H. D. JOHNSTON, the veteran insurance man of Sault Ste. Marie, is engaged in business as the senior member of the well known firm of Johnston & Blank, general insurance agents, and his well directed efforts have brought to him prosperity.

He is a native of the Pine Tree State, born in Milford, Maine, on the 13th day of July, 1S57, and is the only child living of Aaron H. and Maria (Whitney) Johnston. He left his native State when a small boy, and went to live in Ingersoll, Ontario, where he remained for some time, obtaining a fair English education in the public schools. His boyhood was passed in a quiet and uneventful manner. About twenty-seven years ago he entered the general agency office of the Aetna Insurance Company at Cincinnati, Ohio, of which J. B. Bennett was general agent, and remained there over seven years, during which time he was initiated into the working of the machinery that makes insurance a profitable business. One of his lead- ing characteristics was soon manifest,— fidelity to trust; and his employers, recogniz- ing his worth and ability, promoted him from time to time. He resigned his position with this company, and, for a time acted as special agent for other companies. For many years previous to his arrival in Sault Ste. Marie (and for some time after) he maintained a prosperous general insurance agency at Whitehall and Montague, Muskegon county, Michigan,—the first few years on his own account, and the remainder of the time associated with Hon. J. H. Williams, under the firm name of Johnston & Williams. This firm established an agency at Sault Ste. Marie in March, 1887, and operated at both places until the partnership was dissolved.

Mr. Williams retained the Whitehall-Montague agency and Johnston & Blank succeeded to the Sault Ste. Marie agency, which is one of the largest in the State, representing over twenty of the largest and most reliable companies in the world, and doing a general insurance business, including fire, tornado, life, accident, marine, plate glass and employers' liability. Meeting with ail classes of people, as he does, Mr. Johnston has become a close student and a good judge of human nature,—a qualification necessary to one in his calling. He is a wide-awake and enterprising business man, progressive and industrious; and, though an Eastern man by birth, he possesses the true Western spirit of progress and advancement. In manner he is pleasant and genial, a popular man who in the community has gained a host of warm friends. He is a member of several fraternal orders, —the F. & A. M.,—being a Knight Templar,—the I. O. O. F., and the K. of P.

In Kansas City, Missouri, in September, 1859, Mr. Johnston was united in marriage with Miss Frances S. Baker, a native of Montague, Michigan. They have one child, Frances, born on the 23d of June, 1890. In the community wnere they now mase cnt home they have become quite widely know and their many friends hold them in hif regard.

Memorial Record of the Northern Peninsula 1895