This house is one hundred years old and is the oldest building in McDonald though still in good condition and furnishing a comfortable home to a family of five. It was built originally out of logs but has since been covered with weatherboards. The house was first occupied in the fall of 1812 by Ephraim JOHNSTON, who built it with the assistance of his nephew, Thomas JOHNSTON, and the special help of his neighbors in "log rolling" and "raising the frame." The farm on which the house stood and on which now stands a goodly portion of the town was first owned by Andrew HULL who secured it by letters patent from the Government. HULL sold it to Frederick JOHNSTON who willed it to his brother Ephraim, who in turn willed it to his nephew, Thomas JOHNSTON. Thomas JOHNSTON married Susannah SCOTT, who had come over from Ireland in 1817, and lived near the old village of Eldersville. The couple went to housekeeping in the house about 1832. Of their children only one is living--the oldest--William JOHNSTON of Washington, Pa. Another child was the late Mrs. William B. MOORHEAD, the mother of Mel MOORHEAD and Mrs. William A. LAROSS. One little grandchild first saw the light in this house--Margaret JOHNSTON, daughter of John and Alice CAMPBELL JOHNSTON. She resides now in Burgettstown, the widow of J. Cooke WHITE, who met such a tragic death in the flood of last August while trying to save a favorite horse. The old house has sheltered not a few who have attained prominence in the state. John SCOTT, the younger brother of Mrs. JOHNSTON, spent much of his time with his sister and brother-in-law, helping about the farm, and reading everything he could find. One day Mr. JOHNSTON, returning from the city and finding the lad as usual with a book, said to him in the characteristic vernacular of his Scotch-Irish ancestry, "The next time I go to Pittsburgh you're to go with me, and here's a dollar, see if you can keep it till then to buy that grammar book you've been wantin' and maybe you'll turn out a preacher yet." John SCOTT did keep his dollar and invested it in a grammar and became one of Pittsburgh's earnest Methodist Protestant preachers, numbering among his parishioners and warm friends H. J. HEING, head of the house of this name, whose first association and membership in that church, came about through Mr. SCOTT. During the building of the railroad from Pittsburgh to Steubenville the old house was a busy place, as many of the officials and heads of departments who came to look at the progress of the work found the farm a pleasant diversion and Mr. JOHNSTON always in a hospitable mood. The only town for miles around was Noblestown, and here at the Noblestown hotel the men boarded, workmen and foremen and officials all together, for there was not so much difference then as now between the quality of the laborer and his boss, usually only a matter of longer service. The proprietor of the hotel was James HILES, a son of Mr. JOHNSTON's second wife, who was Mrs. Mary HILES, and it became a custom of HILES to pilot his guests up to his stepfather's farm. Among those who found their way quite often was W. H. BROWN, superintendent of construction of the new road, afterward chief engineer of the Pennsylvania System and the man who built the present Pennsylvania Station at Pittsburgh a close friend and advisor of Andrew CARNEGIE. Mr. BROWN came to Noblestown in 1856, late in that year, and he shortly fell in love with pretty Sallie RIMMEL, a sister of Mrs. HILES of the Noblestown hotel. In the summer of 1858 the decided to get married and BROWN went to his friend JOHNSTON to see if he could help solve the problem of how to transport the bride to Pittsburgh where a minister had been engaged for the ceremony. Mr. JOHNSTON had a very handsom and valuable team of matched dun colored horses with silvery manes and tails. They were named Sam and Tuck. Mr. BROWN was too timid to ask for the matches, but spoke for a horse. Mr. JOHNSTON looked at him for a moment and said, "Mr. BROWN, I think on a mission as important as yours I will lend you my private car, the old phaeton with Sam and Tuck." Mr. JOHNSTON lived to take several rides on trains of the new railroad and to see his wheat fields and meadows give way to the houses and lots which now make up the town of McDonald, but which was at first called Havelock, an name it retained until sometime after the close of the Civil war. The farm extended a little beyond the railroad, and its western boundary was the high road, now Main and North McDonald street. The section where the McDonald Hotel, the SHANE and WOLK stores, CONNER building and the Commercial Hotel stand were especially rich meadows, all of which were then cut by the scythe. At the time of the first sale of the farm from HULL to JOHNSTON a verbal agreement was made between them that HULL and his wife should continue to live in the little cabin they then occupied during their lifetime and that they should be buried in a little fenced enclosure HULL had designated. This contract was kept and as long as any of the JOHNSONS lived on the farm the little fence was kept in repair and the plot untouched by the plow, but it is ... remainder missing.