass and check the immi-
grants to Texas.

General Johnston, though abstemious in his
habits and indifferent to the accidents of fortune,
always displayed a generous profusion in helping

92 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

a friend in need, or anybody, indeed, in distress,
and thus had greatly impaired the somewhat ample
estate he had derived from his wife. He had
spent, too, his money freely for the benefit of the
Republic, wherever it was necessary, and now he
was greatly straitened for means. The opposition to
General Houston's election to the Presidency used
his name as a rallying cry; but he had no taste for
politics, and longed for the tranquillity of a domestic
life. He retired absolutely from public affairs, and
October 3, 1843, married Miss Eliza Griffin, a brief
sketch of whom accompanies this memoir. The
Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston contains
many interesting details of this estimable lady, who
shared General Johnston's wayward fortunes for
the rest of his life, and nobly sustained her part as
wife and widow.

General Johnston now prepared to settle on the
China Grove plantation in Brazoria county, Texas,
with the intention of planting sugar. But before
he entered on this work he was called to the Rio
Grande by General Zachary Taylor in the war
against Mexico, and served a campaign as Colonel
of the First Texas Rifles, and, at the battle of Mon-
terey, as Inspector General of Butler's Division.
Generals Butler and Taylor recommended him for
Brigadier General, but political considerations pre-
vented his appointment, and he retired to his plan-
tation. Here he remained till 1849, laboring in ob-
scurity and ill health and getting deeper into debt.
President Taylor then made him a Paymaster in the
United States Army, and he thus re-entered military

Albert Sidney Johnston. 93

life. He extricated himself from debt, and making
his home at Austin, for six years passed a laborious
and ex-acting existence, paying the troops on the
Texas frontier. But there is no doubt that this was
a period of great self-development to him; though,
indeed, his whole life was passed in strenuous
thought, when not engaged in actual work.

In 1855, he was appointed Colonel of the Second
Cavalry, a newly created regiment, by President
Pierce, at the instance of General Jefferson Davis,
Secretary of War. He organized this regiment and
took command of the Department of Texas. In
1856, General Winfield Scott said he regarded
General Johnston's appointment " as a godsend to
the country."

In the spring of 1857, tne trouble that had been
brewing with the Mormons in Utah culminated in
virtual revolt from the paramount authority of the
United States over the Territories, and the govern-
ment at "Washington took steps to enforce the laws
by the aid of the military, if necessary. An expe-
dition was organized under General Harney and
set in motion, and no apprehensions were enter-
tained of real resistance until late in the season,
when the country was startled by the intelligence
that an army of 2500 United States soldiers was in
danger of destruction from the approaching snows
of winter, starvation, and the hostile arms of the
rebellious Mormons. The whole country was
alarmed; and, looking around for a man to save it
from a signal disaster, the administration fixed on
General Johnston. He was hastily sent to the

94 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

front, and by forced marches and a wonderful dis-
play of energy and military ability succeeded in
extricating the troops from a most perilous situa-
tion, and in carrying them through a winter of
great hardships, with improved discipline and
enthusiasm. This is not the place to give the
details of the campaign, which resulted in the
quiet submission of the Mormons, nor of General
Johnston's subsequent administration of that mili-
tary department. Sufficient that he was brevetted
as a brigadier general, and established a military
reputation second to that of no man in the army
except General Scott.

When secession began in 1861, General John-
ston was in command of the Department of the
Pacific, with his headquarters at San Francisco.
He deplored the events that were taking place, and
doubted the wisdom of the action taken by the
South, in general and in detail, but his heart was
with his own people, and his allegiance was due to
the State of Texas, of which he had been a citizen
for a quarter of a century. He rtsigned his com-
mission in the United States Army, April, 1861;
but so conducted the affairs of the department that
he might deliver his trust intact, as he had
received it, to such successor as might be sent by
the government of the United States. This he did
loyally, as General Sumner, to whom he turned
over the command, testified. All statements to the
contrary are false, and also malignant, as they
were disproven in his Biography, and by much
subsequent cumulative testimony. In resigning his

Albert Sidney Johnston. 95

command, General Johnston performed an act of
self-sacrifice that any one can recognize. His was
almost the highest rank and prestige in the army,
and he gave up all the assured splendid rewards of
a mighty government to take part with a section,
whose relative feebleness none knew better than
himself.

His movements were jealously watched, but
with a small company of faithful friends he skil-
fully evaded the snares set for him, and made a
rapid journey of fifteen hundred miles through
the deserts of California and Arizona, from Los
Angeles to San Antonio. The hardships of this
fatiguing and perilous enterprise, undertaken at
the hottest time of the year, might well have tested
the most robust constitution, but be bore it well.
His arrival in the Confederate States was hailed
with the utmost enthusiasm, and President Davis
received him with the affection of early friendship
and a confidence in his warlike genius that re-
mained unshaken to the end. He gave him a com-
mand, imperial in extent and unparalleled in its
responsibilities. He was expected to protect Ten-
nessee, North Mississippi and the whole Western
frontier. If adequate means to defend this line had
been granted him, or adequate power to bring out
the resources of the country, he might have solved
the question differently. But, on taking command,
from Cumberland Gap to the Mississippi river he had
only 4000 troops to ward off an attack from many
times their number. There never came a time when
he was supplied with arms and men to meet the over-

96 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

whelming forces on his front. With his headquar-
ters at Bowling Green, Kentucky, he exhausted
the devices of strategy to delay the final advance
of the enemy ; and when it came made a success-
ful retreat. The disasters of Fishing Creek, Fort
Henry and FortDonelson followed ; the evacuation
of Nashville, the retreat through Middle Tennes-
see, the widespread panic and furious outbursts of
popular rage, and the concentration at Corinth,
Mississippi. Thence he delivered that tremendous
blow at Shiloh, which shattered the armies of
Grant and Sherman to fragments, but culminated
in his own death at the head of his troops in the
moment of victory.

This is not the place to discuss the details of that
campaign or battle. They have been the subject
of much controversy ; and the present writer has
given his views fully, and as he thinks fairly, in
the life of Gen. A. S. Johnston, and in an article
in the Century Magazine^ February, 1885. Adverse
and contradictory opinions, representing the opin-
ions of Generals Beauregard, Grant and Sherman,
are fully developed in many volumes and articles.
The principal of these are cited in the incomplete
bibliography appended to this sketch. Many other
independent opinions, Federal and Confederate,
are also embraced in this list.

Nowhere have the issues of that great battle and
the character and conduct of the commander been
better summed up than by Gen. Richard Taylor,
in his little volume, " Destruction and Reconstruc-
tion.' A few brief extracts from this must here
suffice:

Albert Sidney Johnston. 97

"Shiloh was a great misfortune. At the
moment of his fall, Sidney Johnston, with all the
energy of his nature, was pressing on the routed
foe. Crouching under the bank of the Tennessee
river, Grant was helpless. One short hour more
of life to Johnston would have completed his
destruction."

He laments the final loss of the battle by Beaure-
gard, " as nothing compared with the calamity of
Johnston's death. * General Zachary

'Taylor, with whom the early years of his service
had been passed, declared him to be the best
soldier he ever commanded. More than once I
have heard General Taylor express this opinion.
* With him at the helm, there would have

been no Vicksburg, no Missionary Ridge, no
Atlanta. His character was lofty and pure, his
presence and demeanor dignified and courteous,
with the simplicity of a child; and he at once
inspired the respect and gained the confidence of
cultivated gentlemen and rugged frontiersmen.

"As pure gold he came forth from the furnace
above the reach of slander, the foremost man of all
the South ; and had it been possible for one heart,
one mind, and one arm, to save her cause, she lost
them when Albert Sidney Johnston fell on the
field of Shiloh. As soon after the war as she was
permitted the Commonwealth of Texas removed
his remains from New Orleans, to inter them in a
land he had long and faithfully served. I was
honored by a request to accompany the coffin from
the cemetery to the steamer, and as I gazed upon

98 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

it there arose the feeling of the Theban who, after
the downfall of the glory and independence of his
country, stood by the tomb of Epaminondas. '

Many have been the words of praise, the phrases
of eulogy, the tributes of unmeasured admiration
to the memory of Albert Sidney Johnston. One or
another aspect of his character has commended
itself to those who knew and loved him. His gen-
tleness to women and children, his consideration
for the weak and lowly, his simple, pure and tender
family life, his magnetic influence over those about
him. his serene and philosophical view of all ques-
tions that agitate the mind, his absolute self-renun-
ciation in all matters of citizenship or public duty,
his fortitude and magnanimity in misfortune, and
the scope and splendor of his warlike genius, each
and every one of these traits enshrine his memory
for his friends, his kinsmen, and his country. To
them he stands, in the self-contained, consistent,
and rounded fullness of his life and character, as
the pattern of a true republican, of an American
citizen.

In the words of Gen. Randall L. Gibson, " Gen-
eral Johnston's death was a tremendous catas-
trophe. There are no words adequate to express
my own conception ot the immensity of the loss to
our country. Sometimes the hopes of millions of
people depend upon one head and one arm. The
West perished with Albert Sidney Johnston, and
the Southern country soon followed.'

General Johnston's body was carr.ed to Xew
Orleans, but was subsequently removed to Austin,

Albert Sidney Johnston. 99

Tex., at the request of the Legislature. A bronze
equestrian statue of him erected by the Association
of the Army of Tennessee surmounts their tomb
at New Orleans, La.

Henrietta Preston Johnston. — Henrietta
Preston, first wife of Albert Sidney Johnston, was
the daughter of Major William Preston and his
wife, Caroline Hancock. A sketch of Major Pres-
ton and his family is given in the supplement to
this volume. And likewise, in the brief memoir
of the Strother and Hancock families, some account
is given of ancestors who were those also of Gen.
Albert Sidney Johnston's second wife, Eliza Grif-
fin. But any memoir of Henrietta Preston would
be inadequate that did not include some mention
of her mother, Mrs. Caroline Hancock Preston.

This lady, who had a shrewd habit of observa-
tion, often remarked that filial gratitude was he-
reditary, and that filial ingratitude carried with it
its own retribution — always. She reinforced her
aphorism with pertinent illustrations that still cling
to the writer. Her own family was a very remark-
able instance of the devotion of mother and daughter
through successive generations. Circumstances
separated mother and daughter in the childhood of
her mother, Margaret Strother ; but from the time
she was restored to her arms, as a girl of seventeen,
this impetuous and loyal daughter never allowed
herself to be separated from her mother till she
saw her laid away in the family vault more than a
half a century later. Mrs. Hancock died at an

100 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

advanced age in the house of her daughter, Mrs.
Caroline H. Preston ; but her death was a blow to
her daughter, who never recovered from it, though
she survived for a quarter of a century. So Mrs.
Preston, though she received from all her children
the admiration to which she was entitled, was the
object of profound devotion from her eldest
daughter, Henrietta, and of an almost idolatrous
affection from her youngest child, Susan. They,
in turn, enlisted the warmest affections of
a younger generation. The writer will be pardoned
if he has been drawn aside into this illustration of
a phenomenon, the reverse of which he has seen
exemplified in quite as strong colors.

But to return to Mrs. Caroline Hancock Preston
and her personality. She was a woman born
to be a power in any society to which destiny
called her. Of noble presence and a high order
of personal beauty, she possessed still more com-
manding qualities in a remarkable clearness and
vigor of intellect, great business ability and
energy, a high courage and powerful will, and
most charming manners. She combined great
vivacity with dignity, but above all her name is
still murmured 011 grateful lips, by the poor of
Louisville, after a half century, for her gracious
and unbounded benevolence. Left a widow in
embarrassed circumstances at thirty-six years of
age, she remained unmarried, extricated her
estate from debt, and brought up a large fam-
ily, many of whose descendants still remain in
Louisville.

Albert Sidney Johnston. 101

Henrietta was the eldest child, the friend and
confidante of her mother, and her coadjutor in the
care and nurture of the family. She had the good
fortune to obtain an education very much beyond
the standard of the times and being endowed by
nature with taste and imagination, and a rare gift
for composition in both verse and prose, she was
able to impart to the household the charm and
refinement that springs from love of literature and
the intellectual life. She was a woman whose
virtue, sweetness, strength and poise have left
their fragrant tradition, through the fading years
among her kindred and friends. '" She was above
middle size — five feet six inches in height — and of
agreeable person, with a full form, a brilliant color,
hazel eyes, dark hair, and somewhat irregular but
pleasing features. Her voice had wonderful har-
mony in its modulations. Her manner was full of
dignity and ease, but vivacious and engaging, and.
her conversation has been variously characterized
as piquant, graceful and eloquent. She was a
woman of firm yet gentle temper and eminently
benevolent and forbearing. General Johnston told
me that ' it was impossible to have felt her in-
fluence, and afterward to cherish low views ; that
to her he owed the wish to be truly great. ' This
portraiture, taken from the life of General John-
ston, will show that she was a worthy helpmate to
her husband. General Johnston said of her to the
writer, "If I am anything, I owe it to your
mother. ' '

102 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

Eliza Griffin Johnston.— Eliza Griffin ; mar-
ried October 3, 1843, second wife of General
Albert Sidney Johnston, was the only daughter
of Colonel George Hancock's eldest daughter,
Mary, who was born February 14, 1783, married
John Caswell Griffin, of Fincastle, Virginia, and
died April 26, 1826. Hence, Mrs. Eliza Griffin
Johnston was cousin-german to General Johnston's
first wife, Henrietta Preston, they being daughters
of sisters ; so that the Hancocks and Strothers
were likewise her ancestors. Her descendants are
given in detail in the tables. Mrs. Eliza Johnston
was a woman of great beauty, high courage, and
fine talents, and was gifted with remarkable skill
in both music and painting. The " Life of General
Albert Sidney Johnston , ' ' towhich reference is made,
contains a full account of their married life. After
his death she remained in California under the
protection of her brother, Dr. John Strother Griffin,
and brought up her family there. She preserved
her striking personality to the last, and died Sep-
tember 25, 1896, at Los Angeles, California. Her
children inherited much of her artistic talent ;
Hancock in painting, and all in music.

It is not the intention of the present writer to
offer a complete bibliography of works concerning
the life and career of General Johnston ; but as it is
not desirable or proper to give here more than a
mere bald sketch of him, a list of books, pamphlets
and magazine articles is appended for reference
for those persons who are interested in him as a

Albert Sidney Johnston. 103

man and a general, and this list comprises many
comments bearing on General Johnston's campaign
in 1861-62 and the battle of Shiloh. It includes
material both friendly and adverse, and from both
the Federal and the Confederate point of view ;
but though by no means exhaustive, it will assist
the reader who wishes to consider the various
aspects of the discussion of those events.

List of books referring to the life and career of
Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston:

1. Life of Gen. A. S. Johnston, by Win. Preston
Johnston. 8vo., 1878. D. Appleton & Co.

2. Short History of the Confederate States of
America, by Jefferson Davis. o. Belford
Company. New York.

3. Jefferson Davis. A memoir by his wife. Svo. ,
2 vols. Belford Company, Xew York.

4. Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government,
by Jefferson Davis. 8vo. D. Appleton & Co.,
1881.

5. Marmont's Military Institutions. Edited by
Col. Frank Schaller. i2mo. Columbia, S. C,
1864.

6. Destruction and Reconstruction, by Lieutenant
General Richard Taylor, C. S. A. D. Apple-
ton & Co. , 1879.

7. History of Morgan's Cavalry, by Gen. Basil W.
Duke, C. S. A. Cincinnati, 1867.

8. History of the First Kentucky Brigade, by Ed.
Porter Thompson. Cincinnati, 1868.

9. Leonidas Polk, by Dr. William M. Polk, Long-
mans, Green & Co., New7 York. 1895.

10. The Southern Historical Society Papers con-
tains various articles reflecting the views of
their authors.

104 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

The following books and pamphlets give Gen-
eral Beauregard's view of mooted questions :

General Beauregard. A Memoir by Col. Alfred
Roman. Harper & Brothers.

The First Year of the War, by Edward A. Pollard.
West & Johnston, 1862.

The Lost Cause. Same. N. Y., 1866.

The Campaigns of General N. B. Forrest, by
Thomas Jordan. Blelock&Co., 1868.

Notes on Pollard's Lost Cause, by General Beau-
regard, 1867.

The Shiloh Campaign. Criticism of General
Johnston by General Beauregard. Southern
Historical Papers, 1886.

Jordan's Recollections. Southern Historical
Papers, 1874.

Roman's Beauregard, by Charles Gayarre. South-
ern Historical Papers.

The following books reflect the views of Federal
writers:

1. The Memoirs of Gen. U. S. Grant and various
lives of him, as by Badeau, Greeley, et al.

2. Memoirs of General Sherman, by himself, and
other lives of him.

3. Sherman's Historical Raid, by Boynton. Cin-
cinnati, 1875.

4. C. W. Moulton's Reviews of General Sherman's
Memoirs. Robert Clarke, 1875.

5. Life of Gen. George H. Thomas, by Van Home.

6. Histor}- of the Army of the Cumberland, by Van
Home. Robert Clarke & Co., 1875.

7. Army of the Cumberland, by Gen. Henry M.
Cist. Charles Scribner, 1882.

8. Swinton's Twelve Decisive Battles of the War.

1867.

Albert Sidney Johnston. 105

9. From Fort Henry to Corinth, by Gen. M. F.
Force. 121110. Scribner, 1882.

10. From Everglade to Caiion with the Second
Dragoons, by General Rodenbangh. Van Xos-
trand, 1875.

n. Across the Continent with the Fifth Cavalry,
by Capt. George F. Price. Van Xostrand,
1883.

12. History of the United States Cavalry, by Col.
A. G. Brackett. Harper & Bros., 1865.

13. Life of Admiral Foote, by J. M. Hoppin.

1875.

14. History of the Civil War, by the Comte de

Paris. Vol. 1. Translated. Jos. H. Coates,
Philadelphia, 1875.

The following is a list of pamphlets and
magazines articles giving the most diverse aspects
of facts and opinions :

Sketch of the First Kentucky Brigade, by General

George B. Hodge. Frankfort, Kentucky, 1874.

(Also in "The Land we Love." Vol. 4, Xo.

4, February, 1868.)
Battle of Shiloh, by Colonel E. M. Drake. Annals

of the Arm}- of Tennessee. Vol. 1, page 117.

General A. S. Johnston. (Ibid.) Vol. 1, page 298.
Tables of Battles. (Ibid.) Supplement.

The Spirit of Military Institutions, by Professor
Albert T. Bledsoe. Southern Magazine, Jan-
uary, 1872.

General Albert Sidney Johnston, by Colonel Ed-
ward W. Mumford. Pamphlet. (Also in Annals
of Army of Tennessee.)

Liddell's Records of the Civil War. Part 2d.

Death of Albert Sidney Johnston. Southern
Bivouac.

106

The Johnstons of Salisbury.

The Blunders of the Rebellion, by Colonel Thomas
Worthington. Washington, 1869.

Shiloh. (Ibid.) 1872.

A correct History of Shiloh. (Ibid.) 1880.

Proceedings of Seventh Annual Reunion of the
Cincinnati Society of ex-Army and Navy Offi-
cers. January 12, 1882. Cincinnati, 1883.

The Romance of Shiloh, by General Henry M.
Cist, U. S. A.

Shiloh, by General Wm. Farrar Smith, U. S. A.

The Genius of Battle. (Ibid.)

Century Magazine, February, 1885. Shiloh, by
Grant, Beauregard and Wm. Preston Johnston.

Offer of a Union command to General A. S. John-
ston. Fitzjohn Porter. (Ibid.)

The Battle of Shiloh, by AVarren Olney. Overland
Monthly, June, 1885.

Address on same. (Ibid.) May 31, 1889.

Sherman on Grant. Xorth American Review,
Vol. 141, page in.

Sherman's Opinion of Grant. (Ibid.) 1886, page
120.

General Grant on Lew Wallace and McCook at
Shiloh. Century Magazine, 1885.

Battle of Shiloh, by Colonel L. B. Crocker, 55th
Illinois Infantry. Chicago.

A Section of a Battle. (Ibid.)

An English View of the Civil War, by Lord
Wolseley. Xorth American Review.

Lord Wolseley on the Battle of Shiloh, by General
M. M. Trumbull, U. S. A.

Records of the Rebellion, Vols. IV, VI and X.

FAMILY OF ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON.

General Johnston left seven children — four sons
and three daughters. All his children are descend-
ants of Col. George Hancock (3d), of Fotherin-
gay and Margaret Strother, his wife ; both of his
wives being their granddaughters. An ample
sketch is given of his eldest son herewith. His
second son, Sidney, a noble and stalwart youth,
only survived him a year. He was but seventeen
years old when General Johnston left California,
and barely a year afterward he perished in the
terrible explosion of the steamboat Ada Hancock
in the port of San Pedro, California. He had
evinced the finest purpose in head and heart dur-
ing his brief life.

Hancock McClung Johnston, the next son, was
a boy under fifteen years of age when his father
left. He at once joined his brother in the effort to
aid in their mother's support. He endured much
during the war : but, .with, a slender education, he
fitted himself for a man of business, and before he
was of age had filled positions of profit and trust
that gave him the necessary start in life. Unfor-
tunately, this was achieved at a severe price.
Employed in the Almaden Quicksilver Mines, he
probably there undermined a most robust consti-
tution and a frame of phenomenal strength and

108 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

vigor. During a very eventful life, he amassed a
large fortune — nearly a million — in great agricult-
ural and industrial enterprises ; but, among the not
unusual fluctuations of the Pacific Coast, this has
not been secured to his latter years. He has been
for many years a citizen of Los Angeles. Debarred
from active life by ill health, he has in recent
years devoted himself to art, especially china dec-
oration, a gift inherited from his mother. On June
28, 1870, Mr. Johnston married Mary Alice Baton.
The)" have three sons.

Man* Eaton Johnston is the daughter of Benja-
min S. Eaton. Mr. Eaton was a lawyer by pro-
fession, a California pioneer, and one of the found-
ers of the Colony of Passadena. He was an editor
in early days, and afterward, in 1854, District
Attorney. His father, Elkanah C. Eaton, was a
descendant of Jonas Eaton, who settled at Fram-
ingham, Mass., in 1630. E. C. Eaton was a
soldier of the war of 181 2, and, after peace was
restored, was for forty years engaged with Isaac
Fish in large contracts for carrying the mail
between Xew York and Boston. Mrs. Johnston's
mother was Helen Hayes. Her eldest brother,
Benjamin Hayes, was District Judge of Southern
California from 1S53 to 1863. He was a man of
integrity and fine intellect, and was considered an
authority on Spanish grants.

Among her ancestors Mrs. Johnston numbers
the same Col. George Denison, of Massachusetts,
named as the ancestor of Mrs. Margaret Avery
Johnston and Richard Sharpe, Jr.

Albert Sidney Johnston. 109

Griffin Johnston, the youngest son of General
Johnston, was educated at Washington and Lee
University, Lexington, Va., under the eye of his
brother, Wm. Preston Johnston. He studied for
the bar and became a learned and successful law-
yer at Los Angeles, Cal. He prospered and mar-
ried Maud Walton, August 30, 1886, and died
November 25, 1895. Griffin Johnston was a man
of most powerful grasp of intellect. His ease in
acquiring knowledge, as a student, was phenome-
nal, and he had a sweetness of disposition and
kindness of heart that endeared him to his friends.
But he was singularly unambitious and indifferent
to worldly success. He was generous and sym-
pathetic, and that he left a considerable estate was
due rather to an intelligent desire for independence
and to simple habits of life than to any wish for
wealth. His untimely death alone prevented a
distinction which would have sought him out,
though he would never have sought it.

General Johnston's eldest daughter, Henrietta
Preston Johnston , has devoted a great part of her
life and fortune to benevolent purposes and the
education of the young. She inherited from her
mother a talent for prose and poetic composition of
a high order, but with a critical self-depreciation
that has prevented her from seeking literary repu-
tation. Later in life she has taken up miniature
painting on china with the most satisfactory
results.

Margaret Strother Johnston, second daughter of
Albert Sidney and Eliza Griffin Johnston, married

110 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

Capt. William B. Prichard, a native of Virginia.
Captain Prichard served with distinction in the
Confederate Army as captain of Company B,
Thirty-eighth Virginia Infantry, Armistead's Bri-
gade, and was one of the few survivors of Pickett's
famous and fatal charge at Gettysburg. After the
war he remained some time as an assistant profes-
sor of the Virginia Military Institute. Finally he
adopted the profession of civil engineer and
removed to California, where he has passed his life
in that profession and the pursuits of agriculture.
He is now a resident of San Francisco. Captain
Prichard is a gentleman of the highest character.
They have one child, Eliza Griffin (Elsie), born
March 15, 1878. Unmarried.

Eliza Alberta Johnston, youngest child of Gen-
eral Johnston, born August 30, 1861 ; married
George Jules Denis, a native of New Orleans and
a member of the old families of Denis and Cenas
of that city. Mr. Denis was born June 20, 1859,
and was educated at Washington and Lee Univer-
sity, Virginia. He removed to Eos Angeles, Cali-
fornia and engaged in the practice of law. Under
the appointment of President Cleveland, he has
twice held the difficult position of United States
Attorney for the Southern District of California,
and has acquitted himself with remarkable suc-
cess. They have one child, Alberta, born April
16, 1889.

George J. Denis is a grandson of the late Judge
Henry Raphael Denis, who married the daughter
of Pierre d'Herbigny, a distinguished citizen of

Albert Sidney Johnston. Ill

Louisiana. The latter early in life came to the
State from Laon, France, where his family was one
of ancient and eminent lineage. This one married
the daughter of Chevalier Pierre DeHault De
Lassus de Luzieres, a soldier of renown in the
Louisiana armies of Spain, and at one time in com-
mand at Fort Duquesne, the site of the present city
of Pittsburgh. M. d'Herbigny filled the most
important public positions in the State. He was
one of the framers of the Code, a justice of the
Supreme Court, and Governor of the State, in
which office he died in 1S29.

Mr. Denis' mother was Georgine Cenas, daugh-
ter of A. H. and Minerva Carmick. Her grand-
father Cenas was the Mayor of Philadelphia in
1774, and her mother's father was the celebrated
Major Daniel Carmick, of the United States Marine
Corps, who was twice voted thanks by Congress
and the French Chamber of Deputies for bravery,
in the latter case for saving the lives of Frenchmen
at Port Platte, in San Domingo.

FAMILY

OF

WM. PRESTOX JOHXSTOX

WILLIAM PRESTOX JOHXSTOX.

William Preston Johnston, eldest son of
Albert Sidney and Henrietta Preston Johnston,
was born in Louisville, Kentucky, January 5,
1 83 1. He lost his mother when he was four
years of age, and his father shortly afterward cast
his fortunes with the young Republic of Texas. He
was reared by maternal relations in Louisville, by
Mrs. Josephine Rogers, and, after her death, by
General William Preston and wife, and he received
his earlier education in the schools of that city.
Later he attended the Academy of S. V. Womack
at Shelbyville, Center College, Danville, and the
Western Military Institute at Georgetown, Ken-
tucky. He had always been of a studious disposi-
tion, so that at a period when boys are devoted
chiefly to play and light study he was en-
grossed in reading standard works of ancient and
modern history. As a consequence, at Yale he
almost immediately took a leading position in his
class in scholarship, and was especially prominent
for his literary taste and excellence in composition,
taking a Townsend prize for English composition ;
and among many candidates in the final competi-
tion, he was assigned the second place ; Homer B.
Sprague receiving the De Forest, and Johnston
the Clark prize for an essay on " Political Abstrac-
tionists"— i. e., Doctrinaires.

116 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

After graduation he studied law and received
his diploma from the Law School of the Univer-
sity of Louisville, in March, 1853. On the 6th
of July, 1853, he was married in New Haven
to Rosa Elizabeth Duncan, daughter of John N.
Duncan, of New Orleans, La. He then settled in
Louisville in the practice of law; and, except for a
short interval, during which he resided in New
York, he continued there until the war.

Though not allowing himself to be diverted from
his profession by engaging activel3T in politics, he
was always a strong advocate of the principles
espoused by the South, and he took an active
interest in their maintenance during the period
preceding actual hostilities. When the issue,
however, culminated in war, he was among the
first in his State to cast his fortunes with the South,
and to raise troops for the Confederate Army.
Having aided in recruiting and equipping several
companies in the summer of 1861, lie was appointed
major of the Second Kentucky Regiment, but was
soon transferred to the First Kentucky Regiment
as major. He was subsequently promoted to be its
lieutenant colonel. This regiment saw its only
service in the Army of Northern Virginia, and par-
ticipated in the early operations on the line of
Fairfax Court House and the Acotiuk. Colonel
Johnston's health having broken down from
typhoid pneumonia and camp fever resulting from
the exposure of the field, and his regiment having
been disbanded during his illness, he accepted in
May, 1862, the invitation of President Davis to

William Pbeston Johnston. 117

become a member of his official family as aide-de-
camp, with the rank of colonel. He continued to
fill this position until the close of the war, his chief
duties being those of an inspector general and a
confidential staff officer of Mr. Davis for communi-
cation with generals commanding in the field. He
was present in the battles of Seven Pines, Cold
Harbor, Sheridan's Raid, Drewry's Bluff and in
the lines at Petersburg, and many other important
combats. He contributed essentially to the
strength of the administration by the high qualifi-
cations he brought to his responsible trust and the
general confidence reposed in him by his chief and
by all who knew him. He adhered with unswerv-
ing fidelity to the fortunes of Mr. Davis, and was
captured with him in Georgia after the surrender
of General Joseph E. Johnston. After several
months of solitary confinement in Fort Dela-
ware, he was released ; and after nearly a year's
residence in exile in Canada, returning to Louisville,
he resumed the practice of law.

In 1867, while thus engaged, he was invited by
Gen. R. E. Lee to the Chair of History and Eng-
lish Literature in Washington and Lee University,
Lexington, Va., and removed to that place. This
was a position for which he was peculiarly well
fitted by the trend of his mind, as well as his schol-
arly acquirements ; and his success in drawing to
the institution a class of superior 3-outh from the
West and South, and in inspiring them with his
own high standard of morality, learning and ambi-
tion, has been best evidenced in the honorable

118 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

positions in life attained by those who came under
his personal and professional influence. Colonel
Johnston remained at Washington and L,ee Uni-
versity until 1877, and while there wrote the " Life
of Albert Sidney Johnston," published by the
Appletons in 1878. This work is an admirably
written biography of the great Confederate Chief-
tain who lost his life on the memorable battle field
of Shiloh, and whose character is one of the grand-
est and noblest in American annals. Colonel John-
ston's Life of his father ranked him as one of the
best writers in the country, and his style is noted
for its vigor and elegance. The judicial character
of his work has been attested by many of the most
distinguished generals and fairest critics on both
sides, North and South.

A high degree of literary excellence is found in
his other works, which consist of a number of
poems, essays on literary, historical, and pedagog-
ical subjects, and addresses. In 1890 he printed
" The Prototype of Hamlet,' a series of lectures
delivered at the Tulane University, which have
been very favorably received by Shakespearian
scholars. Owing to the bankruptcy of the pub-
lisher at the moment of its issue, this volume was
never offered for sale, and only a small number of
copies were printed. Its thesis is a paradox which
has found favor with many lawyers, but it is not
cheerfully accepted by the worshippers of the
great bard. Colonel Johnston, however, ranks
Shakespeare as the greatest of all writers, and re-
gards the Baconian theory as absurd.

William Preston Johnston. 119

Colonel Johnston has delivered a large number
of addresses before various universities and other
educational assemblies. These addresses have
been widely noticed as giving a correct and vivid
picture of what is called the Old South, and also
of the conditions in the Xew South. The manly
and earnest tone of the speaker, and his profound
philosophical observation, with his estimate of
what should be done for Southern civilization, have
been much appreciated by political economists in
America and in Europe.

During all Colonel Johnston's varied career as
lawyer, soldier, professor, public speaker and uni-
versity president he has indulged a strong bent for
writing verse, the impulse of a genuine poetic
gift. But a certain diffidence and fear of mere
mediocrity, with a knowledge of the estimate
placed on such productions by practical men, pre-
vented him for a long time from printing his
verses, except on rare occasions. In 1894 he
printed a collection of his poems, entitled " My
Garden Walk. " It was intended chiefly for private
distribution and as memorial for his family and
friends. But it has reached a wide circle of readers,
and has its circle of admirers who regard with
favor the versatility of the author and his clearness,
force, and melody of expression.

Colonel Johnston published in 1896, what might
be considered a supplement to this volume, under
the title of ' ' Pictures of the Patriarchs and other
Poems." This little book of verse contains in
addition to the titular portion a second part of

120 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

devotional verse and new versions and paraphrases
of some of the psalms. It is deservedly very pop-
ular with the many who respond to its spiritual
melody.

But although Colonel Johnston is a distinguished
literateur, his chief work has been done as an edu-
cator. In 1880 he accepted the presidency of the
Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, and
thoroughly reorganized and re-established that
institution, which had been for some time in a
chaotic state, and had only thirty-nine students
when he took charge of it. When, in 1883, Paul
Tulane, the great philanthropist, made to Louisi-
ana his princely gift, Colonel Johnston was
requested by the Administrators of the Tulane
Educational Fund to organize and take charge of
the institution to be founded. The result was the
merging, in 1884, of the University of Louisiana
into the Tulane University, which in all its
branches stands as the greatest university in the
Southwest. Colonel Johnston's administration as
president is broad and conservative. He has
endeavored to build up an institution in which the
theory of an ideal university should be adapted to
actual existing conditions. He has encouraged all
literary, scientific and artistic societies, and his
enlightened course in that direction has been of
immense advantage to New Orleans. The univer-
sity is now doing a great work. It embraces Law
and Medical Departments, a Woman's College, a
College of Arts and Sciences, and one of Tech-
nology, a worthy monument indeed to the munifi-
cent founder and the efficient organizer.

William Preston Johnston. 121

Washington and Lee University in 1877 con-
ferred upon him the degree of LL. D., and he has
for a number of years been one of the Regents of
the Smithsonian Institution.

In character he is all that the record of his life
bespeaks — simple, direct, gentle yet firm, sincere,
conscientious and unswerving in the discharge of
every duty, and unwavering in friendship, brave
and serene in misfortune and bereavement. He is
a communicant of the Episcopal Church and a
God-fearing man without cant.

Colonel Johston's first wife died on October 19,
1885. She was one of the rarest and noblest of
women. In April, 1888, Colonel Johnston married
Miss Margaret Avery, a lad)' of culture and refine-
ment, and belonging to one of the best Louisiana
families. Colonel Johnston's only son, Albert
Sidney Johnston, died in 1885, aged twenty-four.
He has had five daughters. Three survive. Hen-
rietta Preston, wife of Hon. Henry St. George
Tucker, of Staunton, Virginia, for four sessions
the member of Congress from that district ; Rosa
Duncan, married to George A. Robinson, of Louis-
ville, Kentucky ; and Margaret Wickliffe, married
to Richard Sharpe, Jr., of Wilkesbarre, Pennsyl-
vania. His eldest daughter, Mary Duncan John-
ston, died unmarried, November 25, 1893. His
youngest daughter, Caroline Hancock Johnston,
married Thomas C. Kinney, of Staunton, Vir-
ginia, and died July 26, 1895. Mr. Kinney is,
through his mother, a direct descendant of Benja-
min Harrison, one of the signers of the Declaration
of Independence. J. S. J.

122 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

Rosa Elizabeth Duncan was born in New-
Orleans December 3, 1831. On Jnly 7, 1853, sne
became the wife of William Preston Johnston.
She died October 19, 1885. She was the daughter
of Judge John Nicholson Duncan, of New
Orleans, Ea., and Mary Jones, his wife. Her
father, a gifted and much admired man, died
young. He was the son of Abner L,. Duncan, a
man eminent for wealth, learning and unbounded
benevolence, the trusted friend of Andrew Jackson,
and his Aide de Camp at the Battle of New Or-
leans ; and, during the early part of the century,
the acknowledged leader of the New Orleans bar.
Abner E. Duncan came from an old Quaker family
of Philadelphia. Mrs. Johnston's mother, Mrs.
Mary Duncan, was connected by blood with the
Shipman and Edwards families in New Haven,
Conn., and also with the children of Bishop
Moore. She was a woman of saintly character,
and in her youth of great personal beauty. She
died at Richmond, Va., in 1864. Mrs. Johnston
was a communicant of the Episcopal Church, and
lived according to its standards, as taught her at
her mother's knee, but devotion, not theology, was
her special grace, and her clear-sighted charity
saw beyond the pale ol creeds or sects. Never
was there a nature more affluent in love to
all, a more tender and pitiful heart, a freer or more
liberal hand in giving, a nobler, purer or more
gracious soul.

She had a strongfmind, sober judgment and very
quick perceptions, including that ready insight into

Willi am Preston Johnston. 123

human motives and character, which requires to
be softened and chastened by the sweet charity,
with which she was so abundantly gifted. She
had also a very high courage and self-respect, that
prevented undue familiarity. Her manners and
language were refined, simple and free from any
affectation.

Her temper was pleasant and cheerful, and with
great nervous energy she combined vivacity of
intellect and animal spirits. She had a wonderful
gift of humor, and with it a genuine and keen wit.
This never displayed itself in mere play on words,
or in imaginative flights, but was the rapid and
unconscious movement of a very vivid intellectu-
ality. Its expression was often in quaint forms, to
which her animated countenance and significant
gesture lent an additional interest. She had the
power of picturing a situation with a word.

Those who remember Rosa Duncan as a girl will
recall the perfect symmetry of her dainty figure,
her little hands and feet, her nearly regular features,
her brown hair and quiet eyes, her simple beauty un-
aided by any artifice, her chaste and elegant attire
and rather demure manners, her easy grace in every
movement, and the wonderful melody of her voice.
As a young mother surrounded by her little chil-
dren, no more beautiful picture could be drawn of
maternal love and care. Age, care, toil and suf-
fering could not rob her of her greatest charms,
but they matured and heightened the beauty which
shone out from her saintly soul. Her eyes, sad-
dened by suffering, retained their softness, her

124 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

voice its sweetness, with an added pathos, and her
expressive face and manner were of the sort to
which time adds dignity and repose. Her life was
a religion. Her memory will be one to those who
have loved her.

Margaret Henshaw Avery, third daughter of
Judge Daniel Dudley Avery and Sarah Craig Marsh,
his wife, was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
October 16, 1848, and married William Preston
Johnston, April 25, 1888. Judge Avery was the
son of Doctor Dudley Avery, of Baton Rouge, and
his wife, Mary Eliza Browne, of Bath, England.
Doctor Avery assisted in the Revolution of the
East Florida parishes and served as a surgeon at
the Battle of New Orleans. The Averys seem to
liave been a family of very martial spirit. Doctor
Avery's father, Daniel, was a lad in the fight at
Fort Griswold, Groton, Connecticut, where the
head of the family, his father, Dudley Avery, was
killed. He lies under the Groton monument with
sixteen of his kinsmen, also killed there. The
family are descendants of James Avery, a com-
panion of Governor Winthrop and one of the early
settlers of Massachusetts. Mrs. Johnston is also a
descendant of Colonel George Denison, mentioned
as the ancestor of Mrs. Mary Eaton Johnston and
of Richard Sharpe. Mrs. Johnston's mother was
the daughter of John Craig Marsh and Eliza Ann
Baldwin. Mr. Marsh was a native of Cherry Bank,
New Jersey, near the mouth of the Railway river,
where his family had lived from the earliest set-

William Preston Johnston. 125

tlement of the colony. Eliza Ann Baldwin was a

descendant of Rapelje, the first white child

born on Long Island. John Craig Marsh removed
(in the earliest years of this century) from New
York City, where he had also a residence, to what
is now known as Avery's Island, where the family
have since maintained their home.

Mrs. Johnston passed through the trials of
the war as a young, but observant, girl ; and
later on the care and nurture of her brother's
four children fell to her, owing to the death
of their mother. She did not marry until this
duty was fully and faithfully discharged. Since
her marriage she has been an active member
of the most important literary, benevolent and
social movements in New Orleans ; she was Presi-
dent of the Women's Anti-lottery League, which
exerted so powerful an influence on that memor-
able contest ; for two years President of the Quar-
ante Club, the leading literary society among the
ladies of New Orleans ; and is now one of the
Executive Committee of the Christian Women's
Exchange, and a member of many other charitable
organizations. This is not the place to speak of
her high qualities and personal attractions. But
a sketch of her husband would be incomplete
without some account of a lady who has done so
much to sustain him in his educational and liter-
ary work, and to add to the dignity and comfort
of his declining years by her poise of character
and the sweetness of her disposition.

HENRY ST. GEORGE TUCKER.

Henry St. George Tucker, husband of Hen-
rietta Preston Johnston (3d), comes of a dis-
tinguished family. He was born April 5, 1853,
and is the son of Hon. John Randolph Tucker and
Laura Powell, his wife. Henry St. George Tucker
represented the Staunton, Virginia (Tenth) Dis-
trict in the United States House of Representatives
for four sessions, from March 4, 1889, to March 4,
1897. He withdrew voluntarily from politics in
1896, owing to a difference of opinion with his
party on the financial question. His father, John
Randolph Tucker, born December 24, 1823, rep-
resented the same district from 1876-7 to 1885-7 —
ten years. He was thrice Attorney General of
Virginia, and after the close of his congressional
career, was Professor of Law at Washington and
Lee University. He died February 13, 1897, one
of the most beloved of public men in the South.
The line of descent in this family presents one of
the most remarkable in this country of a persist-
ence of type.

J. R. Tucker's father, Henry St. George Tucker,
Sr., was a member of Congress (1 815-19), was Presi-
dent of the Virginia Court of Appeals, Professor
of Law at the University of Virginia, and Chair-
man of its Faculty, and wrote a Commentary on
the Constitution of the United States. His wife,

Henry Ht. George Tucker. 127

Evelina Hunter, was a granddaughter of Adam
Stephens, a General officer in the Revolutionary
Army. Judge Tucker was the son of St. George
Tucker, a young Bermudan, who emigrated to
Virginia about 1770, and was an officer of the
Revolutionary Army. He was wounded at Guil-
ford Court House and present at the surrender of
Cornwallis as the Lieutenant Colonel of a troop of
horse. He was Judge of the Court of Appeals of
Virginia, and afterward Judge of the District
Court of the United States. He was the first com-
mentator on the Constitution of the United States.
He published an edition of Blackstone with anno-
tations. His book has always been considered of
the highest authority. He married the Widow
Randolph, mother of John Randolph, of Roanoke,
Virginia, who was the daughter of that Richard
Bland, pronounced by Hugh Grigsby as the man in
the Colonial House of Burgesses best acquainted
with the legal and political relations between the
colonies and the mother country. St. George
Tucker's attention may have been turned toward
constitutional questions by Richard Bland's in-
fluence, but his kinsmen in Great Britain have
been writers on similar topics in regard to India.
Laura Powell, the mother of H. St. George Tucker,
is the descendant of Revolutionary ancestors in Lou-
don count}r, Virginia, of large wealth, influence
and patriotic zeal. But the record of these families
is matter of public history .

GEORGE ANDERSON ROBINSON.

George Anderson Robinson, born January
5, 1858, son of Richard A. and Eliza Denne Rob-
inson. Married September 30, 1880, Rosa Duncan
Johnston, born December 9, 1858, third daughter
of Colonel William Preston Johnston and Rosa
Duncan Johnston.

Alexander Robinson was the first of the fam-
ily in America. He was born in 1750, in the
County of Armagh, near the city of Londonderry,
Ireland, and died in Baltimore, Md., August 9,
1845, aged 95 years. He married Priscilla Booth
(nee Lyles), widow of Robert Booth (who was
lost at sea). Priscilla Booth was born in 1760
and died Juh' 7, 1790. [809.

Lyles Robert Robinson, born June 4, 1790,
died September 21, 1834, eldest son of Alexander
and Priscilla Robinson, of Baltimore, Maryland.
Married November 9, 1813, Catherine Worthing-
ton Goldsborough, born June 10, 1894 ; died
December 10, 1828 (daughter of Dr. Richard and
Achsah Goldsborough, of Cambridge, Maryland).

Richard Alexander Robinson, born October
23, 1S14, near Winchester, Virginia, son of
Lyles Robert and Catherine Worthington Robin-

George Anderson Robinson. 129

son. Married June i, 1842, Eliza Denne Pettet,
born November 30, 1822 ; died December 15,
1891. Daughter of William F. and Mary S.
Pettet, of Louisville, Kentucky. Mr. R. A. Rob-
inson has been recognized as one of the best citi-
zens Louisville every had. His deep and sincere
piety, his profuse, but unostentatious benevolence,
his kindness of heart and amiability of temper
have thrown a halo around his character, while
his sound business judgment and excellent social
qualities have given him and his seven sons a
leading position in the commercial world. No one
has done more for Louisville, and claimed less
credit for it, than R. A. Robinson.

RICHARD SHARPE, Jr.

Richard Sharpe, Jr., son of Richard Sharpe and
his wife Sally Patterson, was born June 3, 1852, at
Summit Hill, Carbon county, Pennsylvania, and
was graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School,
Yale University, in 1875. Mr. Sharpe inherited
large interests from his father in the anthracite
coal fields and is a director and the treasurer of the
Alden Coal Company. He is also one of the
trustees of the Wyoming Historical and Geologi-
cal Society of Pennsylvania, and a member of the
Executive Committee of the Wilkesbarre City
Hospital. Richard Sharpe, the father, son of
Richard and Mary A. Sharpe, was born at Lang-
ham, Rutlandshire, England, April 10, 1813, and
died at Wilkesbarre, Pa., April 21, 1895. He
came to America with his father in 1826, when he
was thirteen years old. His mother had died in
England and is buried in the burying-ground of the
ancient church of the village of Langham. He
was one of the earlier pioneers in the mining of
anthracite coal and this business he pursued with
credit and success up to the time of his death. He
was a man of broad views and philanthropic spirit
and munificent in his charities. Sally Patterson,
the mother, was a daughter of Thomas Patterson,
formerly of Londonderry, Ireland, and his wife
Mary Denison, who was a daughter of Col. Nathan

Richard .Sharpe, Jr. 131

Denison, one of the " forty settlers " of Wyoming
Valley from Connecticut, who rendered distin-
guished service in the Wyoming Valley during the
American Revolution. He was second in command
at Forty Fort, and at the battle with the British
and Indians, which was followed by the " Mas-
sacre of Wyoming," he negotiated the articles of
capitulation. Colonel Denison was a member of
the Committee of Correspondence, an Associate
Judge and a member of the General Assemblies of
Connecticut and afterward of Pennsylvania. He
was of a very old Connecticut family. Mrs. Sharpe
is seventh in the descent from Col. George Deni-
son, born 1618, died 1694, wno attained distinction
in the colonial wars in Connecticut and Rhode
Island. He was a representative for fifteen ses-
sions at the General Court at Hartford, 1671-1694.
His descendants still live on some of the land
granted him for military service.

FAMILY

OF

JAMES AND ANNA MARIA BYERS.

MARY GRAHAM JOHNSTON, ANNA
MARIA BYERS

AND

J. STODDARD BYERS.

THE BYERS FAMILY.

Dr. John Johnston's third wife was the widow
of John Byers. Her maiden name was Mary
Graham, and she was of the Scotch-Irish family
of Graham, so prominent in the annals of the
Valley of Virginia. She is mentioned by some
acquaintances as the mother of nine children ; by
others, of eleven. Among the children of her
first husband were Mary Ann Byers, who mar-
ried a Mr. Henderson ; David Edmond Byers,
and James Byers. The children of Dr. Johnston
and Mary Graham Johnston were Wm. Graham
Johnston, who died April 18, 1810, aged eight
months and one day, and Louisa Matilda John-
ston, who died February 25, 1826, aged nine-
teen years. Mrs. Johnston died August 2, 1832,
and her husband survived her only a few months,
till October 25, 1832. Mrs. Johnston was of a
somewhat delicate constitution, and lacked her
husband's buoyancy of temper, but she was a most
estimable lady.

One of Mrs. Byers' sons, James Byers, married
his step-sister, Anna Maria Johnston, eldest
daughter of vDr. Johnston's second wife. They
had a numerous family, the surviving branches of
which will be given herein. Mr. James Byers was
a considerable farmer and man of business. He was
member of the State Legislature, and was also an

136 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

officer in the war of 1812. He was much esteemed
by his brothers-in-law, and at one time visited
Louisiana with the intention of settling near Josiah
S. Johnston, but was turned aside from his purpose
by the death of that gentleman. Later he went to
Texas by the invitation of General A. S. Johnston,
with the view of making that State his home, but
on his return home he had a fever which termi-
nated his life. His family remained in Maysville,
Kentucky, and were brought up under the care of
their mother.

Anna Maria Johnston, wife of James Byers, was
in her youth a woman of great personal attractions.
Tall and with a stately presence, her dark hair,
blue eyes, pure complexion and regular features
rendered her a striking figure. Her manner was
gentle, her temper vivacious but amiable, and her
character exalted in tone. She preserved her fine
qualities to a great age and was throughout her
long life the object of love and solicitude from her
brothers and sisters and her children.

Her fourth child and eldest son, Josiah Stoddard
Byers, was a man of marked individuality. He
was born in Mason county, Kentucky, October 3,
1824, and died a man of wide experience and a
veteran of two wars, at the comparatively early
age of 54. Entering the United States Navy in
1 84 1, being then in his seventeenth year, he served
successively on the steamer Mississippi, the Vin-
cennes, the Somers, the Vandalia and the United
States Frigate "Congress.' His warrant as mid-
shipman bears date of January 14, 1843, a°d his

The Byers Family. 137

resignation as passed midshipman is dated August
13, 1849. His service in the Navy covers a period
of eight years, embracing the Mexican war. In
1846, Commodore Stockton, having sailed for the
Pacific Coast, because of the prospect of war with
Mexico, reached Monterey in California about the
same time that John C. Fremont, who had been
sent to survey the country, reached the same
place, the hostility of the Governor and Mexican
inhabitants compelling him to return to the
coast for supplies. With the assistance of Com-
modore Stockton, Fremont succeeded in forcing the
Mexicans into the southern part of the country. Mr.
Byers' ship belonging to the squadron, he was
actively engaged in these enterprises. In his official
report General Fremont mentioned the efficiency of
Midshipman Byers, who was sent in command of
the United States boat furnished by the Commodore
for river service and exploration. The squadron
was ordered to the Gulf of Mexico during hos-
tilities between the two countries and at the
bombardment of Vera Cruz, as well as in the naval
combats, in which his ship, the Congress, cap-
tured several prizes, Mr. Byers bore a gallant part,
helping to win the great Western country. These
repeated hardships and exposures resulted in an
almost fatal attack of fever during a cruise on the
Pacific Coast. Mr. Byers was so ill that Commo-
dore Shubrick sent him to Honolulu, hoping that
the climate would benefit him. His convalescence
was slow; and, fearing that his health was perma-
nently impaired, Mr. Byers deemed it his duty to
retire from the service, and forwarded his resigna-

1S8 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

tion to the department from Honolulu, August 13,
1849. He left the island, when after a stay of sev-
eral months his health was sufficiently restored for
him to do so, and sailed for San Francisco, where
he found the gold fever at its height, and tried
with indifferent success to find his fortune there.
But in 1852, when he heard that his younger
brother, James Byers, had met an untimely death
in Maysville, Ky., Mr. Byers hastened homeward
to assume the care of his mother and sisters.
Arrived at Paducah, whither the family had
removed from the old home in Mason county, Mr.
Byers was enabled to establish himself in business,
by means of his share of prize money which
awaited him in Washington, and he entered upon
a prosperous career, which continued until the war
of 1 86 1. On July 19 of that year Mr. Byers
enlisted in the service of the Confederacy as cap-
tain in the Third Kentucky Regiment. He
became a prominent officer in the commissary
department, in which he displayed such energy,
adminisrative ability and unswerving integrity,
that toward the close of the war he was selected for
the most difficult and important spheres of duty.
Like the rest of us, the sun went down with him
at the close of the war. Struggling vainly with
broken health and fortune, amid the wreck of all
interests, he died near Atlanta, Ga., December 9,
1878. L/Oyal and tender in nature, he could be a
stern foe if necessary, while he was as true to his
friends as the needle to the pole. Of his children
only one survived, Anthony Stoddard Byers, now
of Atlanta, Ga.

The Byers Family. 139

On November 15, 1854, Mr. Byers was married
to Jane Leeper Johnson, granddaughter of Dr.
John Milton Johnson, who was a man of note and
influence in the pioneer days of Southwestern
Kentucky. His sons became distinguished in both
civil and military life. Of these Judge James L-
Johnson, of Owensboro, may be mentioned. Also
General Richard W. Johnson, graduate of West
Point, who won enviable reputation during the war
as an officer in the Union army, while he evinced
a magnanimous temper in his treatment of his
opponents. Mr. Byers' father-in-law, Dr. John M.
Johnson, a man of great personal popularity, well
and favorably known throughout Kentucky, was
State Senator before the war, and became a mem-
ber of the Confederate Provisional State govern-
ment of Kentucky, and though his political career
was cut short by the part he took in the war, he
commanded a high place in public esteem in
Georgia, where he spent the remainder of his days.
Dr. Johnson's first wife, the mother of Mrs. Josiah
Stoddard Byers, was Miss Elizabeth Prince Earle,
of South Carolina, whose ancestors came from
England to Virginia in 1654, an<^ successively held
positions of high trust and honor during both the
Colonial and Revolutionary periods. Judge Baylis
Earle, an officer in the War of the Revolution, and
the first judge commissioned in South Carolina
after the war, was the maternal great-grandfather
of Mrs. Josiah Stoddard Byers.

The only surviving child of Josiah Stoddard
Byers and Jane L,eeper Byers is Anthony Stoddard
Byers, manufacturer, of Atlanta, Ga.

FAMILY

OF

JOHN ALEXANDER McCLUNG

AND

ELIZA JOHNSTON McCLUNG.

McCLUNG, BIEGLER, BROWNING,

COLEMAN.

THE McCLUXG FAMILY.

Eliza, seventh child of Dr. John Johnston and
Abigail Harris Johnston, was born February 9,
1806, married John Alexander MeClung, October
8, 1825, and died at St. Paul, Minn., December
28, i860. Though her life was taken up with
the duties of wife and mother, she was highly
esteemed and loved for the same high qualities
that marked her brothers. Her personal re-
semblance to her brother, Albert Sidney John-
ston, was very striking. Married in her youth
to the son of a friend and neighbor, she became
at once the strong support to one of the most
intellectual men of his day in Kentucky. John
A. MeClung was the son of Judge William
MeClung, a native of Augusta county, Va. , and a
scion of that sturdy Scotch-Irish breed that has
done so much for religion and law in the United
States. He was eminent in his profession and
married a sister of Chief Justice Marshall, so that
his descendants had a hereditary title to virtue and
talents. John A. MeClung won distinction at the
bar as an orator and jurist, and was also esteemed
as a writer. He wrote a historical novel on a
revolutionary theme, " Camden," which had con-
siderable repute in its day; also a book, " Sketches
of Western Adventure," of which there were many
editions and which is widely read at the present

144 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

time. Three copies, well worn with much hand-
ling, can be found in the St. Paul Library to-day.
But he was essentially an idealist and philan-
thropist, and to this may be attributed his leaving
the law in middle life and becoming a minister of
the Presbyterian Church. He at once took a lead-
ing position as a preacher of its doctrines and
readily commanded important charges in its minis-
try. His altruistic temper was easily rated as
eccentricity by the practical men of his day.

His only son, John William McClung, exhibited
in a very remarkable way his likeness to his father
in character, modified by tremendous energy for the
application of his ideas to actually existing things
and conditions. Both men were too positive to be
universally popular ; both were too public-spirited,
too earnest ior the welfare of their fellow-men, not
to command esteem and a' I miration. Neither of
them brooked opposition readily, and there were
few compromises in their convictions or conduct.

John William McClung, born November 21 ,
1826, near Maysville, Kentucky, educated at Cen-
ter andTransylvania Colleges in Kentucky, married
Mary Roberts Allen, June 5, 1851, and moved to
St. Paul in 1855, wrhere he engaged in law and
real estate business. He became involved in debt
through fire losses and struggled twenty years in
order to pay a hundred cents on the dollar, which
he finally did He shared his father's views
respecting emancipation and gave their freedom to
a family of slaves in which he was interested. He

The McClung Family. 145

organized the first Building Association west
of Chicago in September, 1869, and managed it
till his death. He was known as the " father " of
these associations in the Xorthwest, and frequently
aided by his pen and by lectures new associations
to get a start. Over 10,000 homes in St. Paul
alone have been built in whole or in part through
the aid of these associations.

From 1868 to 1870 he was editor of the old
Pioneer, one of the principal newspapers of
the State, now the Pioneer-Press, and gained a
wide reputation as a bright, pungent and witty
writer, under the nom de plume of ' ' Merrimac. ' '
He was always a liberal contributor to the local
press and was author of a book entitled " Minne-
sota as it is in 1870," which had a good sale, and
was of great advantage to Minnesota in advertising
its resources. He was a firm believer in immi-
gration (of the right sort) as a means of building
up and developing the Xorthwest, and did as
much, probably, as any other one man in carrying
out this idea.

From 1 87 1 to his death he was a member of the
St. Paul Chamber of Commerce, the most impor-
tant unofficial body in the city for many years, and
was prominent in affairs of public interest. The
matter of public parks, the annexation of West
St. Paul, the extension of the city limits, the West
St. Paul harbor, and the securing of the State fair
grounds in St. Paul, counted him among their
most enthusiastic originators, and these are only a
few of the measures he inaugurated for the benefit

146 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

of St. Paul. Como Park especially was the result
of his park agitation. He introduced the first
resolution in the Chamber of Commerce, which
resulted in securing the Fort Snelling bridge and
the first and subsequent Mississippi River Conven-
tions.

He was largely instrumental in securing the
appropriation for the bridge and the improvement
of the upper Mississippi. He attended several of
the river conventions as a delegate from Minne-
sota ; was county commissioner in i860, assessor
for three terms of two years each, clerk of the
Board of Public Works in 1872, and was originally
interested in establishing the St. Paul Library
Association, now the Public Library.

He was ever active in inaugurating and carrying
out measures for the good of the city, even neg-
lecting his own business to do so. His assess-
ments for taxes are noted to this day (1896) as the
fairest in Ramsey county for thirty years. He
nearly doubled the personal property assessment,
and made very many pay who had before been
escaping altogether. He was noted for his deter-
mination, honesty, independence, originality, wit
and fearlessness in the expression of his opinions.
The following quotation is from the pen of John D.
O'Brien, in an editorial in N. W. Chronicle com-
menting on the real estate men's banquet (1896),
eight years after McClung's death: "He did
much to shape the city's destiny, a man of most
interesting personality, with those whimsical odd-
ities of manner and speech that almost always

The McCiiUNG Family. 147

mark the man of originality or genius. He was a
many sided man and had qualities that would make
up a half dozen 'prominent citizens,' as we rate
them in these times. His kindly esteem, buoyant
disposition and broad intelligence made a delight-
fully compound character — dreamer, philanthro-
pist and man of business. He, more than any
one else, was instrumental in encouraging the
movement to advertise our advantages to the out-
side world that induced the immigration to which
General Bishop said : ' We owe all our present and
past prosperity.' "

A list of his contributions to the press evinces
the peculiar bent of his mind. They consist of
memorials of heroism in lowly life, pleas for muni-
cipal or individual aid to benevolent enterprises,
orphan asylums, serving girls' home, and cheap
fuel; arguments and statistics for plans of immi-
gration, building associations and other civic
needs and numerous and pointed articles on poli-
tics. Whatever concerned the public concerned
him, and found in him a very decided advocate.
In politics, he was usually on the unpopular side,
a gradual emancipationist in Kentucky and a
Democrat in Minnesota. While unwilling to hold
slaves himself, the magnanimity of his nature led
him to protest against ungenerous attacks on the
South and its people, and sometimes led him into
personal complications. He was a great loss to the
active, enterprising community whose early destiny
he had a large share in shaping. His family look
back with pride and reverence to him as one not
unworthy of his ancestry.

148 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

Mr. McClung was peculiar^ fortunate in his
choice of a wife. On June 5, 1 851, he married
Mary Roberts Allen. This lady, born July 16,
1830, at Natchez, Mississippi, was the daughter of
William Sanford Allen and Mary Roberts, his
wife. Mr. Allen was the son of William Allen and
his wife Fanny Pepper, early settlers of Kentucky,
who had their home two miles from Maysville,
Mason county, Kentucky. Mrs. McClung' s father
was a large farmer, owning three fine farms near
Maysville, Kentucky. He was born about 1800
and died at Keokuk, Iowa, in 1865.

Mrs. McClung was during her husband's life
his strong stay and support. Her common sense,
high principles, sweetness of disposition and patient
readiness to take up all the duties that fall to a
wife and mother served as supplement to her hus-
band's original, vehement and expansive genius.
Her Christian influence has radiated beyond the
immediate circle of her family and is felt by a
large circle of friends.

Elizabeth, the second child of the Reverend
John A. McClung and his wife, was a very intel-
lectual woman, of the most amiable and estimable
character. She was born in Mason county, Ken-
tucky, November 15, 1829. On November 2, 1852,
she was married to Major George Thomas Brown-
ing in Indianapolis, Indiana, and died at St. Paul,
Minnesota, July 19, 1882. Major Browning was
a native of West Union, Ohio, where he was born
December 5, 1820.

The McClung Family. 149

Of Mrs. Browning, it was said by her pastor :
11 Mrs. Browning shared largely in the gifts oi her
distinguished father, as those who have had the
privilege of listening by the hour to her charm-
ing conversation will gladly bear testimony. But
this was not all. As daughter, wife, mother, and
friend, she was simply admirable. Genius she
had, but it was associated with strong, broad,
good sense, and with a warm, loving and true
heart. The education of her son and daughter
was wholly in her own hands till they passed to
the higher grades of the public schools. It was
her joy and pride to make home the pleasantest
spot in the world to her children and her husband.
At this home fireside, music, literature, science,
the world's progress, social life around her, all
were freely taught or discussed. Her religion per-
vaded all she said and did, not as a thing to be
much talked about, but to be seen and felt in her
habitual daily life."

Major and Mrs. Browning left two children.
Their eldest child, Eliza McClung, was born Jan-
uary 9, 1S54; died October 29, 1886. She was
much admired in St. Paul when a girl for beauty
and talents. She was married to Nicholas D. Cole-
man, of New Orleans, La., October 6, 1875. Their
children, are Lloyd Ruffin, son, born November 26,
1S76, and Browning, daughter, born October 3, 1883.

Nicholas D. Coleman is the son of Lloyd R.
Coleman, of New Orleans, the grandson of James
Coleman of Kentucky, and the great-grandson of
Col. Daniel Coleman, of Caroline county, Va.

150 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

James Coleman married Elizabeth Warfield,
August 3, 1797, of the wealthy and powerful family
of that name in Fayette county, Ky. By the
maternal side Lloyd R. Coleman was closely con-
nected with Chief Justice Marshall. The family
has always been one of high standing and respect-
ability.

Granville Williams, second child of Major
Browning and wife, was born at Indianapolis,
Indiana, March 14, 1856, grew to manhood in
St. Paul, Minnesota, graduated at the University
of Michigan, and is now practising law in
Chicago. He was formerh' a partner of the late
Judge Samuel Moore, of Chicago, and is now a
member of the well-known firm of Wool folk &
Browning. Mr. Browning ran on the Democratic
ticket for District Judge of Cook County Court.
The Democrats were defeated, owing in a great
measure to the panic caused by the murder of the
leader of their party, Major Carter Harrison. He
is unmarried.

Susan, seventh child of John A. and Eliza
McClung, was born November 25, 1838, and died
at St. Paul, Minnesota, May 14, 1892. She was
a woman of brilliant attainments, inheriting in a
marked degree her father's gifts. She was a fine
writer, with a remarkable memory, most attractive
in conversation, and with strict religious convic-
tions, and but for the misfortune of a complete loss
of health in early life, would have made her mark
in the literary world.

PART SECOND.

GENEALOGICAL TABLES.

THEJOHNSTONS OF SALISBURY

GENERATION I.

Archibald Johnston, born 1732, died February
14, 1789 ; married Sarah , who was b >rn

1736, died April 10, 1S10.

Children :

A. .lames Johnston.

B. Daniel John-ton.
I . John Johnston.

D. Archibald Johnston the Secon 1.

E. Samuel Berry Johnston.

GENERATION II.

A. James Johnston, married Lydia ,
who died February 25, 1804, at Salisbury, Conn.

Children :

1. Walter, or Edward Walter: married 1S03 or 1806,
at Salisbury. Conn. : died at Cantield. Ohio. Decem-
ber 2. 1849. Names of children unknown.

2. Sarah, married Capt. Ebenezer Mix, who died at
Cantield. Ohio, November 21, 1839. aged 63 years.
Xo children.

3. Herman (?) son. grandson or nephew of James
Johnston.

B. Daniel Johnston, married Polly ,
who was born 1764, and died January 22, 1824.

Only child:

4. Herman, born . died December 22. 1839.

C. John Johnston, born July 1, 1762; died
October 25, 1832; married:

1st. Mary Stoddard, born August 5, 1762; mar-
ried in September, 17S3; died April 8, 1794.

154 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

Children:

5. Josiah Stoddard Johnston, born November 25. 1784;
married Eliza Sibley, 1814; died May 19, 1833.

6. Electra Maria Johnston, born March 8, 1788; died
in infancy in Salisbury.

7. Darius Stoddard Johnston, born July 24, 1789; died

, 1819; unmarried.

8. Horace Johnston, born August 10, 1792; died ;
unmarried.

9. Orramel Johnston, born March 4. 1793; died about
1826; unmarried.

2d. Dr. John Johnston's second wife was Abi-
gail Harris, born April 20, 1770; married in July,
1794; died November 29, 1806.

Children:

10. John Harris Johnston, born May, 1795; married
Eliza Ellen Davidson, April 12, 1830; died August 2,

1838.

H. Alfred Johnston, born November 27, 1796; died
1S19; unmarried.

12. Lucius Johnston, born October 13, 1797; died 1819;
unmarried.

13. Anna Maria Johnston, born May 21, 1799; married
James Byers December 19, 1815 ; died September 19,
1883.

14. Clarissa Johnston, born April 2, 1801; died ;
unmarried.

15. Albert Sidney Johnston, born February 2, 1803;
married : 1st. Henrietta Preston, January 20, 1829.
2d. Eliza Griffin, October 3, 1843; died April 6,
1862.

16. Eliza Johnston, born February 9, 1805; married
John A. McClung, October, 1825; died December
28, 1860.

17. Abigail Johnston, born November 19, 1806; died
December 31, 1806.

Genealogical Table-. 155

3d. Dr. John Johnston's third wife was Mary
Graham Byers (widow of James Byers), who died
August 2, 1832.

Children :

18. Louisa Johnston, born October 9. 1807; died Feb-
ruary 26, 1826; unmarried.

19. William Graham Johnston, born August 1, 1809;
died April 18, 1810.

GEXERATIOX III.

5. Josiah Stoddard Johnston (1st) U. S.
Senator from Louisiana, eldest son of Dr. John
Johnston and Mary Stoddard Johnston, born No-
vember 25, 1784; married in 1814, Eliza Sibley,
daughter of Dr. John Sibley, of Natchitoches,
Louisiana ; died May 19, 1833.

After the death of Senator Johnston Mrs. John-
ston married ex- Attorney General H. D. Gilpin,
of Philadelphia, and died February 12, 1874.

GENERATION IV.

20. William Stoddard Johnston (1st) was the only
child of Josiah Stoddard Johnston (1st) and Eliza
Sibley Johnston . He was born about 1 8 1 6 , and died
September 23, 1839 ; He married Maria Williams,
daughter of Archibald Pierce Williams and Eliza-
beth Routh Williams, of Rapides parish, Louis-
iana, who died January 21, 1883.

GENERATION V.

21. William Stoddard Johnston (2d) was the
only son of William Stoddard Johnston (1st) and

156 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

Maria Williams Johnston. He was born December
7, 1839, and educated by Mr. and Mrs. Gilpin, of
Philadelphia. He served during the Sectional
War in Company A, Seventeenth Virginia Infan-
try, Col. Corse. He retired from business and
resides in Philadelphia.

GENERATION III.

10. John Harris Johnston, eldest son of Dr. John
Johnston and Abigail Harris, his second wife ;
married Eliza Ellen Davidson, April 12, 1830;
died August 2, 1838.

Children :

22. John Pintard Johnston.

23. Josiah Stoddard Johnston (2d).

24. Harris Hancock Johnston.

GENERATION IV.

22. John Pintard Johnston, born May 31, 1831 ;
died July 12, 1849 ; unmarried.

23. Josiah Stoddard Johnston (2d), born Feb-
ruary 10, 1833 ; married Eliza Woolfolk Johnson
July 13, 1854.

Their children were :

25. George Washington Johnston.

26. Mary Hancock Johnston.

27. Eliza Ellen Johnston.

28. Harris Hancock Johnston.

29. Josiah Stoddard Johnston (3d).

24. Harris Hancock Johnston, born near Alex-
andria, La., November 5, 1836; married Anna

Genealogical Tables. 157

Brooks, June 8, 1859; died May 9, 1877. Left no
children.

GENERATION V.

Children of Col. J. Stoddard Johnston (2d) and
Eliza Woolfolk Johnson :

25. George Washington Johnston, horn in Scott county.
Kentucky, April 24. 1862 : married Martha Taylor
Darling, of Cincinnati. O.. October 11, 1893. They
have one son. Stoddard Pintard, born in Cincinnati,
O., December 8. 1895.

26. Mary llancock Johnston, born in Scott county,
Kentucky, August 31. 1886; married in Louisville.
Ky., to William B. Wisdom, of New Orleans. La.,
October 8, 1800. They have one daughter. Eliza
Johnston Wisdom, born August 24. 1802.

28. Eliza Ellen Johnston, born in Frankfort, Ky., Octo-
ber 10. 1868; died in Frankfort. Ky.. July 28, 1888;
unmarried.

29. Harris Hancock Johnston, of Louisville. Ky.. born
in Frankfort. Ky., August 19, 1870; unmarried.

30. Josiah Stoddard Johnston (3d), of Louisville, Ky.,
born in Frankfort. Ky.. August 10, 1872; unmarried.

GENERATION III.

13. Albert Sidney Johnston, youngest son of
Dr. John Johnston and Abigail Harris, his wife,
was born February 2, 1803, at Washington, Mason
county, Ky., and was twice married; first to Hen-
rietta Preston, January 20, 1829, and second to
Eliza Griffin, October 3, 1843. Killed at the battle
of Shiloh in command of the Confederate Army,
April 6, 1862.

The children of Albert Sidney Johnston and
Henrietta Preston Johnston were:

158 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

31. William Preston Johnston.

32. Henrietta Preston Johnston.

33. Maria Pope Johnston.

The children of Albert Sidney Johnston and
Eliza Griffin Johnston were:

34. Albert Sidney Johnston.

35. Hancock McClung Johnston.

36. Mary Hancock Johnston.

37. Margaret Strother Johnston.

38. Griffin Johnston.

39. Eliza Alberta Johnston.

GENERATION IV.

31. William Preston Johnston, eldest son of
Albert Sidney Johnston and Henrietta Preston
Johnston, his wife, was born January 5, 1831, at
Louisville, Ky. ; married (first) Rosa Elizabeth
Duncan, July 7, 1853, and (second) Margaret
Henshaw Avery, April 25, 1888.

The children of William Preston Johnston and
Rosa Duncan Johnston were :

40. Mary Duncan Johnston.

41. Henrietta Preston Johnston.

42. Rosa Duncan Johnston.

43. Albert Sidney Johnston.

44. Margaret Wickliffe Johnston.

45. Caroline Hancock Johnston.

There are no children of the second marriage.

32. Henrietta Preston Johnston, eldest
daughter of Albert Sidney Johnston and Henrietta
Preston Johnston, was born April 18, 1832, at Jef-
son Barracks, Missouri ; unmarried.

33. Maria Pope Johnston, youngest child of
Albert Sidney Johnston and Henrietta Preston

Genealogical Table-. 159

Johnston, was born October 28, 1833, at Jefferson
Barracks, Missouri; died at Hayfield, Jefferson
county, Kentucky, August 10, 1834.

34. Albert Sidney Johnston, eldest son of
Albert Sidney Johnston and Eliza Griffin Johnston,
was born April 8, 1845, near Shelbyville, Ken-
tucky, and was killed April 27, 1863, in the explo-
sion of the steamboat Ada Hancock, in the port of
San Pedro, California.

35. Hancock McClung Johnston, second son
of Albert Sidney Johnston and Eliza Griffin John-
ston, was born December 28, 1845, at China Grove
Plantation, Brazoria county, Texas ; married Mary
Alice Eaton June 28, 1870.

Children :

46. Helen Johnston, born August 17. 1*71 : died Novem-
ber 21'.. L871.

47. Mary Hancock John-ton, born November 11, 1872;
died October, 1893.

48. Albert Sidney Johnston, born October 26, 1894.

49. John Griffin Johnston, born October 26. 1877.

50. Hancock McClung Johnston, born August 26, 1879.

36. Mary Hancock Johnston, eldest daughter
of Albert Sidney Johnston and Eliza Griffin John-
ston, was born January 29, 1S50, at Galveston,
Texas ; died November 29, 1850, near Eouisville,
Kentucky.

37. Margaret Strother Johnston, second
daughter of Albert Sidney Johnston and Eliza
Griffin Johnston, was born December 11, 1851,
at Austin, Texas ; married June 6, 1876, William
Bond Prichard. They have one child :

51. Eliza Griffin Prichard. born March 15, 1878;
unmarried.

160 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

38. Griffin Johnston, third son of Albert
Sidney Johnston and Eliza Griffin Johnston, was
born March 21, 1S57; died November 25, 1895;
married Maud Walton, August 30, 1886.

Children :

52. Aileen Johnston, born October 3, 1887.

53. Grace Margaret Johnston, born April 5, 1890.

54. Maud Johnston, born 1891; died. 1891.

39. Eliza Alberta Johnston, }Toungest child
of Albert Sidney Johnston and Eliza Griffin John-
ston, was born August 30, 1861 ; married George
Jules Denis, November 30, 1885. They have one

child:

55. Alberta Denis, born April 16, 1889.

GENERATION V.

40. Mary Duncan Johnston, eldest daughter
of William Preston Johnston and Rosa Duncan
Johnston, was born January 10, 1855, at Louisville,
Ky.; died November 25, 1894; unmarried.

41. Henrietta Preston Johnston, second
daughter of William Preston Johnston and Rosa
Duncan Johnston, was born April 19, 1856; mar-
ried to Henry St. George Tucker, lawyer of Staun-
ton, Va., October 25, 1877.

Children:

56. Preston Johnston Tucker, born September 15,
1878; died July 2. 1879.

57. John Randolph Tucker, born October 29, 1879.

58. Rosa Johnston Tucker, born December 1, 18S0.

59. Albert Sidney Johnston Tucker, born November 12,
1885.

60. Laura Powell Tucker, born December 3, 1892.

61. Henry St. George Tucker 1 (twins), born June 27,

62. Henrietta Tucker J1895.

Genealogical Table-. 161

42. Rosa Duncan Johnston, third daughter of
William Preston Johnston and Rosa Duncan John-
ston, born December 9, 1858; married to George
Anderson Robinson, of Louisville, Ky., September
30, 1880.

Children:

63. Rosa Johnston Robinson, born June 24, 1881.

64. Preston Johnston Robinson, born August 29, 1884.

65. George Anderson Robinson, born July 26, 1887.

66. Alberta Sidney Robinson, born June 16. 1889.

43. Albert Sidney Johnston, only son of
William Preston Johnston and Rosa Duncan John-
ston, was born at the homestead, near Louisville,
Ky., June 21, 1861; died of typhoid fever at Har-
risburg, Pa., January 9, 1885, and was buried at
Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Ky.

44. Margaret Wickliffe Johnston, fourth
daughter of William Preston Johnston and Rosa
Duncan Johnston, was born at Dill's Farm, near
Richmond, Va., July 20, 1S64; married Richard
Sharpe, of Wilkesbarre, Pa., April 26, 1892.

Children:

67. Rosa Duncan Sharpe. born July 8. 1894.

68. Elizabeth Montgomery Sharpe. born May 14. 1S96.

45. Caroline Hancock Johnston, youngest
child of William Preston Johnston and Rosa Dun-
can Johnston, was born August 8, 1866, at Louis-
ville, Ky.; married April 24, 1893, Thomas Colston
Kinney, a lawyer of Staunton, Va., and more
recently of Xew York City She died at Louis-
ville, Ky., July 28, 1895, leaving no children.

162 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

GENERATION III.

13. Anna Maria Johnston, eldest daughter of
Dr. John Johuston and Abigail Harris Johnston,
was born April 21, 1799; married James Byers,
her step-brother, December 19, 1815 ; and died
September 19, 1883.

Children :

69. Ann Eliza Byers.

70. Mary Byers.

71. John Byers.

72. Josiah Stoddard Byers.

73. Louisa Johnston Byers.

74. Anna Maria Byers.

75. James Edmund Byers.

76. Henrietta Preston Byers.

77. Emma Sidney Byers.

78. Alberta Johnston Byers.

GENERATION IV.

69. Ann Eliza Byers, eldest child of James
Byers and Anna Maria Byers, born November 20,
1816 ; married Henry Dix ; died March 31, 1845.

Only child :

79. Elizabeth, born : married Dr. G. V. Winston.

70. Mary Byers, second daughter of James and
Anna Maria Byers, was born June 1, 1819 ; died
July 29, 1820.

71. John Byers, eldest son of James and Anna
Maria Byers, was born June 6, 1823 ; died Decem-
ber 13, 1823.

72. Josiah Stoddard Byers, second son of
James and Anna Maria Byers, was born October

Genealogical Tables. 163

3, 1824; married Jane Leeper Johnson November
16, 1854 ; died December 9, 1878.

Children :

80. John Francis Xavier Brers, born September 9,
1855; died February 24. 1869.

81. James Joseph Byers. born January 15, 1858; died
January 20, 1881.

82. Sidney Johnston Byers. born April 26, 1S62; died
May 26, 1862.

83. Elizabeth M. Byers, born December 4, 1863; died
June 30, 1882.

84. Anthony Stoddard Byers, born August 12, 1870.

73. Louisa Johnston Byers, third daughter of
James and Anna Maria Byers, was born September
27, 1826 ; married William Wallace Dodge ; died
May 27, 1862.

Children :

85. William Wallace Dodge, died at twelve years of age,

86. Alberta Dodge, born : married her cousin,
Lloyd Robertson, October 4, 1880.

74. Anna Maria Byers, fourth daughter of
James Byers and Anna Maria Byers, was born
October 10, 1829 ; married William Robertson,
December 27, 1855. William Robertson was born
November 10, 1807 ; died December 13, 1891.
Lived at Paducah, Kentucky.

Children :

87. James E. Robertson.

88. Lloyd W. Robertson.

89. Albert Sidney Johnston.

90. M. Byers Robertson.

91. Anna Harris Robertson.

92. Frank B. Robertson.

164 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

GENERATION V.

87. James E. Robertson, eldest son of William
and Anna Maria Robertson, was born October 31,
1856 ; married Rosa Nunn, October 6, 1880 ; one
son ; Stoddard Johnston Byers, born July 12, 1881,
at Paducah, Ky.

88. L,loyd W. Robertson, second son of Will-
iam and Anna Maria Robertson, was born August
10, 1858 ; married Alberta Dodge, October 4, 1880.

89. Albert Sidney Johnston, third son of
William and Anna Maria Robertson, was born
March 29, i860; died 1861.

90. M. Byers Robertson, fourth son of William
and Anna Robertson, was born December 24, 1861 ;
married.

Children : ■ '

93. Lillie May Robertson, died at fourteen years of
age.

94. William Winston Kobertson, born 1885.

Second wife ; married Mary Pugh, September
18, 1888.

Children :

95. Lloyd Pugh Robertson, born June 28, 1890.

96. James E. Robertson, born January 23, 1893.

91. Anna Harris Robertson, only daughter
of William and Anna Maria Robertson, born April
3, 1865 ; married Ed. L. Reno, May 17, 1887.

Only child :

97. Lee Reno, born January 25, 1889.

72. Frank B. Robertson, fifth son of William
and Anna Maria Robertson, born December 11,
1866.

Genealogical Tables. 165

GENERATION IV.

75. James Edmund Byers, third son of James
Byers, Jr., and Anna Maria Byers, was born June
9, 183 1 ; died August, 1852 ; unmarried.

76. Henrietta Preston Byers, fifth daughter
of James Byers, Jr., and Anna Maria Byers, was
born December 12, 1S34 ; died June 21, 1835.

77. Emma Sidney Byers, sixth daughter of
James Byers, Jr., and Anna Maria Byers, was born
February 18, 1836 ; married Col. John W. Buford,
of Jackson, Tenn.

Children :

98. Sidney Buford.

99. Mary Buford.

100. John Buford.

78. Albert a Johnston Byers, seventh daugh-
ter of James Byers, Jr., and Anna Maria Johnston,
was born July 6, 1840; married Major Frank
Watkins, of Opelika, Alabama.

Children :

101. Loulie Watkins.

102. Warren Byers Watkins.

103. Frank Watkins.

104. Mary Lea Watkins.

105. Maria Agnes Watkins.

106. Graham Watkins.

107. Walter Goode Watkins.

108. Sidney Watkins.

109. Alberta Watkins.

GENERATION V.

10 1. Eoulje Watkins, eldest child of Frank
Watkins and Alberta Johnston Byers, was born

166 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

September i, 1865; married William Overstreet

May 15, 1889.

Children :

103. Alberta Overstreet, born March 4, 1890.

104. Lila Andrews Overstreet, born August 29, 1892.

102. Warren Byers Watkins, son of Frank
Watkins and Alberta Johnston Byers, was born
Ma}' 5, 1857 ; married Pearl Banks April 2, 1893.

103. Frank Watkins, born April 26, 1869; died
August 25, 1S70.

104. Mary Lea Watkins, born April 22, 1873.

105. Maria Agnes Watkins, born 1870; died 1870.

106. Graham Watkins, born August 22, 1875 ;
died April 3, 1882.

107. Walter Goode Watkins, born September 29,
1877; died June 4, 1878.

108. Sidney Watkins, born February 17, 1880;

109. Alberta Watkins, born 1883 ; died 1883.

GENERATION III.

16. Eliza Johnston, seventh child of John and
Abigail Johnston, born February 9, 1806; mar-
ried John Alexander McClung, October, 1825; died
at St. Paul, Minn., December 28, i860.

Children:

110. John William McClung.

111. Elizabeth McClung.

112. Mary Eliza McClung.

113. Anna Maria McClung.

114. Thomas McClung.

115. Thomas McClung.

116. Susan Tarleton McClung.

117. Anna Marie McClung.

Genealogical Tables. 167

GENERATION IV.

no. John William McClung, eldest son of
John A. McClung and Eliza Johnston McClung,
was born November 21, 1826, at Oakley Farm,
Mason county, nine miles from Maysville, Ky. ;
married Mary Roberts Allen, June 5, 1851; died
May 27, 1888.

Children.

118. Mary Eli/a McClung.

119. John Allen McClung.

120. Albert Sidney Johnston McClung.

121. Sue Keith McClung.

122. William Allen McClung.

123. Harrison Taylor McClung.

124. Xellie McClung.

125. Alberta Virginia McClung.

126. Julia Lee McClung.

GENERATION V.

118. Mary Eliza McClung, first child of John
William and Mary McClung, was born at Coving-
ton, Ky., May 3, 1852; married Charles A. Biegler,
December 24, 1873; died May 1, 1887, at St. Paul
(Mr. Biegler was born in Buffalo, N. Y. , June
11, 1850).

Children:

127. Cameron Allen Biegler, born October 11. 1874.

128. Sarah Marshall Biegler. born April G, 1876.

129. John McClung Biegler. born March 5. 1878.

130. Philip S. Biegler. born January 30, 1880.

131. Marion Biegler, born June 25, 1882.

132. Harold G. Biegler, born June 17, 1886.

119. John Allen McClung, eldest son of John

168 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

William and Mary Allen McClung, born at
Indianapolis, Indiana, March 24, 1855; died at
St. Paul, Minnesota, September 11, 1856.

120. Albert Sidney Johnston McClung, sec-
ond son of John William and Mary Allen McClung,
born December 20, 1857, in St. Paul, Minnesota ;
died September 4, 1859.

121. Sue Keith McClung, second daughter of
John William and Mary Allen McClung, born
April 11, i860 ; died February 23, 1862.

122. Willian Allen McClung, third son of
John William and Mary Allen McClung, born
August 3, 1862 ; died April 16, 1864.

123. Harrison Taylor McClung, fourth son of
John William and Mary Allen McClung, born
October 29, 1864 ; married Rose Belle Hamilton,
November 9, 1892.

One child :
126. Kathryn McClung, born October 9, 1895.

124. Nellie McClung, third daughter of John
William and Mary Allen McClung, born May 25,
1867; married William T. McMurran, June 14,
1894.

One child :

133. John Parke Custis McMurran. born February
25, 1896.

125. Alberta Virgina McClung, fourth daughter
of John William and Mary Allen McClung, born
April 29, 1869.

126. Julia Lee McClung, fifth daughter of John
William and Man- Allen McClung, born November
23, 1872.

Genealogical Tables. 169

GENERATION IV.

in. Elizabeth McClung, second child of John
Alexander and Eliza Johnston McClung, born in
Mason county, Kentucky, November 15, 1829;
married Major George Thomas Browning, at
Indianapolis, Indiana, November 2, 1852; died at
St. Paul, April 14, 1874. George Thomas Brown-
ing was born at West Union, Ohio, December 5,
1820; died at St. Paul, July 19, 1882.

Children :

134. Eliza McClung Browning.

135. Granville Williams Browning.

'©■

GENERATION V.

134. Eliza McClung Browning, only daughter
of George Thomas Browning and Elizabeth Mc-
Clung Browning, born January 9, 1854 ; married
Nicholas D. Coleman, of New Orleans, La., Octo-
ber 6, 1875 ; died October 29, 1886.

Children :

136. Llovd Kuffln Coleman (a son), born November
26, 1876.

137. Browning Coleman (a daughter), born October
3. 1883.

135. Granville Williams Browning, only son of
George Thomas Browning and Elizabeth McClung
Browning, born at Indianapolis, Ind., March i4>
1856 ; lawyer in Chicago ; unmarried.

GENERATION IV.

112. Mary Eliza McClung, third child of John,
Alexander and Eliza Johnston McClung, born
March, 1830; died young.

170 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

113. Anna Maria McClung, fourth child of
John Alexander and Eliza Johnston McClung,
born October, 1831 ; died young.

114. Thomas McClung, fifth child of John
Alexander and Eliza Johnston McClung, born
Jul}7, 1832 ; died young.

115. Thomas McClung, sixth child of John
Alexander and Eliza Johnston McClung, born
September, 1834 ; died young.

116. Susan Tarleton McClung, seventh child of
John Alexander and Eliza Johnston McClung,
born November 25, 1838 ; died at St. Paul, Minne-
sota, May 14, 1892.

117. Anna Maria McClung, eighth child of John
Alexander and Eliza Johnston McClung, born Sep-
tember 8, 1844.

THE FAMILY

OF

ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON THE SECOND.

GENERATION II.

D. Archibald the Second, the fourth child of
Capt. Archibald Johnston the First and Sarah
Johnston, was born at Salisbury, Conn., 1767;
died at Canfield, O., November 13, 1806; married
Rebecca Eoveland, who was born 1770, and died
1806, at Canfield, O.

Children:

138. Xewton Johnston.

139. Charles Johnston.

140. Samuel Berry Johnston.

GENERATION III.

138. Newton Johnston, eldest child of Archi-
bald and Rebecca Johnston, was born, 1791 ; died
November 20, 1806.

139. Charles Johnston, second child of Archi-
bald and Rebecca Johnston, was born February
14, 1793, at Salisbury, Conn.; married Eliza Ann
Bostick, March 12, 1820 ; died at Poughkeepsie, N.
Y. , September 1, 1845.

Only child :

141. Eliza Ann Johnston.

172 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

GENERATION IV.

141. Eliza Ann Johnston, only child of Charles
and Eliza Ann Johnston, was born January 27,
1821 ; married George R. Gaylord, September 24,
1838.

Only child:

142. Charles Johnston Gaylord.

GENERATION V.

142. Charles Johnston Gaylord, only child of
George R. and Eliza Ann Gaylord, was born Jan-
uary 9, 1840 ; married Mary L- Van Kleeck,
November 1, 1861 ; died May 24, 1876.

Children :

143. Charles R. Gaylord, born October 7, 1862; died
April 20, 1864.

144. Jeannie Antoinette Gaylord, born May 26, 1867 ;
died August 9. 1868.

145. Bessie Gaylord, born Decembers, 1875.

GENERATION III.

140. Samuel Berry Johnston, third child of Archi-
bald and Rebecca Johnston, was born at Salisbury,
Connecticut, February 20, 1798; married Rebecca
Ketcham, May 18, 1841 ; died at Poughkeepsie,
New York, December 13, 1870.

Only child :

146. Mary Johnston.

GENERATION IV.

146. Mary Johnston, only child of Samuel
Berry Johnston and Rebecca Johnston, was born

Genealogical Tables. 173

July 31, 1842; married Edward Elsworth, Novem-
ber 26, 1867.

Children :

147. Grace Varick Elsworth. born December 28, 1868.

148. Mary Johnston Elsworth, born October 15, 1870.

149. Ethel Hinton Elsworth. born June 15, 1872.

150. Edward Wead Elsworth, born January 14, 1876.

Note. — The professions or callings of thirty-one male
descendants of Captain Archibald Johnston are known to
the writer, and sum up as follows : Farmers, 6 ; Lawyers,
7; Physicians, 4; Professional Soldier, 1; Business, 12;
Editor, 1 ; Teacher or Professor, 1.

But it may be noted of these that at least three prac-
ticed law for some time before entering other professions,
and six are known to the writer as having pursued farming
or planting in addition to their other avocations. During
the War between the States, all the adult male members of
this family residing in the Southern States served in the
Confederate Army. They were six in number.

SUPPLEMENT

COLONIAL FAMILIES

OF

HANCOCK, STROTHER

AND

PRESTON.

SUPPLEMENT.

It is not the purpose of the present writer to give
in this supplement any full or sufficient history or
family record of the three families briefly sketched
herein. The data to which he has access, and
which he uses sparingly, merely enabled him to
supply a contribution which may be employed as
an aide memoir by more exhaustive writers. These
histories are developed only in so far as they touch
upon the main subject of this volume, the John-
stons of Salisbury.

The Strothers are a numerous and influential
connection, with many distinguished men in it,
including some careful genealogists, intent on
verifying their family tree, to whom I am content
to defer in all disputed points. The Prestons are a
multitude, with ample material to make np an
octavo volume and plenty of hands to do the work
of chronicling their deeds and destinies whenever
they shall call for it. Only the name of Hancock
has expired in the lapse of time, if even this be
so. But it is a good old colonial family, which
should not drop entirely from the memory of men
and leave no trace behind. And so the writer has
put down what he knows, so that others ma}' add
to it, if they have the requisite information.

This supplement like the body of the volume,
might well bear for its motto, the Gaelic proverb:

•• Curri ine clach er do cuirn,
I will add a stone to your cairn."

THE HANCOCK FAMILY

OF

FOTHERINGAY, VIRGINIA.

The Hancocks were among the founders of the
colony of Virginia, and attained large wealth
before the Revolution, though they were not prom-
inent, so far as appears, in politics, or otherwise
than as landed gentry. The first mention of them
in this country is of the emigrant and progenitor,
"William Hancock," who came over in 1620.
In the appendix to Stith's History of Virginia,
1753, the Second Charter of James I, May 23
1609, is to be found ; and in it appears the name of
William Hancock, without any other title or des-
ignation.

In "The General Historie of Virginia,' etc.,
by "Captain John Smith, London, 1624," page
133, appears among the names of "Adventurers,"
" alphabetically set downe," the name of "William
Hancock."

The name is given the same on page 49, in
Vol. II of Capt. John Smith's General Historie
(same as above), Richmond, 1819.

In "The Genesis of the United States," con-
taining the valuable documentary collections of
Alexander Brown, at page 217, is given among the
corporators of the Second Charter of James I,

The Hancock Family . 179

1609, the name of William Hancock. And at
page 909 is the entry :

"Hancock, Wm., Sub

" Paid ^62 10 5."

Brown adds that a pound then was worth about
twenty-five dollars of present money.

In the Virginia Historical Collections, Volume
8, page 278, Xew Series, appears the following
entry :

" William Hancocke, killed at Berkeley, 1622."
A list of the slain is there said to be given,
" Smith, p. 70." "Smith II, p. 65."

William Hancock seems to have been a man of
some substance. The first entry in the record
in the Family Bible is as follows: "In the
year 1620, Wm. Hancock, in search of forest
for his building of ships embarked for ye plan-
tations, being one of the company owners thereof,
leaving his familie in England. On the 22d of
March, 1622, he, with others, was massacreed by
ye Salvages at Thorpe's House, Berkeley Hundreds,
fifty miles from Charles City. In 1630, Augustin,
son and heir of William, came to claim the estate,
and died, leaving children."

Thorpe's House at which William Hancock was
killed by the Indians in the general massacre of
March 22, 1622. was the residence, as Captain
John Smith says (page 145), of "that worthy
religious gentleman, Mr. George Thorp, Deputie of
the College lands, sometime one of His Majestie's
Pensioners, and in command one of the principall
in Virginia."

180 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

Further light is thrown upon William Hancock's
emigration in the MSS. gift of Mr. Alexander
Maitland to the Lenox Library of " John Smyth's
Virginia Papers and Autographs, 1613-1776. From
the Berkeley and Cholmondeley Archives."
These MSS. are not the work of the great Capt.
John Smith, but of John Smyth, of Nibley (born
1567; died 1641), and were part of the Cholmon-
deley Collection, Condover Hall, Shropshire.

"The MSS. tells us that in 161S Smyth entered
into a partnership with Sir William Throckmor-
ton, Sir George Yeardley, Richard Berkeley and
George Thorpe, for the purpose of founding in
Virginia a colony to be known as the ' ' Berkeley
Hundred.' In September of the following year
these men fitted out a bark, the Margaret of Bristol,
with immigrants and supplies for the prospective
settlement. An account of this voyage, indorsed

The voyage written || by Fferdinando || Yate to
verginia || 1619,' is given in one of the manuscripts
of the collection.

In the description of the voyage it appears that
the Margaret set sail on September 16, 1619, and
cast auchor in Chesapeake Bay, after a tempestu-
ous voyage, on the 30th day of November.
William Hancock very probably came over at this
time, though 1620 is given as the date in the Bible.
He was evidently associated in some way with
Berkeley and Thorpe.

From that time down to the Revolution we have
no authentic annals of the family, except the brief
record of the Family Bible. Summed up it brings

The Hancock Family. 181

us to Col. George Hancock, of Fotheringay, thus :
Augustin's son, William, born 1631, left son
George (1st), born 165S. He left one son, Robert,
born 1679; died 1732. Robert had seven children,
five of whom died without issue. The fifth child,
George (2d), born 1724 ; married Mary Jones and
had three sons and a daughter. He died during
the Revolutionary War. One of his sons, Augus-
tin, born 1756, died in the army, unmarried. His
eldest son, a cripple, also died unmarried. His
son, George (3d), known as Col. George Hancock
of Fotheringay, was born in 1754 ; married
Margaret Strother, at Fincastle, Virginia, Sep-
tember iS, 17S1, and died at Fotheringay
July iS, 1S20. Margaret Strother was the daugh-
ter of George Strother and Mary Kennedy, who
was born September 10, 1746, and died at Fother-
ingay, June 18, 1830. Margaret Strother was born
November 16, 1763, and died at Louisville, Ky.,
October 23, 1834. Margaret Strother and her
brother were brought up from an early age, until
almost grown, by an uncle, John Strother, in
which the traditions of both families concur.
Mary Kennedy's brother Samuel married Mary
Hancock, born November 4, 1759, only sister of
Col. George Hancock (3d). They removed late
in life to St. Louis, where their descendants still
reside.

Colonel Hancock (3d) was a man of note in his
day, and the countryside was full of anecdotes of
him within the memory of the present writer. He
had a splendid presence, being six feet three inches

182 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

in height, and possessed much of the personal
beauty that distinguished his daughters as among
the most beautiful women in Virginia. His son,
Colonel George Hancock (4th), of Louisville, Ken-
tucky, was a classmate of President Woolsey at
Yale, who told the present writer that he remem-
bered him as the handsomest }Toung man he had
ever seen. He preserved his fine appearance to an
extreme old age.

At the opening of the Revolutionary War,
though a very young man, George Hancock
(3d) entered the service as a colonel in the Vir-
ginia line, his rank being probably due to his
father's large wealth and influence. This gentle-
man, George Hancock (2d), owned large pos-
sessions in the Sea Islands of South Carolina, and
being in years and ill with the gout, started to
Virginia with his daughter and a body of faithful
slaves in order to evade the British troops, who had
taken possession of the sea coast. He died on the
road at King's Mountain, South Carolina. His
son, Col. George Hancock (3d), is stated by
tradition to have been on Pulaski's staff and to have
received the body of the illustrious Pole, when he
fell at Savannah. Captured there himself, he was
paroled to go to Virginia, where he married in
17S1. After the war, having lost the greatest part
of his estate, he began the practice of law, in which
he was successful, at Fincastle, Virginia. He was
a member of the Fourth Congress, and was
strongly attached to the policy of President Wash-
ington. Having voted for Jay's Treat}-, he was

The Hancock Family. 183

rejected by his constituents, and did not re-enter
political life. In his latter years he resided at
Fotheringay, and his remains lie in the white
vault which he had excavated high on the moun-
tain side and overlooking what is called "The
Happy Valley.' This family tomb is visible from
the railroad on the opposite side of the valley, near
Big Spring, Ya.

The following is the record from the Family
Bible :

"In ye year 1620, Win. Hancock, in search for
Forrest for his building of Ships, embarked for ye
Plantations, being one of ye Company owners
thereof, leaving his familie in England ; on ye 226.
of March, 1622, he, with others, was massacreed by
ye salvages at Thorpe's House, Berkeley Hundred ,
fifty miles from Charles City.

"In 1630, Augustin, son and heir of William,
came to Virginia to claim the estate, and died,
leaving children, Robert, William, Sarah and
Ruth. William, born 163 1, died 1672. leaving
sons, George, born 1658 ; Jubal, 1660; Jubal killed
by Indians at ' Jinito.' George died, leaving one
child, Robert, born 1679, died 1732. Robert left
children, Robert, born 171 1; he was ancestor of
Colonel Wm. Hancock, of Bedford county, Vir-
ginia; Edward, born 1713, died^young ; and Dinah,
born 1 717, married ' Mr. Patterson,' of Virginia,
died without children ; William, born 1720, never
married ; and George, born 1724, who married
Mary Jones and had issue. Thomas and Joshua,

184 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

Thomas, born 1727; Joshua, born 1729, both lost
at sea.

" George Hancock and Mary Jones' children
were Edward, born 1752; never married; died
1820; George, born June 13, 1754, died July 18,
1820; he married Peggy or Margaret Strother
(daughter of George Strother and Mary Kennedy),
whose second marriage was to Major Lockhart."

THE STROTHER FAMILY.

The marriage of Col. George Hancock (3d)
with Margaret Strother united two old colonial
families. These touch upon the family of John-
ston of Salisbury, through the marriage of Gen.
Albert Sidney Johnston with two granddaughters
of Colonel Hancock and wife, Henrietta Preston
and Eliza Griffin, so that all his descendants count
Colonel Hancock and wife among their ancestors.

Margaret Strother. herself was the daughter of
George Strother and Mary Keunerly, his wife.
The Strothers were a rich and powerful connec-
tion, and, according to tradition, renowned for
beauty, brilliancy and a certain imperiousness of
temper, verging on lawlessness. But in those days
each old Virginia Don, on his ample estate, was
almost a law unto himself. A good deal has been
written, and many facts have been accumulated,
in regard to this family.

General D. H. Strother (known under the nom
de plume of Porte Crayon) devoted considerable
time and research to tracing the Strother Family
in England and America, but it would be aside
from the purpose of this sketch to do more than
briefly mention some of the salient points of this
narrative. Mr. P. N. Strother, of Pearisburg, Va. ,
an ardent, but accurate, genealogist, has also made
a study of all accessible data, and is preparing an

186 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

extended memoir of the family. Based upon this
and other sources, I have drawn up a table, accom-
panying this sketch; but I am aware that there are
discrepancies in it with other accounts entitled to
respect. They will not, however, invalidate its
important features.

According to the interesting paper of General
D. H. Strother, the Strother iamily was of great
wealth and power from the thirteenth to the fif-
teenth century in the county of Northumberland,
where " it vied with the Percys, Howards, Dacres,
Scroops and Bedfords in high commands. The
ladies of the family also intermarried with the
Fenwicks, Musgraves, Selbys, and Widdringtons,
names familiar in all the chivalric chronicles and
ballads of the Scotch and English border. " But,
at present, it must be added, the family is repre-
sented "among the small landholders of Northum-
berland and also in Scotland.' In a word, the
respectable remains of a great fighting family still
exist around and about their ancient home, but
with loss of prestige.

In America better fortunes awaited the Strothers.
Somewhere, as early as 1673, William Strother
emigrated from Northumberland county, England,
to Virginia. Almost certainly he was one of the
family already mentioned; but, as we do not know
who his father was, it is useless to speculate on
mythical pedigrees, and we may as well leave the
English family out of the question. His descend-
ants hav£ occupied a very conspicuous place in the
history of this country, numbering among their

The Strqtheb Family. 187

members two Presidents of the United States, John
Tyler and Zachary Taylor; a distinguished general,
Edmund Pendleton Gaines; Bishop Madison; Gov-
ernor Madison, of Kentucky, and man)' others of
note in their day. They were intermarried with
the Lewises, Dabneys, Kennerlys, Thorntons,
Masons of Gnuston, Madisons and Washington s;
and the acres must have been broad that could
stand a subdivision into eight or ten inheritances
in each generation.

William Strother settled on the banks of the
Rappahannock river, in Richmond county (now
King George county), where he died in 1702. His
children were William, died 17-7: James, died
1 7 16, unmarried; Jeremiah, died in Culpeper
county. 1 74 1 ; Robert, died in King George county.
1735; Benjamin, died in King George county,
1752, and Joseph, died also in King George county,
1766. One of his grandsons, Francis, of Rush
River, or St. Mark's parish, as he is sometimes
designated, the ancestor of Margaret Strother, had
ten children, and many others were blessed with a
numerous progeny.

The Strothers seem to have been closely con-
nected with the Kennerlys by intermarriage and
in business. Jeremiah Strother married Miss Ken-
nedy, a great-aunt of Margaret Strother, and
removed to South Carolina. And James and Eliza-
beth Kennerly owned an estate, known as Del-
mere Forest, under a patent for 583 1-3 acres,
dated June 6, 1735, located in St. Charles parish,
Culpeper county, in which Francis, the father of

188 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

George Strother, also had his home. George
Strother, in his last will, devised to his wife, Mary
Kennerly, for life and then to his daughter, Mar-
garet, land at Kennerly Mountain bought of Will-
iam Baker, who bought it from Lord Fairfax, and
to his sons, John and George, land bought of
James Kennerly. His executors were James Ken-
nerly, John Strother and Francis Strother.

Margaret Strother's mother was Mary Kennerly,
born in 1746. George Strother and Mary Ken-
nerly were neighbors in youth, in days when the
Old Dominion was in full tide of prosperity ; and,
in later years, when she was an old woman, she
still looked back with regret on the stately cere-
monial and vanities of colonial society. George
Strother died young (1767) ; and his wife, left a
widow at twenty-one years of age, made a second
marriage, December 5, 1770, with Major Patrick
Lockhart, a Scotchman by birth, and a very ardent
patriot. He was a worthy and sturdy character,
but was impoverished by his share in the Revolu-
tionary War. He and his wife had a daughter,
who died in infancy, and a son, James Lockhart,
who died in Nashville, Tenn., November 6, 1832,
aged sixty-one years. After her husband's death
in 1809, Mrs. Lockhart lived with her daughter,
Mrs. Hancock, at Fotheringay, until her own
death, June 18, 1830, at the advanced age of
eighty-four years. She was laid in the family
vault of George Hancock, where rest also his body,
and that of his daughter, Mrs. Julia Clark, wife of
Gen. William Clark, of Missouri.

The Strother Family. 189

From the union of Margaret Strother, daughter
of George Strother and Mary Kennedy, with Col.
George Hancock of Fotheringay, sprang three
families, of which a brief account is given here-
with— the Griffins, the Prestons, and the Clarks.
They had also a son, George Hancock (4th), of
whom a short sketch is also appended.

The descendants of George Hancock and Mar-
garet Strother inherited many of the traits for which
their colonial and revolutionary ancestry were dis-
tinguished, which it would not be difficult for one
conversant with the family history to point out.
Longevity, great physical strength and a rare
beauty of face and form have marked a goodly
number of their offspring. The children were
famous in their day for a very uncommon beauty.
Julia, the third daughter, was thought by her
admirers " the most beautiful woman in Virginia;"
but her husband, General Clark, was celebrated as
well for the ruggedness of his person as for his
energy of character and nobility of nature. The
Griffins have all been endowed with muscular
strength, vigor of constitution and a sweet persua-
siveness almost phenomenal; and, as a rule, while
the Prestons have been more or less hardy, they
have been nearly always remarkable for size and
presence; and Colonel George Hancock (4th) had
all these traits.

Colonel George Hancock (4th), youngest child
of Colonel George Hancock and Margaret Strother
and their only surviving son, is still remembered
by the older citizens of Louisville, Kentucky,

190 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

where he died in 1875 at seventy-seven years of
age. An excellent sketch of his life is given by
Colonel J. Stoddard Johnston in his History of
Louisville. An autobiography, or even a well
planned biography, recounting the stirring inci-
dents of his life, would read like a romance. He
was a youth of singular beauty and possibly some
waywardness. His father, who had many friends
in the Xorth, sent him, at an early age, to school at
New Haven during the war with Great Britain.
In one youthful escapade he fell into the hands of
the enemy, but was set free without injury. At
Yale, where he was educated, he was under the
guardianship of General David Humphreys, and
was in the same class with President Woolsey, who
told the writer that he was the handsomest young
man he had ever known. It is oossible that he
paid more attention to social enjoyment than
to books, but he was a fair scholar and always a
great reader.

When he returned home he entered at once into
politics and was elected to the Legislature. But he
served only one term. On a visit to Kentucky
to his sister, Mrs. Preston, he married Miss
Eliza Croghau, the niece of his brother-in-law,
Gen. William Clark, and the sister of Col. George
Croghan, the hero of Fort Sandusky. This was
in 1819, before he was twenty-two years of age.
He removed to Kentucky a few years later, and
engaged in agriculture, or rather in the liberal life
of a country gentleman of that dav. The rest of
his life was spent in Kentucky, where he farmed

The Strotheb Family. 191

at various periods in Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby
and Carroll counties. He was an admirable judge
of land and of values, and had a singular faculty
of taking the roughest looking property, and by his
taste, skill and husbandry, transforming it into a
most inviting home. He would have made a won-
derful landscape gardener. Indeed he was one.

His hospitality was very profuse ; and, with
no children of his own, he gathered around him
his kindred and friends with a welcome so generous
that his home was a real centre of family love and
influence. In all this he was* seconded and greatly
aided by his second wife, Mary Davidson, of whose
family a sketch is given in the memoir herein of
Col. J. Stoddard Johnston. To Colonel Hancock's
robust physique, personal attractions, magnetic
manner, ready conversational eloquence, wit and
wonderful vivacity of intellect, he added a shrewd
and accurate knowledge of business affairs, and
great daring and energy. These traits led him into
enterprises of great magnitude, and with striking
vicissitudes of fortune. Withal he was an old-
fashioned gentleman of most benevolent nature,
kind to everybody, rich and poor, and beloved by
all. It could truly be said of him, ruling his pa-
triarchal home with thoughtfulness and dignity,
that there never was a better master ; and his ser-
vants, inherited for generations, were his best
friends. He was the last of the name of the
descendants of George Hancock (2d) born in 1724.

The writer remembers among his earliest recol-
lections the wonderful and striking manly beauty

192 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

of Capt. George Hancock Griffin; and later on,
how, while still a college student, he was, as a
guest in his hospitable home in New York, com-
pletely won and captivated by the persuasive voice,
gracious manner and manly thought of his kins-
man, Lieutenant William Preston Griffin. Dr.
John Strother Griffin, still a hale citizen of Los
Angeles, Cal., now eighty-three years of age, has
always been noted for his strength and endurance.
Mrs. Bliza Griffin Johnston had the same char-
acteristics and much beauty, and her children
have to a considerable degree inherited her en-
dowments.

General William Clark, who married the young-
est daughter of Colonel Hancock, is now best
known as the joint discoverer, with Merriwether
Lewis, of the mouth of the Columbia river, which
constituted the most valid claim of the United
States to the possession of Oregon and the country
to the sources of that mighty stream. He was the
younger brother of George Rogers Clark, who is
gradually coming to be recognized as the heroic
leader, who, with a little baud of Kentuckians, by
his victories wrested the Northwestern Territor3'
from Great Britain. As Superintendent of Indian
Affairs, Gen. William Clark had an influence over
the Western tribes never equaled before or since by
any white man. He was loved as a friend and
father and obeyed as the Great Red-Headed Chief,
who could be trusted to the uttermost. Of him it
was said as contemporary history, in Niles Regis-
ter^ Volume 55, page 33:

The Hancock Family. 193

"General William Clark died at St. Louis,
September 2, 1838, aged sixty-eight years. After
his explorations he was made Governor of Mis-
souri, and afterward Superintendent cf Indian
Affairs. His name was known by the most remote
tribes, and his word was reverenced by them
everywhere. They regarded him as a father, and
his signature — which is known by every Indian in
the most distant wild of the Far West — wherever
shown was respected."

His sons were all men of high standing in their
several spheres.

But by far the most numerous branch of Colonel
Hancock's descendants were the Prestons, who
abound unto the fourth and fifth generation. His
daughter Caroline became the wife of Major
William Preston of the United States Army.
Major Preston was born too late to take part in the
Revolutionary struggle, in which his father had an
honorable and distinguished share, but he served
with credit under Gen. Anthony Wayne and in
the control of the Indian tribes in the Southwest.

Major William Preston was born March 26, 1765,
married March 24, 1802, and died at Smithfield,
Montgomery count}-, Virginia, in 1821. He was
appointed captain in the United States army by
President Washington in 1794, and was subse-
quently promoted to be a major. He was a mem-
ber of the Cincinnati Society. He resigned late in
life and removed to Louisville, Ky., where he had
a large estate. Major Preston was the third of
five brothers, all noted for their talents, vigor, per-

194 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

sonal worth and magnificent presence. He him
self was six feet five inches in height, at one time
weighed four hundred pounds and was con-
sidered in strength second only to Peter Fran-
cisco. Many of his descendants have inherited his
lofty stature and other of his traits. He was a
man of wit, daring and genial temper, the favorite
of an extensive family connection.

Major Preston was the son of Col. William
Preston, of Smithfield, Virginia, and Susannah
Smith, daughter of Francis Smith and Elizabeth
Waddy, of Henrico county ; and Colonel Preston
was the son of John Preston and Elizabeth Patton,
his wife. John Preston and his kinsmen claimed
to be descended from three brothers who were
among the defenders of Londonderry in its famous
siege. He emigrated from Londonderry in 1735 to
Augusta county, Virginia, when his son William
was eight years old, and died young in 1740.
William was his only son, but he left four daugh-
ters, from whom sprang four very notable fami-
lies— the Breckinridges, Browns, Blairs and How-
ards, whose members have generally lived in Vir-
ginia, Kentucky and Missouri and the South-
west. A talent for oratory and for military and
political life has marked many of the scions of
this stout Scotch-Irish breed, and the descendants
of Col. William Preston have evinced the same
traits, as, for instance, William Campbell Preston,
of South Carolina ; Gen. William Preston, of Ken-
tucky ; Gov. James McDowell, of Virginia; Will-
iam Ballard Preston, of Virginia; Gen. Randall
L. Gibson, of Louisiana, and many others.

The Hancock Family. 195

Colonel William Preston, following in the foot-
steps of his uncle, Col. James Patton, who had
been the leading man on that frontier at an earlier
day, took an active and useful part in the Revolu-
tionary struggle. He was County Lieutenant of
Fincastle and Montgomery counties, embracing
the territory of Kentucky, a member of the House
of Burgesses, and took part in the battle of King's
Mountain. He was one of the founders of Liberty
Hall Academy, the original of Washington and
Lee University. He was a man of great wealth,
power and influence in his day, and much esteemed
by his contemporaries.

Among all the descendants of Col. William
Preston, of Smithfield, there has been none who
excelled in natural gilts, personal accomplishments
and public services, his grandson and namesake,
Gen. William Preston, of Kentucky; and yet, with
all he was and did, men -continually wondered that
he allowed to go to waste talents and abilities equal
to the highest achievements. So great and versa-
tile were his gifts, so untrammeled his strength of
mind and body, so rare his advantages and oppor-
tunities, that, though he accomplished much, his
friends felt it was but the by-play of a giant in his
moods, who yet would not exert his full powers.

William Preston (3d) was the only son who
reached manhood, of Major William Preston and
Caroline Hancock. In his boyhood, though head-
strong and wayward, his manly and generous qual-
ities won him both the leadership and the affection
of his comrades. He was a splendid horseman and

196 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

famous swimmer ; and, living on the banks of the
Ohio, often swam across it, not far above the Falls.
At fourteen years of age, he saved from drowning
a lad, who later in life became an honored citizen
of Louisville.

He was a widow's son, and she a woman strug-
gling with debt and narrow means, though she had
a large estate. His reckless prodigality as a youth
often embarrassed his mother, but her high princi-
ple and resolve to sacrifice ever}7 interest to honor
strengthened and magnified his native integrity
and chivalry. He attributed much to his eldest
sister, Henrietta, who was especially devoted to
him. He went to various schools in Kentucky,
learning a great deal in a rather desultory manner,
and eventually found his way to New Haven, and
later to the Harvard Law School, where he was
graduated. It was always rather a marvel to the
writer when and how he got a scholarship in the
classics, as easy, as gentlemanly and as critically
correct as need be for a professorial chair. His
natural gifts and a certain fire and concentration in
study, which marked all his mentality and action,
are the only solution.

Returning to Kentucky he began the practice of
the law in Louisville, but with no great enthusiasm
at first. Indeed, he never did undertake the
drudgery of an attorney's life ; but, as he said,
practised like a Roman patrician, for his kindred
and clients. And 3-et few lawyers in America
have ever become so absorbed in their practice as
he in the great cases to which he devoted his atten-

The Hancock Family. 197

tion and which he prepared with a scope of view, a
depth of research and a careful consideration of
detail almost unequaled. And before a jury he
wTas a formidable opponent ; indeed terrible, as he
sometimes proved to unworthy adversaries.

But this was a later phase of his life. In 1840,
at the age of twenty-four, he married Margaret
Wickliffe, a kinswoman, the daughter of Robert
Wickliffe, of Lexington, Kentucky, known as " the
Old Duke," the greatest lawyer of his day in
Kentucky. She was, in every sense, his peer; a
lady, whose beauty, goodness and talents won
unbounded admiration in her youth and whose
influence has never wavered in Kentucky through
a life reaching nearly four score years. A large
family was boru to them, the members of which
have kept up the prestige of their parents.

William Preston always had a strong predilec-
tion for military affairs, and during the Mexican
War was made lieutenant colonel of the Fourth
Kentucky Volunteers. Though this command did
not see much service, 3-et coming as he did of a
family identified with the old army, he was thrown
into close relations with the most eminent officers
and won the particular notice and affection of Gen.
Wiiifield Scott, of whom he became a devoted
friend and active partisan. Indeed, later on, he
contributed largely to General Scott's nomination
for the Presidency in 1852. After the war he had
been elected to the convention held in 1849 to
amend the State Constitution, and secured great
respect by the independence of his opinions and

198 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

actions and the philosophical basis of his convic-
tions. In politics he was nominally a Whig,
according to the traditions of his family and cer-
tain strong conservative instincts; but he embraced
a moderate view of the State Rights theory of
national politics, which unfitted him for party
work as a hack in harness. However, he was
elected to the Legislature and to Congress. Per-
sonally, no man was ever more popular with his
constituency, but ideas are stronger than men; and
when Louisville joined the fanatical Know-Nothing
Crusade in 1855, he led the opposition, though he
knew that he was signing his political death war-
rant. In this case, as in many others, he evinced
a certain stubbornness, or tenacity of opinion and
purpose, that prevented him from receiving the
highest rewards of party service. Gen. John C.
Breckinridge said of him, "If Preston were to
come to a precipice a thousand feet deep and honor
bade him go on, he would take the leap."

He soon took high rank in the Democratic party,
and would have been its nominee for Governor,
but he was persuaded to accept the mission to
Spain, to which he was appointed by President
Buchanan. When the war broke out in 1862,
though he distrusted secession as a remedy and had
little faith in its ultimate success, he resigned, re-
turned home and went South, where he entered
the Confederate service as aide-de-camp to Gen.
Albert Sidney Johnston, who had a great affection
for him. General Johnston died in his arms. He
was made a Brigadier General by President Davis,

The Hancock Family. 199

and was distinguished in the bloody battles at
Murfreesboro, and still more for conduct at Chick -
amauga, which won him the commendation even
of foreign critics, He was subsequently in com-
mand in Southwestern Virginia, but was sent on a
mission to Mexico by President Davis. He saw
the close of the war only in its dying throes in
Texas, whence he went to England.

After the close of the war General Preston was
welcomed back to Kentucky with great enthusiasm
not only by the returned Confederates, who looked
to him as a great leader, but by the Southern sym-
pathizers, who knew him to be a man who had
proved his faith by his works. This was his great
opportunity. There was nothing that Kentucky
could give him that it would not have granted.
But the iron had entered his soul, his ambition
was paralyzed, his heart was well nigh broken. In
becoming a soldier he had never forgotten that he
was a citizen, and now all his high ideals were
shattered. The cause was lost.

He always refused to apply for a pardon and
would seek no office ; but his patriotism did not
waver. He loyally accepted the situation, and his
voice was the most potent in the counsels of the
Democratic party in Kentucky. He became warmly
interested in the election of Mr. Tilden, and was
much in the confidence of that statesman. He
always took a share in the political direction of the
State, but his time and attention were given in his
latter days almost exclusively to the study and
management of certain great lawsuits already

200 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

mentioned. He died at his home at Lexington,
Kentucky, September 21, 1887.

General Preston was a man of lofty stature, hand-
some face, and commanding presence. His great
size, his gallant bearing and his Roman features
attracted attention everywhere. His voice like a
trumpet, his contagious laugh, his magnetic man-
ner, his intellectual poise, and a fire and vigor of
speech and thought, in which humor, audacity,
sympathy and lofty ideals were mingled, made him
a favorite popular orator. He had a loathing for
the mere demagoguery of practical politics ; but
as a political leader and counselor was adro.t, dar-
ing and wise. In private life, his genial manner,
joyous nature, wit, profuse liberality, and stately
hospitality made him a general favorite, and his
home a social centre. His conversational talent
was extraordinary, the fit exponent of a mind of
unbounded versatility. It was at his table, or in
his library, that he was at his best, and the more
intellectual his audience, the more was it fasci-
nated. His mind was philosophical, but so versa-
tile that it drifted with the mood and the play of
conversation, from the profoundest topics to anec-
dote, illustration or epigram, but all illumined by
scholarship and dignified by strong thought.
Withal, he was an accurate man of business, and
managed his affairs well in buying and selling real
estate, of which he was a large holder, though his
lavish expenditure prevented any great accumula-
tion of fortune. He was not careless, but profuse.
Those who knew him well loved him much —

The Hancock Family. 201

loved him most ; and this must be the apology for
this brief memoir of a man who deserves from
every point a fuller memorial ; for he was the repre-
sentative of a class whom we shall see no more.
Henry Watterson, in a brief editorial on his life
and character, written when he died, summed
him up as " The Last of the Cavaliers."

If this notice of the Prestons seems a little
extended it is in complaisance to a very numerous
tribe of collaterals, whose fuller history may be
found in " Memoranda of the Preston Family," by
Col. John Mason Brown; in the Historical Docu-
ments of Washington and Lee University; in the
Proceedings of the Scotch-Irish Society, and in the
careful and trustworthy " History of Augusta
County, Va.,Vl by James Addison Waddell.

ANCESTORS OF MARGARET STROTHER.

GENEALOGICAL TABLES

OF

STROTHER FAMILY.

A, B, C and D Indicate the Lineal Ancestors
of Margaret Strother Hancock.

GENERATION I.

A. William Strother (the First), emigrant
before 1673, from Northumberland county, Eng-
land; married Dorothy; died 1702, in King George
count}-, Virginia.

Children:

B—

a. William (second), died 1727.

b. James, died 1716.

c. Jeremiah, died 1741.

d. Robert, died 1735.

e. Benjamin, died 17">2.

f. Joseph, died 1766.

GENERATION II.

B. William (Second), son of William, married
Margaret, daughter ol Francis Thornton and his

The Strother Family. 203

wife, Alice, the daughter of Anthony Savage.
William died in 1727.

Children :
a. William (Third).
(C) b. Francis, of Rush River.
C. Anthony.

d. James, died 1766.

e. Benjamin.

GENERATION III.

William (Third), eldest son of William (Sec-
ond) and Margaret Thornton Strother ; married
Margaret Watts ; died 1733.

Children :

a. Elizabeth, married John Frogg.

b. Agatha, married John Madison (parents of Bishop
Madison and Governor Madison of Kentucky).

c. Margaret, married Gabriel Jones. •• the Lawyer "

d. Anna, married Francis Tyler (grandparent of Presi-
dent John Tyler) .

J e. Jane, married Thomas Lewis.

Anthony, third son of William (Second) and
Margaret Thornton Strother, married Betheland
Stron, and was the ancestor of the branch from
which General D. H. Strother is descended.

Benjamin, fifth and youngest son of William
(Second) and Margaret Thornton Strother, married
the Widow Fitzhugh, sister of George Mason, of
Gunston. Their daughter, Alice, married Robert
Washington.

Francis, of Rush River, second son of William
(Second) and Margaret Thornton Strother ; mar-
ried Susannah Dabney, daughter of John Dabney ;
died 1752.

204 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

Children :

a. William (Fourth).

b. John, married Mary Wade 1795.

c. Anthony, married Frances Eastham. died 1777.

d. Francis.
(D) e. George.

f. Robert.

g. Elizabeth, married Thomas Gaines,
h. Mary, married Mr. Covington.

i. Betheland, married Mr. Willis.

j. Susannah, married James Gaines (parents of Gen-
eral Edmund Pendleton Gaines),
k. Margaret, married Mr. Deatherage.

GENERATION IV.

William Strother (Fourth), eldest son of
Francis Strother, of Rush River, and Susannah
Dabney Strother; married Mrs. Susannah Pannill.

Children:
a. Susannah, married Capt. Moses Hawkins (parents

of Moses and William Hawkins, of Woodford county,

Ky.).
b.- William Dabney Strother.
c. Sarah, married Richard Taylor (father of President

Zachary Taylor).

George Strother, fifth sou of Francis Strother,
of Rush River, and Susannah Dabney Strother;
married Maty Kennedy; died 1767.

Children:

a. John Strother.

b. George Strother.

c. Margaret Strother. who married Col. George Han-
cock (3d) of Fotheringay, was born September 16,
1763, and died at the residence of her daughter, Mrs.
Caroline Preston, Louisville, Ky., October 3, 1834.

DESCENDANTS

OF

COLONEL GEORGE HANCOCK (3d),

OF FOTHERINGAY,
AND

MARGARET STROTHER HANCOCK,

His Wife.

GENERATION I.

George Hancock (3d) and Margaret Strother
\ Hancock.

Children:
. A. Man- Hancock.

B. Caroline Hancock.

C. John Strother Hancock.

D. Julia Hancock.

E. George Hancock (4th).

GENERATION II.

A — THE GRIFFIN FAMILY.

Mary Hancock, eldest daughter of George Han-
cock (3d) and Margaret Strother Hancock, born
February 14, 1783 ; married December 23, 1806, to
John Caswell Griffin, of Virginia; died April 26,
1826, at Fincastle, Va.

206 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

Children :

1. George Hancock Griffin.

2. William Preston Griffin.

3. Julia Elizabeth Griffin, born June 21, 1817; died
January 11, 1820.

4. Caroline Margaret Griffin, born November 14, 1818;
died October 28. 1819.

5. John Strother Griffin.

6. Eliza Croghan Griffin.

GENERATION III.

i. George Hancock Griffin, eldest son of John
Caswell Griffin and Mary Hancock Griffin, born
November 21, 1808; never married, and died at
Tampa Bay in Florida, October 7, 1836, during
the Seminole War, being then a Captain in the
United States Regular Army and aide-de-camp to
Gen. Zachary Taylor.

2. William Preston Griffin, second son of John
Caswell Griffin and Mary Hancock Griffin, born
February 25, 1810; died December 4, 1851.
William Preston Griffin was an officer of distinction
in the U. S. Navy. He married, first, Mary Law-
rence, only child of Commodore Lawrence, of his-
toric memory (" Don't give up the ship"). Mary
Lawrence Griffin died at Florence, Italy, leaving
one child, a daughter, Mary Lawrence Griffin,
who married William Redmond, of New York.
She left an only child, Preston Redmond. Lieuten-
ant Griffin's second wife was Christine Kean, of
New York, who survives. Thev had no children.

5. John Strother Griffin, fifth child of John
Caswell Griffin and Mary Hancock Griffin, born

The Hancock Family. 207

June 25, 18 16; Surgeon in United States Army
with General Kearney in the Mexican War ; set-
tled at Los Angeles, Cal., as a practising physi-
cian ; married Louisa Hayes ; has no children.

6. Eliza Croghan Griffin, youngest child of John
Caswell Griffin and Mary Hancock Griffin, born
December 26, 1821 ; married General Albert Sidney
Johnston. Fuller mention is made of her and her
descendants in connection with his life in this
volume.

GENERATION II.

THE PRESTON FAMILY.

B. Caroline Hancock, second daughter of George
Hancock (3d) and Margaret Strother Hancock,
born Match 25, 1785 ; married Major William
Preston, U. S. A., March 24, 1802 ; and died
December 20, 1847.

Children:

1. Henrietta Johnston Preston.

2. Maria Preston.

3. Caroline Preston.

4. Josephine Preston.

5. Julia Preston.

b. Hancock Preston.

7. William Preston.

8. Susan Marshall Preston.

GENERATION III.

1. Henrietta Johnston Preston (so christened),
eldest daughter. Full mention in the sketch of
General Albert Sidney Johnston.

2. Maria Preston, second daughter of William

Preston and Caroline Hancock Preston, born ,

1804 ; married John Pope, lawyer of Louisville,

208 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

Kentucky, June — , 1824, who died leaving her a
widow at an early age. Her only child died in
infancy. She brought up her nieces, Susan and
Maria, daughters of her sister, Josephine, and the
children of Susan (Mrs. Barr), and died April
J5> l%95> at the advanced age of ninety years.
3. Caroline Preston, third daughter of William

Preston and Caroline Hancock Preston, born ,

at " Robinson's Tract,' in Wythe, now Pulaski,
count}', Virginia ; married Colonel Abram Wool-
ley, U. S. A., at "Solitude," near Middletown,
Jefferson county, Kentucky ; died at New Orleans,
March 18, 1840.

Children:

a. John Pope Woolley.

b. Mary Margaret Hancock Woolley

c. William Preston Woolley.

d. Louis Marshall Woolley.

e. Llewellyn Powell Woolley.

Only William and Llewellyn survived the mother,
and Llewellyn died in infancy.

(c) William Preston Woolley, born May 2,
1830; died at Buffalo, N. Y. , September 7, 1850,
and was buried at Louisville, Ky., September, 13,
1850. He evinced uncommon literary and musi-
cal talents at an early age, and became sole editor
and manager of a vigorous daily newspaper in
Louisville before he reached nineteen years. He
had started on a journey to Europe, but was taken
sick and died immediately after leaving home.
Had he lived there was scarcely a doubt among
his acquaintances that he would have won much
distinction.

The Hancock Family. 209

4. Josephine Preston, fourth daughter of Will-
iam Preston and Caroline Hancock Preston, born
at Robinson's Tract, Va., December 25, 1809; mar-
ried Jason Rogers, October 16, 1831; died Novem-
ber 6, 1842, at Louisville, Ky.

Jason Rogers was born in Orange county, X. V.,
February 2, 1803; died April 6, 1848, at Louis-
ville, Ky. He was a captain in the Sixth Infantry,
and served with credit in the Black Hawk War,
and as lieutenant colonel of the Louisville Legion
in the Mexican War. He was an amiable, hon-
orable and gallant gentleman.

Children :

a. Caroline Preston Rogers.

b. Preston Roger- .

c. Susan Preston Roger*.

d. Sidney Johnston Rogers.

e. Maria Pope Rogers.

f. James Rogers.

g. Joseph Jason Rogers.

GEXERATIOX IV.

a. Caroline Preston Rogers, eldest child of Jason
Rogers and Josephine Preston Rogers, born at Jef-
ferson Barracks, Mo., July 29, 1833; died May 4,
1837, at Louisville, Ky.

b. Preston Rogers, eldest son of Jason Rogers
and Josephine Preston Rogers, born April 6, 1835;
married Sophie Leight Ranney, daughter of Willis
Ranney (born September 22, 1805, died December
3, 1893), and Sophie Leight (born Jul}' 8, 1812,
died June 20, 1888). Mrs. Rogers was born Sep-
tember 11, 1838; married December 3, 1857.

210 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

Children :
Josephine Preston (Effie) Kogers, born September 28,
1858; married Walter Kawlings Hill, June 4, 1864.
One daughter :

Sophie Preston Hill, born June 15. 1895.
Ella Eanney Rogers, born August 16, 1860; married
William Paca Lee, Xovember 18, 1890. One daugh-
ter:

Sophie Rogers Lee. born July 30, 1895.

Adelaide Jacob Rogers, born November 23, 1862;
unmarried.

c. Susan Preston Rogers, third child of Jason
and Josephine Preston Rogers, born September 24,
1836; married the Hon. John Watson Barr, United
States District Judge; died

Children:

Maria Preston Pope, died in infancy.

Anna, born February 3, 1861; unmarried.

John Watson Barr. Jr.. born November 25, 1863; mar-
ried Margaret McFerran. Xovember 12. 1891. One
child. .John McFerran Barr, born October 19, 1882.

Caroline Preston Barr, born December 24, 1864; mar-
ried Morton W. Joyes, lawyer, Louisville. Three
children :

Watson Barr Joyes.
Preston Pope Joyes.
Florence Joyc-.

Susan Barr. born September 3. 1866; married Edward
J. McDermott, lawyer. Louisville, in 1895. One
daughter, born June. 1897.

Jason Rogers Barr. born January 5. 1868 (civil en-
gineer) : married Elizabeth Wood in 1895. One
child, John Watson Barr.. born in 181*7.

Josephine Barr. born April 8, 1869; married John B.
McFerran, October 12. 1894. One child. John B.
McFerran. born September 1. 1S95.

Elise Barr. born January 29, 1871 : unmarried.

The Hancock Family. 211

d. Sidney Johnston Rogers, fourth child of
Jason and Josephine Rogers, born October 9, 1837,
at Louisville, Ky.; married Belle Brent; died April
17, 1885.

Children:
Jason Rogers, died in infancy.
Susan Preston Rogers, died in infancy.
Preston Pope Rogers, born : married Susie

Wood . 1S97.

e. Maria Pope Rogers, fifth child of Jason and
Josephine Preston Rogers, born June 17, 1839, at
Louisville; married Dr. Thomas Palmer Satter-
white, practising physician, Louisville, Ky. Dr.
Satterwhite was the only son of Dr. Thomas
Palmer Satterwhite and Mary Cabell Breckinridge,
and was born July 21, 1S35.

Children :
Josephine Preston Satterwhite. born December 7,

1858; died April IS. 1S59.
Lilly Satterwhite. born March 13. 1861: unmarried.
Thomas P. Satterwhite. born June 7. 1862; married

Minnie Shreve Xovember 10. 1880. One child :
Sallie Shreve Satterwhite.
Jason Rogers Satterwhite, born March 13, 1864; died

March, 1865.
Preston Pope Satterwhite. born September 28. 1867.
Caroline Hancock Satterwhite. born July 29. 1870;

died September 7. 1877.
Cabell Breckinridge Satterwhite, born June 10, 1874:

died June 3, 1880.
Susan Barr Satterwhite, born April 6. 1879.

f. James Rogers, sixth child of Jason and Jose-
phine Preston Rogers, born June 30, 1841 ; died
in infancy.

212 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

g. Joseph Jason Rogers, youngest child of Jason
and Josephine Preston Rogers, born October 30,
1842 ; died May 4, 1844.

GENERATION III.

5. Julia Preston, fifth child of Major William
and Caroline Hancock Preston, died in infancy.

6. Hancock Preston, sixth child of William and

Caroline Hancock Preston, born ; killed by a

fall from a vicious horse at fourteen years of age.

7. William Preston, seventh child and second
son of William and Caroline Hancock Preston,
born October 16, 1816; married Margaret Preston

Wickliffe, December , 1840 ; died September

21, 1887. A sketch is given of General Preston in
this volume.

GENERATION IV.

Children:

a. Mary Owen Preston, eldest daughter, born October
8, 1841 ; married Colonel John Mason Brown, her
kinsman, and an eminent lawyer of Louisville,
Kentucky.

Their children :

Preston Brown, Second Lieutenant United States

Arm}', born January 2, 1872.
IMason Brown, First Assistant City Attorney,

Louisville, Kentucky, born February 3, 1874;

married Miss Ferguson , 1897.

Mary Owen Brown, born August 28, 1875.
Margaret Wickliffe Brown, born September 23,

1877.

b. Caroline Hancock Preston, second daughter, born

; married Major Robert A. Thornton, lawyer, of

Lexington. Kentucky.

The Hancock Family. 213

Their children :

Preston Thornton, born March 19, 1871 ; died

May 16, 1897.
Margaret Thornton born December 11, 1873.
Caroline Thornton, born August 20, 1876.

c. Margaret Preston, third daughter, born ; mar-
ried George M. Davie, lawyer, of Louisville, Ken-
tucky.

Children :

A daughter died in infancy.

Preston Davie, born February 3, 1880.

d. Robert Wickliffe Preston, only son, born December 2,
1850 ; married his kinswoman, Sallie McDowell, of St.
Louis.

Children :

Margaret Preston, born September 1, 1885.
William Preston, born August 28, 1887.

e. Susan Preston, fourth daughter, born ; married

General William P. Draper, of Hopedale, Massa-
chusetts. M. C, and Minister to Italy.

Margaret Preston Draper, born March, 1891.

f . Jessie Fremont Preston, youngest daughter, born ;

married George A. Draper, of Hopedale. Massachu-
setts.

Wickliffe Preston Draper, born August, 1891.

Jessie Preston Draper, born ; died.

Helen Draper.

GENERATION III.

8. Susan Marshall Preston, eighth and youngest
child of William and Caroline Hancock Preston,
born September 21, 18 19 ; married first, Howard
F. Christy, of St. Louis, and second, Hiatt P.
Hepburn, of San Francisco. No children.

214 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

GENERATION II.

C. John Strother Hancock, third child of George
Hancock (3d) and Margaret Strother Hancock,
born March 25, 1787; died August 2, 1795.

D. Julia Hancock. William Clark, ninth child
and youngest son of John and Ann Rogers Clark,
was born in Caroline county, Virginia, August i,
iyjo[; married, first, Julia Hancock, at Fincastle,
Va., January 5, 1808, who died June 27, 1820;
second, Mrs. Harriet (Kennedy) Radford, at St.
Louis, Mo., November 28, 1821, who died, St.
Louis, December 25, 1831. Gen. William Clark
died at St. Louis, September 1, 1838.

The children of the first marriage were :

1. Meriwether Lewis Clark, born St. Louis, January
10. 1809; died at Frankfort. Ky., October 28, 1881.

2. William Preston Clark, born St. Louis. October 5,
1811; died May 16, 1884; never married.

3. Mary Margaret Clark, born St. Louis, January 1?
1814: died at Middletown. Kentucky, October 15,
1821.

4. George Rogers Hancock Clark, born St. Louis, May
6, 1816; died near St. Louis. September 29, 1858.

5. John Julias Clark, born St. Louis July 7, 1818; died
in St. Louis. September 5. 1831.

By the second marriage :

6. Jefferson Kearney Clark, born St. Louis. February
29, 1814; married Mary Susan Glasgow, St. Louis,
May 8, 1849: no issue.

GENERATION III.

1. Meriwether Lewis Clark, married, first, near
Louisville, January 9, 1834, Abigail Prather

The Hancock Family. 215

Churchill, who died in St. Louis, January 14, 1852;
married, second, in Louisville, December 30,
1865, Julia Servoss Davidson, surviving ; no chil-
dren by last marriage.

The children of the first marriage were :

a. William Hancock Clark, born St. Louis, December
24, 1839; married, first, at New Brunswick, New
Jersey, February 14, 1867, Eva Beardsley ; second, at
New York, Camilla Gaylord. No children by either
marriage.

b. Samuel Churchill Clark, born St. Louis, September
12, 1842; killed at battle of Elkhorn, Arkansas,
March 8. 1862, while commanding a battery of Con-
federate artillery; unmarried.

c. Mary Eliza Clark, born St. Louis. May 31, 1844; died
March 25, 1847.

d. Meriwether Lewis Clark, born near Louisville. Ky.,
June 27, 184(3 ; married Mary Anderson, daughter of
Orville Anderson, of Louisville.

Children :

Churchill Clark, born August 15, 1874.
Caroline Clark, born August 17, 1876.
Mary Clark, born September 13, 1877.

e. John OTallon Clark, born July 7, 1848; died from
wound received accidentally at school at Frank-
fort, Ky., February, 1863.

f . George Rogers Clark, born St. Louis, April 19, 1850 ;
died Greenville, Miss., of yellow fever, October 12,
1878.

g. Charles Jefferson Clark, born St. Louis, January
10, 1852; died London, Eng., February 10, 1896;
married. Louisville, July 8, 1873, Lena Jacob.

Their children were :

Susan Mary Clark, born St. Louis, February 23,
1877; married Clarence Houghton, of New
York City, November 19, 1895.

216 The Johnstons of Salisbury.

One child :
Edgar Clare Houghton, born, 1896.

Evelyn K. Clark, born St. Louis. December 26, 1882.
Marguerite Clark, born Louisville, February 10, 1893.

GENERATION II.

4. George Rogers Hancock Clark, born May 16,
1816, married, St. Louis, March 30, 1841, Eleanor
Ann Glasgow ; died near St. Louis, September 29,
1858.

Their children were :

a. Julia Clark, married Eobert Voorhis. One daugh-
ter. Eleanor Glasgow Voorhis.

b. Sarah Clark, died young.

c. John OTallon Clark, St. Louis; married Beatrice
Choteau.

d. Eleanor Ann Clark, married Willis Lauderdale;

resides in Philadelphia.

Children :

Sarah Lauderdale.
Walter Lauderdale.

E. George Hancock (4th), youngest child of
George Hancock (3d) and Margaret Strother Han-
cock, born April 8, 1798 ; married first Eliza
Croghan, of Jefferson county, Kentucky, at Locust
Grove, September 28, 1819 ; second Mary David-
son, of New Orleans, August 27, 1875. He had
no children.

THE END.

THE WORKS OF

WM. PRESTON JOHNSTON.

MY GARDEN WALK, - - - 1.25

12 mo. pp. L94, L894.

PICTURES OF THE PATRIARCHS, 1.00

12 mo. cloth, pp. 7s. 1895.

THE JOHNSTONS OF SALISBURY. 1.25

12 mo. cloth, pp. 214. 1897.

IN ACADIA, compiled by Mrs. Wm. Preston
Johnston.

In Acadian cloth. SI. 25. Plain cloth. 81.00.

*

A discount of twenty-five per cent, allowed on orders
of ten dollars and upward. Apply to

RICHARD K. BRUFF.

Tulane University.

n

i

{