My Genealogy Hound

JAMES JOHNSTON, farmer, stock-raiser and fruit-grower; P. O. Danvers; was born in Greene Co., Ohio, Nov. 15, 1828; with his parents, moved to Allen Co., Ind., in 1836; he then, as now, followed farming. His early advantages for an education were confined to a rude log building; but his was one of those persevering spirits that overcome many obstacles that, to many others, appear insurmountable, and for a while himself taught school, and farmed, and, as his work shows, is not an indifferent carpenter and builder. In 1853, he started with his wife and chattels, in a two-horse wagon, for McLean Co., Ill., for the place or land he purchased in Allin Township in 1852. They were eleven days on the road, camping in their wagon every night. He engaged in farming, and otherwise, so that he did not reach his farm until the spring of 1855. He married Miss Eleanor Jane Marrs, of Allen Co., Ind., Dec. 8, 1852. She was born in Shelby Co., Ohio, June 13, 1830, and went to Allen Co., Ind., with her parents in 1849. They have four boys, viz.: Lucian C., born July 12, 1854 (he married Ellen B. Dickinson Jan. 1, 1878, and lives in Nebraska); Alva E., born March 16, 1859; Milo D., born May 30, 1866; Virgil W., born March 15, 1871. The last three are living at home with their parents. They own 165 acres of fine, rolling prairie and a fine house.