My Genealogy Hound

REV. GEORGE N. JOHNSTON, post office Camden, was born March 31, 1835, in Hancock county, W. Va. The Johnston family are descended from Oliver Cromwell, “The Protector,” through his eldest daughter, Bridget, wife of Gen. Fleetwood, and from that country the great-great-grandfather Johnston emigrated to New Jersey, afterward settling in the Juniata valley. In 1792 the family came to the vicinity of Pittsburgh, eight years later removed to Beaver county, and in 1828 they settled in West Virginia. James Johnston, a son of Robert, and grandfather of our subject, married Sarah Burns, and became the father of eight children: Isabel, Jane, Smiley, George B., Rev. Robert, Eliza, Margaret and Rev. Mervin. Of these George B. married Evelyn Shannon, and they had ten children, viz.: Caroline, Sarah, Watson, Rev. George N., Col. Robert, Eliza, Harriet, Laurinda, Minerva and Ella.

Rev. George N. Johnston was educated in the academies of Richmond and Wellsville, Ohio, graduated at Washington College in 1858, attended the Northwestern Seminary, Chicago, and Western Theological Seminary, graduating from the latter in the class of 1861. He was ordained by the Beaver presbytery (now Mahoning), and preached with marked success at Knoxville, Ill., New Lisbon and Steubenville, Ohio, and McKeesport, Pa. In 1884 he came to Lebanon Church, where his labors are duly appreciated. He has done much evangelistic work in connection with the pastoral office, and has preached over five thousand sermons in twenty-seven years. He married, April 17, 1861, Emma, daughter of Dr. J. D. Coffin, of Beaver Falls; and they have seven living children: Eliza J., Evelyn L., Alice V., George C., Gertrude E., William W. and Helen. Mr. Johnston is esteemed, among the ministers of the Pittsburgh presbytery and the congregations he has served, as an able preacher, uncompromising in his defense of the faith, bold in his denunciations of sin, and to him his church is greatly attached. Col. Johnston, brother of Rev. George N., at the beginning of the rebellion raised a company in Pittsburgh, served through the war, and was promoted for gallant conduct again and again. Politically the Johnstons have been ardent republicans, and were prominently identified with the underground railroads in West Virginia.