University of Virginia Library

JAMES DAVID JOHNSTON, Jr.

James David Johnston, Jr., a well-known attorney
of Roanoke, Virginia, was born in Giles County, Virginia,
September 16th, 1869, being a son of the late
Hon. James D. and
Mary Ann (Fowler)
Johnston. His father
served as a member of
the Virginia House of
Delegates from Giles
County and had the
distinction of having
refused a nomination
for Congress for his
district. For a number
of years he was Commonwealth's
Attorney
for his county and was
noted for his ability as
a lawyer and his high
character as a Christian,
and a man of great integrity.
Along this line
the son inherited many
of the noble traits of his father, who was also a captain
in the Confederate Army. His mother was the
daughter of Dr. Thomas Fowler, an eminent physician
who lived at "Wildwood," Summers County, West
Virginia.

Colonel James D. Johnston is of Scotch-Irish descent.
His great grandfather, David Johnston, came to Virginia
from Ireland and settled in Culpeper County
about the year 1736. In 1788 he removed to Giles
County. James Johnston, a great uncle served in the
Revolutionary War and was with Washington at
Valley Forge. His maternal uncle, Hon. I. C. Fowler,
was speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates in
1877-78. Another uncle, Dr. Allen Fowler, was a
Colonel in the Confederate Army. General Augustus
A. Chapman, for many years a member of Congress,
was a first cousin of the mother of Colonel Johnston,
as was Rebecca Hereford, the wife of United States
Senator Frank Hereford, of West Virginia.

Colonel Johnston's boyhood days were spent on his
father's farm and in the schools of his native county.
He attended Emory and Henry College, and later
Randolph-Macon College at Ashland, Virginia. He
studied law at the University of Virginia, graduating
from the latter institution in June, 1893. The same
year he located in Roanoke where he began the practice
of his profession, which he has followed with distinction
and success up to the present time. Politically
he is a Democrat and is a member of the staff of Governor
William Hodges Mann. He was a member of the
Roanoke City Council from July, 1901, to September,
1904. In 1903 he was elected president of that body
and presided for one year when he refused to stand
for reölection.