Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/139

 JOHNSTON

JOHNSTON

Avas made its president, and while under his man- agement the name of the road was changed to the Central Railroad of New Jersey, and he served as jiresident of the corporation, 1848-77. He was the organizer of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and its president till 1889. His largo i^ri- vate gallery of paintings was opened weekly- to the public, and in 1876, in order to save the credit of the railroad company, he sold part of his collec- tion at auction in New York citj% realizing there- by about $400,000. Mr. Johnston took an active

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interest in the welfare of the University of the City of New York; was a trustee, 1846-93; vice- president, 1851-74, and president of the board, 1874-86. He was a director of the Union Theo- logical seminary, 1870-93; president of the Alumni association of the university; of the St. Andrew's society; of the board of governors of the Women's Hospital of the State of New York, and a member of the board of trustees of the Presbyterian hospital. He bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and to the Univer- sity of the City of New York, $10,000 each. The university conferred on him the degree of LL.D. in 1889. He died in New York city, March 24, 1893.

JOHNSTON, John Warfield, senator, was born in Panicello, Va., Sept. 9, 1818; the eldest son of John Johnston and grandson of Peter and Mary (Wood) Jolinston. He attended the College of South Carolina; studied law at the University of Virginia, and was admitted to the bar in 1829. He removed to Tazewell county in 1840; was commonwealth's attorney, 1844-46, and state sen- ator, 1846-48. He was one of the Democratic representatives who voted for R. M. T. Hunter for U.S. senator in 1847, during the celebrated Smith-Hunter controversy. He was president of the Northwestern bank, Jeffersonville. Va., ]8r>0- 59; judge of the cft'cuit court of Virginia, 1860- 70, and U.S. senator, 1870-82. He served in the senate as chairman of the committee on agricul- ture and of the joint select committee on the Y'orktown centennial celebration. He died in Richmond. Va., Feb. 27, 1889.

JOHNSTON, Joseph Eggleston, soldier, was born at " Cherry Grove," Prince Edward county, Va., Feb. 3, 1807; eighth son of Lieut. Peter and

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Mary (Wood) Johnston, and grandson of Peter and Martha (Butler) Rogers Johnstone and of Col. Valentine and Lucy (Henry) Wood, of Goochland county. His grandfather, Peter John- stone, was a native of Annan, Scotland, and emigrated from Ed- inburgh in 1727, set- tling at Osborne's Landing, on the James river, Va., where he was a mer- chant. He was mar- ried, March 19, 1761, to Martha Rogers, daughter of Jolin Butler, a merchant on the Appomattox below Petersburg. In 1765 they remov- ed from Osborne's Landing to "Cherry Grove,'' an estate near Farmville, Prince Edward county. He was a member of the established churcli, but when the presbytery of Hanover proposed building a college in Prince Eilward he gaA-e one hundred acres of land on which Prince Edward academy was erected in 1775, and in 1777 the name was changed to Hampton-Sidney college. Their eld- est .son, Peter, the father of Joseph Eggleston, was born at Osborne's Landing, Jan. 6, 1763, and three other sons at "Cherry Grove," and they were educated at Hampden-Sidney. Peter ran away from college and enlisted in the legion of " Light-Horse Harry " Lee in 1780, and served througli the remainder of the war of the Revolu- tion, gaining the rank of lieutenant and becoming a favorite of Colonel Lee, although only a lad of eighteen. He afterward studied law and was a member of the committee that reported the Vir- ginia resolutions of 1798-99. In 1788 he was mar- ried to Mary, daughter of Valentine and Lucy (Henry) Wood, of Goochland county, and a niece of Patrick Henry. Peter and Mary Johnston re- sided at " Clierry Grove," and here were born to them John, the father of Senator John W. John- ston; Peter, a lawyer in southwestern Virginia; Ciiarles Clement, a representative from south- western Virginia in the 22d congress, 1831-33; Beverly Randolph, a law5'er; Edward W., editor of the National Intelligencer; Algernon Sidney, author of " Memoirs of a NuUifier " and Joseph Eggleston, named for his fatlier's friend and his captain in Lee's legion. In 1811 Lieut. Peter, who was judge of the general court of Virginia, removed to Panecillo, near Abingdon, Va.. then a new settlement in the wilderness. In these surroundings, Joseph was brought up, receiving his preparatory education from his parents, both