PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL ALBUM.
page 385
MARCELLUS
D. JOHNSTON. The manufacture of
cigars in these later days has become an art and a science, and there are few
who have a better understanding of
Mr. Johnston was horn in New Carlisle, Clark
County, this State, March 3, 1851, and is the eldest son of John and Mary
(Garst)
Johnston, the former of whom was born in the above-mentioned county, February 8,
1825. The paternal grandfather, James Johnston, was a manufacturer of nails,
having established the factory in Springfield in 1816.
The
The mother of our subject was a native of
Virginia,
whence she emigrated with her parents when quite young.
Her father, John Garst, spent his last days in Clark County.
Mrs. Johnston died at New Carlisle, in February, 1863.
The three children of the parental family were named respectively:
Wurden, who died when about two years old; Charles E., a traveling salesman for
the firm of Johnston & Son; and Marcellus D., our subject. The latter was a
youth of seventeen years when he came to Springfield with his parents.
He
obtained a good education, completing his studies by a year's
attendance at Wittenberg College. Later he became a bookkeeper for the firm of
Kidder, Johnston & Co., manufacturers and dealers in tobacco, acting in
this capacity eight years, and was then admitted as a partner into the business.
In due time Mr. Johnson purchased the interest
of Jacob Seitz in the above-mentioned firm, Mr. Seitz having succeeded Mr.
Kidder, and the firm now became Johnston & Son, as at present.
They transacted a wholesale tobacco business until 1888, but since that
time they have done a very large jobbing business in cigars, and manufacture of
the same. Their trade extends throughout Ohio, Eastern Indiana, Illinois and
Chicago.
John Johnston, the father of our subject, was
for twenty-eight years a merchant in New Carlisle, Clark County.
Having begun business there in 1837, he sold out in 1865, and in
1868 moved to Springfield, and here became a partner of the firm of Kidder,
Johnston & Co. He is also a stanch Republican and a member of the
Methodist Church. He joined the Masonic Lodge in New Carlisle in 1850, and has
attained to the degree of Royal Arch Mason.
The store building of Johnston & Son comprises
Nos. 115 and 117, East Main Street, and they give employment to
thirty men besides their traveling salesmen.
The family residence is pleasantly located at No. 295, South Fountain
Avenue. Mr. Johnston is a
Republican in politics. He belongs
to the Central Methodist Episcopal Church, in
The subject of this notice was married,
November
25, 1875, to Miss Lucy Slack. Mrs.
Johnston was born in Clark County, Ohio, in 1855, and is a daughter of Peter and
Maria Slack, who were natives of England.
The father is living and the mother is deceased. The five children of
this union were named respectively: Harry W., Viola M., Clarence M., Mabel F.
and Laura Ruth.
22 Mar 2000