Rev. George Johnston, one of the old and prominent citizens of Ripley, Tenn.,
and senior member of the firm of George Johnston & Co., furniture dealers, was
a son of George and Jane (Thompson) Johnston, both parents being natives of
Orange (now Alamance) County, N. C. The father was born in 1793, the mother
in 1798. They passed their lives quietly on a farm, free from ostentatious
display, and while firm believers in the doctrine of the Presbyterian Church,
they never attached themselves to any local organization. Four sons and a
daughter were born to them, three now living. The father died in 1827, and in
1831 the mother married William Russell, by whom she had four children. In
1848 they moved to Arkansas, where she died in 1882. The Johnston family are
of Virginia stock, probably of same origin as Joseph E. Johnston’s family.
Our subject was born in Orange (now Alamance) County, N. C., March 2, 1821.
His early life was spent on a farm; at seventeen he commenced to learn the
cabinet-maker’s trade, and after a two years’ apprenticeship he worked as
journeyman, until he commenced for himself in 1840. The next year he married
Elizabeth, daughter of Arthur Lindsley, born in 1819, by whom he had four sons
and three daughters. In 1848 he moved to Hardeman County, Tenn., and the next
year to Lauderdale County, and worked at his trade, farmed and taught school
until 1860, when he was elected county court clerk, and held the office ten
years. In 1839 he was converted, and united with the Methodist Protestant
Church. In 1845 he began to preach, and in 1847 was ordained deacon. In 1851
he was recognized by the Memphis Annual Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church
South, held at Paducah, Ky., as worth of the position in that church, and was
ordained elder at the annual conference held at Jackson, Tenn., in 1856. In
1878 he opened a furniture store at Ripley, Tenn., and has since done an
active business. In 1878 his wife died, and the next year he married, in
Gibson County, Mrs. Pauline J. Smith, who was born in Rutherford County,
Tenn., in 1825, and died in 1884. Both wives were members of the Methodist
Church South. Mr. Johnston, has been an earnest student of theology nearly
all of his life; his ministerial work has always been a free offering, and he
is the oldest resident minister in the county of any denomination, and whilst
he is a pronounced Methodist in his religious views, he lives in charity with
all denominations of Christians.

Goodspeed’s Biographies of Lauderdale Co., TN