Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Johnston, Andrew

Johnston came to Quincy, Illinois by 1837 and practiced law. He was also involved in early city politics and served as the city attorney and treasurer. Johnston was a captain of a company of Quincy residents during the Morman War. Johnston and Nehemiah Bushnell were the first editors of the Quincy Whig. Abraham Lincoln may have met Johnston when Lincoln's law partner Stephen T. Logan handled an appeal of a case before the Illinois Supreme Court in 1844 that had Johnston and partner Archibald Williams on the opposite side. By 1850, Johnston was again living and practicing law in Richmond, Virginia. In 1860, he owned $2,000 in real estate and had a personal estate of $30,000.

Gravestone, Shockhoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond, VA; Henry Asbury, Reminiscences of Quincy, Illinois, Containing Historical Events, Anecdotes, Matters Concerning Old Settlers and Old Times, etc. (Quincy, IL: D. Wilcox & Sons, 1882), 75, 101; Andrew Johnston to Abraham Lincoln; John Tillson, History of the City of Quincy, Illinois (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, [1880]), 72-73, 79, 99; Quincy Whig (IL), 26 March 1850, 1:2; Doe ex dem. Wiley et al. v. Bean & Thompson, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=141071; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Richmond, Richmond (Independent City), VA, 324; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 2, Richmond, Henrico, VA, 195.