A Narrative History of The People of Iowa with SPECIAL TREATMENT OF THEIR CHIEF ENTERPRISES IN EDUCATION, RELIGION, VALOR, INDUSTRY, BUSINESS, ETC. by EDGAR RUBEY HARLAN, LL. B., A. M. Curator of the Historical, Memorial and Art Department of Iowa Volume IV THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Inc. Chicago and New York 1931 ALLEN JOHNSTON, who came to Iowa in 1855, was one of the great men of his generation, inventor, manufacturer, creator of business industry, and directly and indirectly credited with giving to the City of Ottumwa the enterprise that have been the most productive of industrial prosperity there. He was born in a log cabin in Muskingum County, Ohio, October 24, 1848, and died at Ottumwa, Iowa, April 3, 1930. He was a son of John and Marian Johnston, his father of Scotch-Irish and his mother of English and Welsh ancestry. His father was a weaver, whose business was seriously interfered with by the coming of the power loom, and who was living on a little rented farm when his son Allen was born. Later he bought a small tract of land in the hills of Ohio, and in 1855 the family decided to come West. A brother of John Johnston had moved out to Monroe County, Iowa. John Johnston sold his Ohio farm for about eight hundred dollars and started West in October, 1855, with three horses and two wagons, and the family lived in the wagons through the winter. Allen Johnston grew up in the country about a mile from Blakesburg, Iowa. He was always fond of outdoor life, and as a boy he earned money trapping quails and fur-bearing animals. He had no formal schooling until he was eight or nine years of age, and though the duties of the farm kept him from regular attendance, he pursued his studies with a system that made it possible for him to keep up with his classes even though absent, at times two weeks or more. Allen Johnston from boyhood exemplified his greatest gift, that of intellectual curiosity and keen powers of observation, accompanied by a restless desire to improve on the conventional ways of doing things. There were few Iowa farms in that time which contained work shops, and all he had to do with was a few of the simplest tools. As a boy he made his own sled and skates, and his first practical invention was a hazelnut huller, consisting of a wooden cylinder revolving in a hollow log, both being studded with nails, and as the cylinder revolved the nails tore the husks from the hazelnuts. At the age of nineteen he went to Ottumwas to study dentistry with his brother, W. T. Johnston. His brother at that time was the local agent for the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Allen Johnston attended school for a few months in Ottumwa. He helped his brother sell sewing machines, and early became interested in experimenting on improved attachments, the first issue of his genius being an embroidery attachment, on which he and his brother took out a patent. Subsequently he devised a ruffler, which immediately became popular and for half a century has been one of the standard attachments of all sewing machines. They started the manufacture of the ruffler at Ottumwa, the equipment consisting of a few files and chisels and a punch press, the power for which was supplied by a hand power grindstone. Subsequently several Ottumwa men became financially interested, including W. T. Majors, J. T. Hackworth and J. G. Hutchison, and also A. G. Harrow. Money was invested in new equipment, and the Johnston Ruffler Works became one of the industries that did most to give character to the City of Ottumwa as a manufacturing center. Mr. Johnston had to defend his patents through extensive litigation, since many imitations were made in Rufflers, and eventually he sold the business to a competitor in New Haven, Connecticut. It was during a business trip to England in the interest of the Johnston Ruffler Works that Capt. J. G. Hutchison met on shipboard a representative of Jon Morrell and induced the Morrell Company to establish its plant in Ottumwa. Mr. Johnston patented 130 inventions. He was the founder of the Cutlery Works of Ottumwas an din later years his manufacturing interests were chiefly represented by the Johnston Pressed Gear Company and the Johnston and Sharp Company. He had been practically retired from active business for some years, but the things he accomplished before he retired have placed his name permanently among great American inventors. Mr. Johnston fully half a century ago conceived the idea of making a flying machine. He succeeded so far as to construct a machine that lifted its own weight using a propeller much the same as in use today. However, that was long before the era of internal combustion engines, the only available source of power being steam, and Mr. Johnston finally gave up further experimenting, realizing that a flying machine would not be practical until a lighter power source was developed. The Johnston family are members of the First Presbyterian Church, and the fine old home on Court Street in Ottumwa is one of the landmarks of the city. Mr. Johnston married, February 8, 1872, at Oskaloosa, Iowa, Miss Elizabeth Wiley, of an early Iowa family of Scotch-Irish ancestry, daughter of Dr. John H. and Angeline (Antrobus) Wiley. Three children have been born to their marriage. The daughter Stella is the wife of Mr. Frank W. Sharp, of Ottumwa, and has six children, named Margaret E., Allen W., John H., Helen A., Angeline and Elizabeth. Roy Wiley Johnson, also of Ottumwa, married Jessie Fair. The second daughter, Alice M., is the wife of Leon Emmert. Debbie Clough Gerischer _http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/index.htm_ (http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/index.htm) _http://iagenweb.org/history/index.htm_ (http://iagenweb.org/history/index.htm) _http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/_ (http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/)