Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/491

ADELAIDE AND VICINITY 465 Mr. J. C. F. Johnson, F.G.S. JOURNALISM has frequently proved a valuable and practical introduction to public life; and when the pressman steps from the friendly ambush of anonymity, and goes before the bar of public opinion, he is generally found not only to acquit himself well, but to add credit to his associations. The world is frLiitful in such e.xamples, and in South Australia we have several illustrations of members of the Press who have risen to eminence. Mr. J. C F. Johnson is a case in point, and though not now in active politics, he is still a public man not only on account of past performances, but also by reason of his interests in the South Australian mining and commercial world. Mr. Joseph Colin Francis Johnson was born in King William Street, Adelaide, in February, 1848. Both his father and mother were pioneer colonists. His father arrived in the ship Africaiiu and was one of the first lawyers to practise in Adelaide. His mother, Wilhelmina Colquhon Campbell, was the third daughter of Mr. Colin Campbell, who arrived with his family and ser- vants by the ship Superb in 1839, and settled at Stonefield, Pine Poorest. Though he never entered the Parliamentary arena, Mr. Henry Johnson was an active public man in the early days, and took a deep interest in the affairs of the struggling Province. Pearly in the "fifties," he removed with his family to Victoria, and lived for some )ears at Geelong. It was at the Grammar School of that seaside town that the subject of this sketch received his education. Leaving school in 1865. he spent several years in pastoral pursuits. Mr. Johnson's life in the bush was well employed ; f(jr, combining an observant with a receptive mind, he gathered in a store of experiences which in after years delighted many readers when reproduced as smardy-written stories of overlanding. river steamboating, camping, the shearing-shed, and the thousand-and-one phases which give interest to the Australian bush. Mr. Johnson, wielding the pen of a ready writer, thus Hammer &" Co., fhoto