Harrison County, West Virginia Biography of Job Welton JOHNSTON, M.D. ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Susie Llyod March 2000 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, Page 311 JOB WELTON JOHNSTON, M.D., maintains his office at 301 Goff Building, in the City of Clarksburg, and the scope and character of his professional practice marks him distinctly as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Harrison County. The doctor was born at Petersburg, Grant County, this state, March 9 1859, and is a son of Rev. John and Sallie C. (Welton) Johnston. Rev. Johnston was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, of stanch Scotch-Irish lineage, and was reared and educated in his native land, whence he came to the United States in 1853. He landed in the port of New York City and soon afterward came to what is now the state of West Virginia. After residing a brief interval at Moorefield he established his residence at Petersburg, and there, in 1854, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Sallie C. Welton, who was born at that place, a daughter of Job Welton, her father having been a man of wealth and influence in Grant County. John and Sallie C. Johnston became the parents of eight children, namely: William Seymour, Job Welton, Margaret Ann, John Edward, Joseph Eggleston, Felix Seymour, Henry Foote, and Sallie M. Rev. John Johnston was a man of high education and fine intellectual gifts. He became a clergyman of the Presbyterian church and for the long period of forty-one years was engaged in the work of the ministry of Petersburg, where he died in September 1894, aged seventy-three years and revered by all who had come within the sphere of his benignant influence. His widow was eighty-five years and six months of age at the time of her death. Rev. John Johnston owned, resided upon and gave his personal supervision to one of the excellent farms near Petersburg, and it was on this homestead that Doctor Johnston, of this review, was reared to adult age, his literary or academic education having been gained largely under the able tutorship of his father. At the age of eighteen years Doctor Johnston became a clerk in a drug store at Petersburg, and in 1881 he went to the State of Kansas, where he found employment in a drug store at Nickerson. in 1883 he returned to West Virginia, and in the autumn of that year he was matriculated in the College of Physicians & Surgeons in the City of Baltimore, Maryland, from which institution he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine in the year 1885. For one year thereafter he was engaged in practice at Thomas, West Virginia, and he then established his residence at Davis, a town six miles distant from Thomas, in Tucker County, where he not only developed a substantial practice but also became actively identified with business interests. The doctor continued his residence at Davis until January 2, 1900, when he found a broader sphere of professional service by removing to the City of Clarksburg, where he controls a large and representative general practice. In 1896 he took a post-graduate course in surgery at the Post-Graduate School & Hospital in New York City, and he is known as a specially skilled surgeon, and many successful operations, both major and minor, to his credit. He is a stalwart in the local ranks of the democratic party, and fraternally is a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. Decemeber 2, 1887, recorded the marriage of Doctor Johnston to Miss Mary P. Bye, and of this union have been born four children: Paul Welton, who was born in 1889, died in 1892; Paxton Bye, who was born in 1892, and died in 1894; Margaret was born August 2, 1897, and remains at the paternal home, as does Sarah Eloise, who was born June 1, 1900.