from time to time were indorsed on the back thereof, all in due form. Mr. Cochran went to Detroit where he established a famous commercial school. In 1855, according to a handsome diploma, Amos Williams graduated from Mr. Cochran's school. Perhaps Mr. Williams' "sheep-skin" was the first one ever granted to an Owosso school boy.

At this late day it is impossible to mention all of the scholars who went to school in the old schoolhouse before the year 1850. But here are the names of some who have not yet been spoken of by me: Henry, Ephraim, and Ebenezer Gould, William and Simon Howell, William and Whiting Tillotson, Antoinette, Frances, and Belle Collier, Elizabeth and Jeanette Barnes, Mary Amelia Shattuck, Caroline Barnes, and Delia Collier, whom we all know now as Mrs. Gilbert R. Lyon. There are others that I could give, but the most of them attended school in my day, and I will hereafter mention the names of some of them. Harriet Overton, whose father built for Judge Comstock the first house in Owosso, also attended school at a very early day.

THE HISTORIC JOHNSTON FAMILY OF THE "SOO."

BY C. H. CHAPMAN.*

Compiling such records of the Johnston family as limited time and space would permit, the writer has endeavored to preserve and verify the historical correctness of events and dates, even at the sacrifice of several good stories. The compilation is made largely from the writings of early travelers to the Lake Superior region and from some of the works not in general circulation, of Henry R. Schoolcraft, the historian, who married the eldest daughter of John Johnston. An intimate acquaintance with John McDougall Johnston, youngest son of John Johnston, and all of the son; and daughters of John McDougall Johnston, for nearly a quarter of a century, has made the compilation of the following pages a work of much pleasure, and enabled the writer to correct a number of errors and add a few historical events heretofore unpublished. The following letter from Miss Anna Johnston, granddaughter of John Johnston, is self-explanatory:

Sailors Encampment, June 5, 1902.

Mr. Charles H. Chapman, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan: Dear Sir:-Mrs. Anthony sent your letter to us, thinking that we could give you some information about our aunt, Mrs. Henry R. Schoolcraft. She was the third child of John Johnston and the eldest daughter, who was born January 31st, 1800, and died May 22, 1842, at Niagara, Canada West, we think while on a visit to her sister Mrs. McMurray. We have no record of her marriage. She lived at Sault Ste. Marie for eleven years after her marriage, and for eight years at Mackinaw in the "Old Agency." She was the mother of two children, Janie, who died a few years ago in Richmond, Va., and Johnston Schoolcraft, who died some time after the civil war. I think he was in the Southern army. We have a photograph of Mrs. Schoolcraft taken from a painting, also one of our grandfather taken from the painting we have at home. Mrs. Jameson, an English writer was acquainted with our people and pictures Mrs. Schoolcraft, "with features decidedly Indian, accent slightly foreign, a soft plaintive voice, her language pure and remarkably elegant, refined, womanly and unaffectedly pious." * * * With regard to our grandfather, we have several papers pertaining to his life, which I could not copy now, but will send them to Mrs. Anthony so that when you visit DeTour you may look them over and copy whatever you may see fit. Hoping that you may get a little help with your paper from what I have written, I am, Very truly yours,

ANNA M. JOHNSTON.

*Charles H. Chapman was born in the township of Pontiac, Oakland county, Michigan, April 9, 1854. When four weeks of age his parents moved to Kentucky and resided there until the fall of 1859, when they returned to Michigan and settled on a farm at Elizabeth Lake, in Waterford township, Oakland county. At the age of sixteen he left the farm and learned the printer's trade. In 1874 he was a reporter on the Saginaw Courier and the Detroit Free Press and in 1875 was a reporter on Cincinnati Commercial and several other papers in the southwest. In 1876 he established the Pontiac Commercial which he published until 1879, when he sold the paper and took charge of the mechanical department of the Western Newspaper Union, Detroit. and continued there until the spring of 1882 when he went to Sault Ste. Marie and took charge and published the Chippewa County News until 1887. when he sold that paper and was elected register of deeds of Chippewa county and began the study of law and was admitted to practice before the supreme court four years later. In 1896 he was elected probate judge for Chippewa county, which office he resigned on the outbreak of the Spanish war. He raised a company and served about ten months as first lieutenant in the 35th Mich., U. S. Vol., regiment. About one-half of his service was that of company commander. Upon being mustered out with his regiment he was appointed deputy commissioner of railroads for Michigan, which office he now holds. August, 1901, he established the Lake Superior Journal at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

John Johnston, the head of the Johnston family, so well known to the historian, the traveler, and the resident of Michigan and the great Northwest, during the first quarter of the last century, was born in Antrim county, Ireland, near the village of Coleraine, in 1763. His father was a civil engineer, who planned and executed the waterworks at Belfast. His mother was a sister of Mary Saurin, wife of Bishop Saurin, of Dromore, and also sister of the attorney general for Ireland. Mr. Johnston emigrated to the new world in 1792, and was received by Lord Dorchester, governor of Canada, and presented such strong letters of recommendation that the governor urged the young Irishman to remain in Montreal until an opening for him should occur in the British service. Johnston soon joined a trading party bound for Lake Superior. He spent some months at the Saut* and then followed Lake Superior as far west as La Point, opposite the Twelve Apostles islands, where he established a trading post. Soon after his arrival there he met a beautiful Indian girl, the daughter of the head chief, Wab-o-jeeg or the White Fisher, a bold and successful warrior. The following year, 1793, Johnston and the Indian girl were married and settled at Saut de Ste. Marie, where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred September 22, 1828. For 35 years he was a leading frontier merchant, and although far removed from the comforts of civilization there was always a refined and cultured atmosphere about his modest home.

In 1814 Lieut. Col. Croghan of the United States Army was sent to capture the British position at Mackinac, then commanded by Col. McDowell. The latter, hearing of the intentions of the Americans, sought the aid of Johnston and his friends at the Saut, and it appears to have been freely given. Not only did a band of 100 men set out for Mackinac under Johnston, but this force was provisioned and equipped by him. The American, Col. Croghan, appeared to understand the situation thoroughly, and dispatched Major Holmes to intercept the Indians; but the Johnston party took the unknown route west of Sugar island, now the Hay Lake channel, and then through the West Neebish, and escaped. On the arrival of the Americans at the Saut, they found that those whom they had set out to intercept had eluded their vigilance, and, being urged on by rage and duty, destroyed the trading village near the falls. After this Major Holmes returned to aid in the assault under Col. Croghan. He was among the 17 soldiers killed in that affair August 4, 1814. His sword was stolen by the Indians and presented to George Johnston, second son of John Johnston.

Subsequently, after the peace of 1815, when the republic had driven all her active enemies from her soil, Mr. Johnston appealed to the powers that once were to compensate him for his loss and expenditures. The British very gracefully refused to acknowledge his assistance or recompense him for the loss incurred in aiding them. Johnston then presented his claim to the United States government for loss of property, and met with no success, owing to his loyalty to the British cause. The testimony and correspondence in Vol. 4 of American state papers, on pages 697-701, show that John Johnston was an officer in the British service during the war of 1812, and it was largely for this reason that the commissioner of the general land office at Washington refused to confirm his claim to a tract of land at Saut de Ste. Marie which had been improved and a large number of buildings, including the Johnston residence, yet standing, store, warehouses and farm buildings, built thereThe title to this land was finally confirmed by Congress in 1853, and is known as private land claim 105 in the city of Sault Ste. Marie. The annexed map was first sketched from memory by John McD. Johnston, son of John Johnston. It was

on.

* Mr. Chapman bas followed the old way of spelling Saut de Ste. Marie and has taken great pains to verify the spelling of some of the Indian names, accepting the best authority for these. No quotation marks have been used for letters or legends as they can, we think, be easily recognized as such.-Editor.