[The editor is indebted to his friend, George A. Blake, Esq., of the
Elkton Bar, for the following sketch of his life.]
George Johnston, the editor and compiler of this book, was born in
Philadelphia, May 15, 1829, the place of his birth being on Penn street,
one door south of the southeast corner of Penn and Lombard streets. He
is the oldest son of Isaac Johnston, and was named for his grandfather,
George Johnston, the youngest son of Isaac Johnson, who lived on his
farm, one mile west of the east end of Mason and Dixon's line, as early
as 1755. There is reason to believe that the earliest member of the
family who lived in that neighborhood was Samuel Johnston, who resided
there as early as 1708.
Mr. Johnston's mother, Susan Curry, was a cousin of his father, she
being the daughter of Ann Spear, the grandmother of Emma Alice Browne, a
sketch of whose life appears in this Volume.
When about two years of age, the subject of this sketch was placed in
charge of his paternal grandmother and his uncle, George Johnston, who
resided on the homestead, in Cecil county. Here he was carefully
nurtured and trained, and here were planted the seeds which have since
sprung up and brought forth fruit in his intellectual and moral life.
The family being Presbyterian in training, and of the type from which
sprang those who in earlier years drafted the Mecklenberg Declaration,
the lad was early imbued with those religious principles which ever
serve as the true basis of mental growth and moral purpose.
The educational advantages of a half century ago were not such as are
enjoyed by the youth of to-day; but such as the neighborhood provided
and his uncle's means afforded, were placed at the disposal of the boy,
who soon manifested an aptitude to learn. When but five years of age he
was sent to what was then called a "Subscription School," kept in the
neighborhood. This he attended during the next seven years, and in the
Winter time until the year 1849, when he took charge as teacher of a
school, in the Center School House, situated near Fair Hill, in Cecil
county.
In the Spring of 1847 Mr. Johnston spent three months in Chesapeake City
(in this county) as an apprentice to the carpenter business. He
completed his trade in the neighborhood in which he had been raised, and
from the year 1851 to 1864 spent his time about equally in teaching
school and working at his trade.
When the war of the rebellion broke out in 1861, Mr. Johnston, without
hesitation, took the side of the Union, and was, during all those dark
days, an ardent supporter of the Government, the intensity of his
convictions being no doubt increased by the result of his observations
during a business trip to Texas and through the South in the Winter of
eighteen hundred and sixty and sixty-one.
In the Constitutional Convention of this State in 1864 he served with
ability as committee clerk, having accepted the position at the
solicitation of the late David Scott (of John), who was a member of that
body. While acting as committee clerk, Mr. Johnston had the honor of
engrossing that section of the Constitution which abolished slavery in
the State of Maryland. Many years afterwards he presented the pen used
on that occasion to Frederick Douglass, then United States Marshal of
the District of Columbia.
Mr. Johnston's health, which had always been precarious, became so bad
in 1875 that he was obliged to abandon his trade and turn his attention
to another occupation. Accordingly, two years later he became connected
with _The Cecil Whig_, and for about three years had charge of its local
columns. While associated with that journal, his attention was attracted
to the mine of wealth offered to the investigator by the early history
of Cecil county. Prompted by a love of historical investigation, he was
led to make researches into this mine--a task hitherto largely
unattempted or ineffectually prosecuted. The results of these studies
enriched the columns of _The Cecil Whig_ during a period of three years,
and attracted wide attention. In 1881 he published the "History of Cecil
County, Md., and the Early Settlements Around the Head of the Chesapeake
Bay and on the Delaware River, with Sketches of Some of the Old Families
of Cecil County." This work, which embodied the results of the author's
investigations during a period of some years, is one of rare value. To
those who have given but little thought to the subject, it is ever a
matter of surprise to learn how closely the history of Cecil and the
surrounding counties is interwoven with that of our common country, and
how valuable as data of the past are the materials which invited the
lover of truth to their discovery. One can scarcely estimate the
laborious research involved in the task of gathering the component parts
of a history which stretched over a period of nearly two hundred and
seventy-five years. Old volumes, musty records, masses of court
documents, correspondence (official and otherwise), previous historical
attempts, personal knowledge, tradition and personal interviews, were
all laid under contribution by the author, and served as sources of his
authority. These he has woven together with such judgment in selection,
skill in arrangement and force of style and diction, that just as
"Gray's Elegy" alone has placed him in the front rank of poets, so this
one work has given the author a high and permanent place among the
historians of our country. The work attempted is so well done, and
withal so accurate and reliable as one of reference and authority, that
in recognition of its merits Mr. Johnston has been elected a member of
the Historical Societies of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and
Wisconsin.
On January 1, 1883, he became local editor of _The Cecil Democrat_, and
was in such capacity connected with that newspaper for three years and a
half.
Early in life Mr. Johnston was a pupil of David Scott (of James), who
then taught a school in the Fourth district of Cecil county, and whose
sister, Miss Hannah F. Scott, he subsequently married. The scholar being
advanced in studies beyond the other pupils of the school, naturally a
close intimacy was formed between him and his teacher. This afterwards
deepened into a friendship which continued without interruption until
Mr. Scott's death, and was the means of creating in Mr. Johnston an
ardent love of poetry. Since 1851 he has written a number of poems, some
of which have appeared in print. These have been so well received by the
public that the author, in deference to the wishes of some of his
friends, has ventured to include the following rhymes in this work: