George E. Johnston and Catherine Friggle

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Husband George E. Johnston ¹

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           Born: 14 Jun 1854 - Erie, Erie Co, PA 2
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         Father: James Johnston (1813-1896) 1
         Mother: Jane Kennedy (1816-1901) 1

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       Marriage: 1899 - ? Venango Co, PA

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Wife Catherine Friggle ²

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            AKA: Kittie Friggel
           Born: 26 Nov 1873 - Oil City, Venango Co, PA 2
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         Father: James Friggle (1843-1915) 3
         Mother: Anna Maria "Annie" Seth (1848-1927) 4 5

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Children

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General Notes: Husband - George E. Johnston

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He was educated principally at Oil City, PA, having the benefit of instruction in a private school conducted by Mrs. Williams, daughter of T. A. Frothingham, a prominent lawyer of Rochester, NY, and herself a graduate of Vassar College. He could assist his father with work about the oil operations at a very early age, his experience covering practically every department of the industry involved in the production and handling of crude oil, including drilling and refining as well as looking after the flowing wells. For several years he was engaged in other fields, in 1883 going into West Virginia, below Steubenville, where he was employed drilling for gas until 1884. Then he went to East Pittsburgh, where he also drilled gas wells, and in 1885 made another change, to Little Washington, PA, where for two years he acted as superintendent of the People's Gas Company (Pugh & Emerson), operating on the Manifold Farm, on which tract he drilled and brought in the second largest oil well in Washington County, with an initial production of five thousand barrels a day. As his parents were advancing in years he returned to Oil City, where he had for a time been in partnership with his brother D. K. Johnston as contracting drillers, and he was associated with this brother in oil production on the Clapp Farm, where they had twenty-eight producing wells. Besides looking ably after his private interests he, like his brother, devoted considerable thought and time to the direction of public matters, and he was elected to represent the Third ward in the city council for three successive terms, resigning dur­ing the third term. During all the time that he was a member of the council he had the honor and responsibility of being chairman of the Police and Printing committees, giving effective service on both. He was a Democrat in political affiliation.
Mr. Johnston was the proud possessor of the original drilling tools used in the sinking of the famous Drake well, which initiated oil production in the region, and which were presented to him by Mr. George W. Bissell, one of the men who financed Drake in the enter­prise. [CAB, 888]

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General Notes: Wife - Catherine Friggle

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She was born in the west end of Oil City, Venango County, PA, and received her education there, in the public schools. She was a member of Trinity M. E. Church and of the Red Cross chapter at Oil City.

1 Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 888.

2 Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 889.

3 Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 785, 883, 889.

4 Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 785.

5 Terrance L. Johnson-Cooney, The Exley Family 1789 to 2005 (Self-published, Aug, 2005), Pg 198.