JOHNSTON

WILLIAM J. JOHNSTON, farmer, was born in South Carolina February 10, 1822, and is the son of Peter and Isabella (Wood) John­ston, natives of Scotland. Peter was born in 1795, and his wife in 1800. They were married in Scotland, and in 1820 came to South Carolina, and in November, 1845, moved to Monroe County, Ind., and settled on part of the farm now owned by our subject. They were highly respected citizens, and belonged to the United Presbyterian Church, The father died on January 28, 1874, and the mother on November 26, 1878. William J. has lived in this county since 1845. and is a very successful farmer, owning 165 acres of land with good improvements. August 17, 1848, he married Elizabeth, who was born in South Carolina, April 26, 1823, and is a daughter of John and Margaret (Kennedy) White. Mr. White was born in South Carolina in 1779, and died there January 10, 1839. His wife was a native of Ireland; was born in 1783 and died in St. Clair County, 111., September 7, 1858. Mr. and Mrs. Johnston are parents of four children, Maggie B., born July 22, 1855, now Mrs. Har­vey A. Kirk; Cassie J., born November 9, 1857, now Mrs. C. A. Junkin; M. Alice, born October 20, 1860; and Ida S. W., born May 13, 1863. The family belong to the United Presbyterian Church, and are highly respected. - Counties of Morgan, Monroe and Brown, Indiana Historical and Biographical, By Charles Blanchard, Published by F. A. Battey & Co, 1884, Page 573

JORDAN

DAVID STARR JORDAN, Professor of Natural Sciences in Indiana University, graduated from Cornell University in 1872, with the degree of Master of Science, and from Indiana University in 1875 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 1877, Butler University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Previous to going to college, his life was spent on a farm at Gainesville, N. Y., where he was born (January 19, 1851), and was little different from that of other farmer boys except that he took a livelier interest in the things around him and early learned to know every fish, fowl and flower within his range. He made his own way through college by teaching winter school while on the farm, by being table waiter in a hotel while a freshman, general factotum and floor,sweeper while a sophomore, and by being awarded in a competitive examination the privilege of representing his county at Cornell. During the last two years of his college course, he served as instructor in botany. He gained his impulse to do original scientific work from being a student under Prof. Hart, then in the chair of Geology in Cornell. After graduation, he was elected to the chair of Natural Science in Lombard University, Galesburg, 111. After teaching there one year, and a year at Appleton, Wis., he came to Indiana in 1875. After teaching natural history one year in the Indianapolis High School, he was called to fill the chair of Natural History in Butler University, which place he held until elected to his present position in 1879. During the summer of 1873, he attended the " Harvard Summer School" at Penikese, where he availed himself of special instruction under Prof. Louis Agassiz, who was quick to recognize in him a growing naturalist, and so recalled him to serve as teacher of botany at Penikese and Cumberland Gap in the summer schools held there in 1874 and 1875. After Prof. Agassiz's death, these summer schools were discontinued. Then began, under Prof. Jordan's direction, the well known "Summer Tramps" for scientific exploration, those of 1876, 1877 and 1878 being confined to interesting sections of the United States; those of 1879, 1881 and 1883 extending through the principal countries of Europe.    In 1880, as special agent of the United  States Census Bureau, he made a thorough investigation of the marine industries of the Pacific coast; and as naturalist associate of the United States Fish Commission and the United States National Museum, made a full collection and an exhaustive study of the fish fauna of the same region. At various times, in the .same capacity, he has made valuable collections on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and in the West Indies, as well as from the fresh waters of the United States. The results of these investigations have taken permanent shape in a "Synopsis of the Fishes of North America" (an octavo volume of 1,100 pages prepared by Jordan and Gil­bert) published by the United States in 1882; and in upward of 200 technical papers and memoirs, chiefly on ichthyology. His " Manual of Vertebrates " (500 pages, 12 mo), first published in 1876, and now in the third edition, includes much original scientific work aside from that on fishes, and is the first and only systematic key to the study of vertebrates, _ and is regarded as the best text book yet produced on the subject, being used as such in Michigan University, Cornell University, and many other universities and colleges. In recognition of these acquisitions to knowledge, and as a testimonial of the value of his services to science, he was awarded one of the three gold medals given to Americans by the London Fisheries Exposition in 1883, for excellence in original scientific work. W. W. S. - Counties of Morgan, Monroe and Brown, Indiana Historical and Biographical, By Charles Blanchard, Published by F. A. Battey & Co, 1884, Pages 573 - 574

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