James Johnston

Video/Podcast.  James Johnston was born October 7, 1813, in Melrose, Scotland. His family immigrated to the United States aboard the Prompt in 1818 and settled in Pittsburgh, PA, then moved to Gallipolis, Ohio, after the death of his father in 1826. One of nine children, James served in the military in the Mexican war, became interested in Mexican culture and sailed to California aboard the Oregon in 1849. He may have worked in the mines, but he was most successful as a partner in the fashionable El Dorado Saloon on San Francisco’s Dupont Street (now Grant Avenue) and as a real estate investor.