Abraham JOHNSTON b. ca 1831 Ireland, son of Phineas JOHNSTON and Elizabeth BENNETT was married in 1869 at "Muntham" Station to Maria Dorothea "Julianne" HOLZGREFE, b. 1852 Hanover, Germany, daughter of Johann Friedrich Heinrich Christoph HOLZGREFE and Catherine Dorothea Elizabeth BUNGE.
Abraham JOHNSTON had 2 school-aged children, living 2 miles SW of Carapook and was marked on the map but was not one of the signatures to the 1875 petition aimed at establishing a new school at Carapook.
Abraham JOHNSTON & Julia Anna HOLZGREFE had the following family:
Abraham and Julianne Johnston's youngest daughter, Alvina Olga Johnston, known mostly by her second name Olga, became a Baptist missionary in India in 1912 and was caught up in an adulterous affair with the Rev. Frank E. Paice. Both she and Frank Paice were forced to resign as missionaries because of the scandal. After spending six years in Calcutta where Frank worked for the Australian engineering company, Hume Pipes, they returned to Melbourne, having eradicated their past so successfully that even their only son, Paul, did not know they had been missionaries. The full story of the scandal and the cover-up is told in Ian D. Richardson's book ...
From the Portland Guardian, Monday, May 16, 1921:
The late Mr Abraham Johnston, who passed away on Thursday last, was a very old colonist. He arrived in Melbourne in 1852, in the ship City of Lincoln, and within a fortnight would have reached the age of 91.After he had paid his passage money for Australia in the above-named vessel he, with the other emigrants (to the number of 400) were taken to the ship in boats, there to find that the owners of the vessel were insolvent, and had left the ship unmanned and without provisions. The passengers then decided to provision and man the ship at their own expense and to sell the vessel on arrival in Melbourne to recompense themselves. The incensed creditors did their best to tow the vessel into dock, but were beaten off with sticks, mops and buckets of water, which were their only defence. However, another firm of ship owners bought the vessel, and she was allowed to proceed on her voyage to Australia from Liverpool unmolested.
The late Mr Johnston had a varied experience after his arrival in Australia, following the occupation of mining at Bendigo, where he worked at the first White Hills, and at Ballarat, Beaufort, Mt Moliagul, Dunolly, Ararat and all the principal goldfields. He used to relate that he had mined under the main street in Dunolly, along with other miners, and that the street was well timbered up, and he often wondered if it ever subsided. For a period he also had a team of horses carting flour to Bendigo and Ballarat, receiving as much as £100 a ton for carting it. After giving up mining pursuits, his last field being Ararat, he settled in Carapook, in the Casterton district, on the well-known farm The Gums, now occupied by his relatives, Mrs Davis and family. After retiring from farming he resided privately at Casterton, and for some years he was a well-known angler on the banks of the Glenelg River. Following up his favorite pastime, he removed to Portland about 17 years ago with his family, and up to quite recently was to be seen daily among the many anglers on the pier, with whom he was a great favorite.
The deceased leaves a grown-up family of three daughters and two sons - Mrs F. Turner (Geelong), Mrs W. T. Bennett (Portland), Mrs Pain [should read Paice] (Calcutta), Mr A. Johnston (Lancefield) and Mr T. Johnston (Casterton).