My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM B. JOHNSTON. This gentleman is the fifth of a family of six children born to Robert Johnston and Mary Johnston, nee Beadles. These parents, who by birth were Virginians, settled in Rutherford County, Tenn., about 1817, and there in November, 1820, William B. Johnston was born. He was educated in Murfreesboro, Tenn., where in early life he became a sales man, thus beginning a mercantile career of twenty years’ duration. Mr. Johnston came to Paducah in 1864, and three years later established a plow manufactory, which for some years had a profitable existence. He is now the owner of extensive real estate in Kentucky and Tennessee, has retired from active business and is still a resident of Paducah. In 1852, in Tennessee, he married Mary Ellis, who died in 1860, leaving a daughter, Ella Johnston, who died subsequently. His present wife, to whom he was married in 1867, was Medora Small, daughter of Braxton Small, a well-known and early settler of McCracken County, Ky. As the result of this union he has one child named Philip Braxton Johnston. Mr. Johnston is a worthy member of the Baptist Church, and a man universally honored for his many virtues.