MS-224
THE JOHN JOHNSTON PRAYER BOOK COLLECTION
INTRODUCTION
The John Johnston Prayer Book Collection was accessioned into the Piqua Public Library Archives and Special Collections in June 2013 as the result of a purchase by the Flesh Public Library Assistance and Development Fund. The collection is housed in a single Hollinger box containing four files. Based on the purchase and that the book’s copyright has long since expired, there are no restrictions on the use of these materials.
The book which is the subject of this collection is The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, According to the Use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America: Together with the Psalter, or Psalms of David. The book was published in Philadelphia by E. L. Carey and A. Hart and it was stereotyped by L. Johnson in 1836. Written on the title page in a very beautiful, artistic, feminine hand is “John Johnston of Piqua, Ohio decr. 10. 1840” and further down the page in the same handwriting is “Elizabeth Johnston Jones”. It is therefore safe to conclude that the book was given to John Johnston by his daughter Elizabeth Johnston Jones as both a Christmas present and a comfort to Col. Johnston at the end of the year in which his beloved wife Rachel Robinson Johnston died.
John Johnston was born 1775 in Donegal, Ireland. He immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1786. In 1802 he was appointed factor at the Indian agency at Fort Wayne and in the same year the 26 year old John married the 16 year old Rachel. In 1809 Johnston became the Indian agent at Fort Wayne and in 1811 the agency was moved to Piqua. Johnston continued as Indian agent until 1829. He was called back into service in 1842 to negotiate at treaty with the Wyandott tribe, the last of the Ohio Indians. The treaty was ratified by the U.S. Senate on 17 August 1842 as the Treaty of Upper Sandusky. John Johnston was a founding member of St. James Episcopal Church and was the first lay reader. The church was established in a one room school house on the Johnston property in Upper Piqua, Ohio.
Rachel Johnston would present John with fifteen children, the first four born in Fort Wayne and the remaining eleven born in Upper Piqua. John was a loving husband and father and devoted to his children. The children were a joy to him but later the source of much grief as John would out live the majority of his children. In the “Prayer Book” on fly leafs pasted in the front and back and inside of the front and back covers Johnston recorded the births, marriages and deaths in his family. The book became a small portable family Bible for Johnston.
SCOPE AND CONTENT
The John Johnston Pray Book Collection is divided into two series:
SERIES I: Col. John Johnston’s Prayer Book – This is found in Box 1, File 1.
SERIES II: Provenance and Transcription – This is found in Box 1, Files 2-4.
MS-224
THE JOHN JOHNSTON PRAYER BOOK COLLECTION
CONTAINER LIST
BOX 1
SERIES I: JOHN JOHNSTON’S PRAYER BOOK
File 1
The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments,
and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, According to the Use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America: Together with the Psalter, or Psalms of David. Philadelphia: E. L. Carey and A. Hart, 1836
SERIES II: PROVENANCE AND TRANSCRIPTIONS
File 2
Provenance of the prayer book including:
a. a copy of the 1860 Census showing that Jefferson Pattersonand Julia (Johnston) Patterson did have a daughter named Julia Patterson.
b. a copy of the e-mail sent to James Oda describing the passing of the Prayer Book from Col. Johnston to Julia Johnston Paterson to Julia Patterson to Joseph Graham Crane to Johanne Crane Prior to Mia Prior who found the book in an old trunk in her attic along with some other family heirlooms.
c. a copy of the invoice indicating the sale of the Prayer Book by Mia Prior to the “Piqua Public Library Foundation” [Flesh Public Library Assistance and Development Fund].
3 Color copies of the handwritten pages from the prayer book and the typed transcription of each page.
4 A black/white working copy of the handwritten pages from the prayer book.
MS-224
THE JOHN JOHNSTON PRAYER BOOK COLLECTION
PROVENANCE
The Book of Common Prayer was quite likely a Christmas gift to Col. John Johnston from his daughter Elizabeth Johnston Jones in 1840. The notes in the book in Col. Johnston’s handwriting cover the years throughout the 1840’s and into the early 1850’s. There is an entry in the back of the book signed by Elizabeth (Johnston) Jones concerning the death of Capt. James A. Johnston in 1863.
According to the 1860 U.S. Census, Col. J. Johnston, age 86, was living with Jefferson and Julia (Johnston) Patterson in Van Buren, Montgomery County, Ohio.
It is reasonable to assume that Col. Johnston would have had the prayer book in his possession at this time. Among the children of Jefferson and Julia Patterson was a daughter, Julia Patterson, age three years in 1860.
Julia Patterson married Joseph Halsey Crane. Their son was Joseph Graham Crane who was the father of Johanne Crane (Prior). Johanne Crane (Prior) was the only descendant of the Crane family. Johanne Crane (Prior) had a daughter Mia Prior who was the owner of John Johnston's Prayer Book and who sold it to the Flesh Public Library Assistance and Development Fund who in turn gave it to the Piqua Public Library Archives and Special Collections.
In summary, the book came from Col. Johnston to his daughter Julia upon his death. The book then passed to her son Joseph and then to his daughter Johanne and to her daughter Mia. It was Mia Prior who sold the book to the Library Assistance and Development Fund.
Inside front cover
Price $3 – at Washington City
Son James went
To Kenyon College
April 12. 1842
Entered Milnor
Hall.
Session open
September 28. 1842
Written sideways on inside of front cover
My Treaty with the Wyandotts, being
The last of the Ohio Indians, March 17. 1842
Ratified by the Senate 17 Aug. 1842 J.J.
On a funeral notice pasted on the first fly leaf
Funeral of my beloved
daughter
Margaret Defrees Johnston
At Cincinnati
Funeral Notice printed here
Her remains were afterward
taken to Upper Piqua and
there intered by the side of
her lamented mother.
Fly leaf page 2 is blank
Fly leaf page 3
I. H. S.
Jesus Hominum Salvator
which means
Jesus the Savior of men.
Fly leaf page 4
My honored Father
Col. John Johnston
died at Clay Hotel
Washington D.C.
Feb. 18th 1861 aged
86 years and was
buried in the same grave
with my sainted mother
at Upper Piqua Feb.
23d 1861
[probably written by Elizabeth Johnston Jones]
Fly leaf page 5
John Johnston born March
25, 1775 [not readable ]
Rachel Robinson his
wife was born in the City
of Philadelphia July 12.
1785. We were conected (?)
in marriage at Lancaster
in Pennsylvania on the
15 July 1802 by the Rev.d
Mr. Meiklenbergh. [Rev. Peter Muhlenberg]
My dearest wife the choice of
my youth and ______ with so many
_____ _____ ____ to me as the mother
of my 15 children: and when I shall
ever more deplore in a lamint
died at Upper Piqua – Friday morning
July 24, 1840 at 3 o’clock 11 days
sickness.
Fly leaf page 6
OUR CHILDREN
Stephan Johnston born
at Fort Wayne, Indiana.
August 2, 1803
Rebecca Johnston born
at Fort Wayne, Indiana.
September 3, 1805
Elizabeth Johnston
born at Fort Wayne,
Indiana. Sept.r 22d, 1807
Rosanna Johnston
born at Fort Wayne,
Indiana. July 27, 1809
Juliana Johnston
born at Upper Piqua,
Ohio. August 16, 1811
Fly leaf page 7
Mary Johnston born at
Upper Piqua, Ohio.
November 28, 1813
Abraham Robinson Johnston
born at Upper Piqua, Ohio.
May 23, 1815
Rachel Johnston born
at Upper Piqua, Ohio.
November 24, 1816
Rebecca Johnston born
at Upper Piqua, Ohio.
July 2, 1818
John H. D. Johnston
born at Upper Piqua,
Ohio. June 25, 1820
Catherine Connelly
Johnston born at Upper
Piqua, Ohio. March
8, 1822
Fly leaf page 8
William Barnet John-
ston born at Upper
Piqua, Ohio. January
22, 1824
Margaret Defrees
Johnston born at
Upper Piqua, Ohio.
September 10, 1825
Harriet Jones John-
ston born at Upper
Piqua, Ohio. August
16, 1827
James Adams John-
ston born at Upper
Piqua, Ohio May
5, 1832
In all 15 children
Fly leaf page 9
Rebecca Johnston
My second born, died
at Fort Wayne, Indiana
April 26, 1808. Aged
2 years 7 months and
23 days.
Our dear daughter
Rebecca Johnston White-
man, wife of James
Findlay Whiteman Esq.r
died in the Town of Piqua
Ohio [after?] a hard but a
short time serious sick on
Monday 26th April 1844
Leaving an male infant
Child a few days old
[baptized?] July 20, 1818
died April 26, 1841
? dutiful, kind and
Affectionate.
Fly leaf 10
My dear afflicted child
Harried died at Cinc-
innati on Tuesday mor-
ning April 11, 1843. her
remains were brought
by John D. Jones to Upper
Piqua, and was there
Intered by the side of
Her lamented mother
On good friday the 14th
April 1843. myself
reading the funeral
service at the grave.
My dear daughter Cath-
erine C. J. Holtzbecker
died at Upper Piqua
On Monday morning
the 25th day of Septem-
Ber, 1843 at 20 minutes
past 6 o’clock. leaving an
infant daughter
4 months and 10 days
old. Took sick Saturday morn-
ing Sept.r 16, 1843
Fly leaf 11
My daughter Catherine’s
Orphan child was Baptized
at Upper Piqua on Friday
the 29th Sept. 1843, by the
name of Eliza Johnston
by the Rev.d R. S. Killen
my daughter Margaret
and myself standing
sponsers.
My dear afflicted
daughter Rosanna
Johnston died at Upper
Piqua on Sunday night
August 11, 1844 very
suddenly. Buried by the
side of her lamented
mother and in the same
grave with her sister
Catherine. The Rev.d
Mr. Paine reading
the burial service &
officiating. Age
35 years.
Fly leaf 12
The antiquity of the liturgy of
the church
The hymn Gloria in Exceleis
has in its purest form been in
existence more than 1500 years.
The Te daum was sung
in the church as early as the 5th
Century – [it?] is in also several
of the collects. Most of the
others are copied almost lite-
rally from the Sacramantary
of Gregory of the next Century.
The use of the doxeology
in public worship can be
traced to the times immediately
succeeding the apostles
both the creeds are in sub-
stance equally ancient.
The litany is derived
from that of Gregory of the
6th Cetury, from which it
does not much differ, in many
things it also resembles the
litany of Ambrose of the
4th Century. 1846
Title page
Pages inserted after the Psalms and before the hymns
Insert page 1
Copy of lines composed for
Eliza Johnston Holtzbecker after
seeing a sprig of Arbor Vila cut
by her venerable ‘Grand Pa’ from
off the grave of her mother.
For E___ J___ H___
“There’s a shadow on thy pure young brow
As ye gaze upon the sprig
Plucked from thy youthful mother’s
Grave
Where Piqua’s water play.
What are the thoughts that hide thy
Face,
Say lovely little me?
And lend to it a softening grace
More sweet than morning sun.
Plucked by a grand lined trembling
Hand
From a thrice sacred spot
Where lie his much loved spouse
Hold hands
Long mourned and unforgotten.
Insert page 2
[Thus?] a gentle thought I send to thee
This token of his love.
Oh may it ever treasured be,
Whe’er thy footsteps [noe?].
There last never known a mother’s lips
Her place has been supplied,
May the kind hand that guards
Thee now,
Long linger by thy side.
But kept thy mother’s memory green
In that loving heart of thine,
In those high thoughts will ever spring
Another mind the shrine.
And when ye seek in after year
Bright Piqua’s flowing wave
To bend the knee and shed a tear
Out by young mother’s grave.
When the very branches sweep thy head
Breath of love and woe
From which thy grandure plucked this
Sprig
You [so?] long, long ago.
Insert page 3
[The top lines of the poem are worn off and not readable]
And of this hour and evening still
Bright with moon’s soft rays.
[Narcitla J. Truth]
November 28, 1849
Insert page 4
Dear ‘Grand Pa’ from his little
Grand child Eliza Johnston Holtzbecker
Received Dec.r 29, 1849
Written on page 144, the last page of the Prayer Book.
(My Mother)
Elizabeth Barnard Johnston
A native of Donegal, Ireland
Died at Upper Piqua, Ohio
August 18, 1834 aged 89 years
A tribute from a son.
(from the monument)
May 30, 1855
Written on fly leafs at the back of the book – fly leaf 13
Marriage of our Child-
ren.
Elizabeth Johnston
and John D. Jones of Cin-
cinnati were married
at upper Piqua Sept.r
23d, 1823 by the Reverend
Samuel Johnston.
Juliana Johnston and
Jefferson Patterson of
Dayton were married at
Upper Piqua Feb.y
26, 1833 by the Rev.d
Aloah Guion
Mary Johnston and
Milton N. McLean Esq.r of
Cincinnati were married
at Upper Piqua June 19,
1834 by the Rev.d Ethan
Allen of Dayton.
Back fly leaf 14
Rachel Johnston and
William A. Reynolds of
Cincinnati were married
at Upper Piqua May
25, 1836 by the Rev.d
Aloah Guion
Rebecca Johnston and
James Findlay Whiteman
were married at Upper
Piqua may 13, 1840 by
the Rev.d Aloah Guion.
Catherine Connelly
Johnston and George
Holtzbecker were
Married at Upper
Piqua July 29, 1840
By the Rev.d Aloah
Guion.
Back fly leaf 15
My son Stephen John-
ston, Lieutenant U.S. Navy
was married to Eliza
beth Anderson at
Louisville, Kentucky
by the Rev.d Mr. Jackson
in the summer of 1838
11 July 38.
James Kele Reynolds
son of my daughter Rac-
hel Reynolds was bapt-
ized in Saint James Church
Piqua, on Sunday the
23d April 1843 by the Rev.d
R. S. Killen, myself &
the mother were sponsors.
Monday, May 15, 1843 at
one o’clock, my daughter
C. C. Holtzbecker became
mother of a young daughter.
Back fly leaf 16
June 12, 1845 John
H. D. Johnston and
Mary Jane Dye were
Married by the Rev.d
Henry Payne.
Back fly leaf 17
NOTE: possible page missing.
died near Upper Piqua
March 17, 1847 my
sister Mary Johnston
Widney aged of 79
years.
Dec.r 6, 1846 my son
Capt. A. R. Johnston 1st
Dragoons was killed in
battle with the ? Army
in California at San
Pasqual 30 miles from the
coast at San Diego.
Sunday evening December
13, 1847 at ½ past 8 o’clock
my brother James Johnston
Esq.r died at his residence
Upper Piqua after a long
and painful confinement
of 3 years & 3 months in
his 77th year.
Back fly leaf 18
Sunday morning the
2d of April 1848 my
dear son Lieutenant
Stephen Johnston of
the U.S. Navy died
at Louisville, Kent-
ucky after a linger-
ing and painful ill-
ness contracted in the
Chinese seas.
Thursday June 21, 1849
my dear daughter
Margaret Defrees Johnston
was ceased with Cholera
at one o’clock and died
at 9 o’cxlock the same eve-
ning, sick only 8 hours.
My comfort, my stay and hope
in this world is taken away.
She was most dutiful, kind
and affectionate to me in my
old age. God’s holy will be done.
Born Sept. 10, 1825, died June 21, 1849
Back fly leaf 19
Thursday November 8, 1849
I arrived at Upper Piqua
with the remains of my beloved
daughter Margaret Defrees
Johnston and on the evening
of the same day I committed
her body to the ground in our
family cemetery close to the
remains of her lamented moth-
er and sisters –
[NOTE: the handwriting changes here.]
Capt.n James A. Johnston
was born at Upper Piqua,
Miami County, Ohio
May 5th 1830
died September 8th, 1863
at Seminary Hospital
Georgetown D. C.
his remains were brought
to this city by my son
John Johnston Jones, from
here Mr. Jones and myself
accompanyd the remains
to the family cemetery at
Upper Piqua where they
were deposited near his
father, mother brothers & sisters.
Elizabeth Jones
Back fly leaf 20
In
memory of Rebecca Johnston Whiteman, daughter
of John and Rachel Johnston of Upper Piqua and
wife of James Findlay Whiteman, born July 2 1818, died
April 26, 1841.
A gentile spirit whose short life was devo-
ted to those who had claims upon her affection and
regard, as a daughter she was ever dutiful and kind,
as a wife perfectly devoted under all circumstances
and as a Christian meek and lowly, with a mind
in all disciplined for the enjoyment of those realms
of life to which she was so early called.
In
memory of Benjamin Whiteman, son of James
Findlay and Rebecca Whiteman, who died on the
23d day of August 1841, aged 4 months and 5 days.
Back cover inside
In
memory of Rachel Johnston, wife of John Johnston
born in the city of Philadelphia July 12, 1785, died
at Upper Piqua July 24, 1840.
An honored and lamented mother of 15 children.
Lo where this silent marble weeps
a friend a wife a mother sleeps
a heart within whose sacred cell
the Christian virtue loved to dwell
affection warm and faith sincere
and soft humanity were there.