The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-07-15
A GEORGIA LOYALlST.
Some of His RecolIectiOns of the
JOhnstOns of savannah.

In his preface of THE Recollections
of a Georgia Loyalist," the Rev. Ar
thur Wentworth Eaton, says the New
York Times Saturday Review, shows
what were the conditions of the Loyal
lists of the Revolution. He writes: 1T
is commonly estimated that when the
North American colonies had finally
become the United States the popula-
ton of the country was less by hun
dred thousand than before the war. To
England Upper Canada, the West In
dia Islands, and last, but by no means
least the fertile Province of Nova
Scotia, the proud, unflinching, sorrow
ing Tories fled" Now that some 125
years have elapsed since the time
when English loyalists left our coun-
try, there is barely a vestige of angry
feeling left among us. We have of late
only learned how much these Loyalists
suffered, and how for a principle they
sacrificed their fortunes.
In the volume under notice is given
the life history of a woman. Elizabeth
Lichtenstein Johnston, and her story
as she tells 1t is full of touching de
tails. Unquestionably she was a Roy
alist, but she rarely INDUCES in We
hement expressions such as might in
dictate her devotion to King George
1t is the love she bears for her hus
band that makes her as a wife follow
his fortunes. The lady begins as fol-
lows:
Il was born May %, 1854, in the reign
of George III. at a place called Little
Ogeechee about ten miles from Savan-
nah, the capital of Georgia. My father,
John Lightenstone, was born at Cron-
stadt, in Russia" On her mothers
side she was French. her grandfather
having been attached to Gen. Ogle-
torpe. When Elizabeth was a child
her father moved to Yamacraw. a sub
urb then of Savannah. Afterward her
father bought plantation on Skida-
way Island. Early in life Elizabeth
went to Philadelphia.
In IVA the Revolutionary War COM
menced at Boston, and began to spread
southwark. In 1876 the people in Geor-
gia were inflamed against the Govern
ment of Great Britain, and were rails
ing a ragged corps'of all sorts.
If Tory refused to join the people he
was imprisoned and tarred and feath-
cred. Our teachers became
officers in the rebel army, and every
where the scum rose to the surface.
But for the devotion of a colored
man, her father would have been ia
ken prisoner. Then Lightenstone hur-
ried to Tybee, and. embarking on the
British man-of-war Scarborough, sail
ed for Halifax, Nova Scotia. Some
what later LightensGone joined the En-
glish Quartermaster' Department In
New York. In 1873 Count DEstang
with his fleet was off Tybee. and soon
a landing was made at Buhlah. Then
Savannah was under the f"e of the
French and the Americans Fhe bonn
H. to "A
The streets being sandy and not
paved, the shells fell and made great
holes in the sand. which often put out
the fuse and prevented explosion. In
deed the colored children get so used
to the shells that they would run and
cover them with sand, and as we We're
rather scarce of ammunition, they
would often pick up the spent shells
and get for them seven pence apiece"
The lady's marriage is thus simply
told: II was married in Savannah
Nov. 81, 1879. then fifteen and a half
old. my husband, William Martin
Johnston, being twenty-five and a
half" Her courtship is most happily
described. Heavy military duty had
broken down her husbands health.
The young wife accompanied him to
New York. Now began a long series
of journeys. Mrs Johnston went to
Florida, to Scotland, to Jamaia. In
1906 the family were in Halifax. for the
young wife was the mother of a num-
erous progeny. Mrs. Johnston died at
Halifax in 1S4S In the correspondence
between the wife and her husband
there are many charming passages,
showing the great love of the wife.
There are many names mentioned OF
people of the last quarter of the eight
zenith century whose descendants are
still to be found in Savannah. To the
notables who have occupied important
civic positions i'm the British Provinces
who are of the direct line of those
Georgia Loyalists the author devotes
many pages. The volume is of decid-
ed historical interest.