Fountain County IN Archives Biographies.....Johnston, Charles S. 1824 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/in/infiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com September 27, 2007, 10:29 pm Author: H. W. Beckwith (1881) Charles S. Johnston, physician and surgeon, Harveysburg, was born September 14, 1824, in Shelby county, Ohio, and is a son of James and Hannah (Berkshire) Johnston, the former a native of Culpepper county, Virginia, and the latter of Maryland. They married in Ohio, and moved in 1827 to Richland township, Fountain county, Indiana, and bought land. In 1856 James Johnston moved to Warren county, and there died in 1860, aged sixty-three, followed by his wife in 1862, aged sixty years. Both were members of the Methodist church. In the family were three daughters and two sons. Three died young. Charles S. farmed till nineteen years of age, acquiring his education mostly in his own room with but few teachers. Prior to 1848 he studied medicine one and a half years, and in that year started overland in company with twenty-seven other men and two ladies for California on a gold prospecting tour. While on the way they suffered a siege of cholera, and Mr. Johnston's skill was called into practice. Arriving at their destination he and sixteen others discovered the Shasta river gold mines, and he built the first cabin and killed the first beef in what is now Wyreka, a large mining city. He mined three years, and was in the transport business three years. He also read medicine ten months with a celebrated English physician and surgeon, Dr. Bartlow, of Oregon City. In 1856 he returned to Indiana via San Francisco, Panama and New York. When his mother died he went to Jackson county, Missouri, to practice. In 1865 he returned to Fountain county, Indiana, and settled in Harveysburg. Dr. Johnston is a thorough democrat, a Mason, an Odd Fellow, and has been a Knight of Pythias. He was married in 1857, to Sarah E. McClean, daughter of Robert and Jane McClean. She is a native of West Virginia. They have one child, Clara. Additional Comments: Mill Creek Township HISTORY OF FOUNTAIN COUNTY, TOGETHER WITH HISTORIC NOTES ON THE WABASH VALLEY, GLEANED FROM EARLY AUTHORS, OLD MAPS AND MANUSCRIPTS PRIVATE AND OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE, AND OTHER AUTHENTIC, THOUGH, FOR THE MOST PART, OUT-OF-THE-WAY SOURCES. BY H. W. BECKWITH, OF THE DANVILLE BAR; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETIES OF WISCONSIN AND CHICAGO. WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS. CHICAGO: H. H. HILL AND N. IDDINGS, PUBLISHERS. 1881. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/fountain/bios/johnston1108gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/infiles/ File size: 2.9 Kb