Taken from a 1901 Supplement to The (Illiopolis) State Center Record
DAVID JOHNSTON, Furniture and Undertaking
The importance and wisdom of selecting concerns of tried integrity and established reliability is nowhere more applicable than when there is question of buying furniture. There is today so much made to sell furniture on the market. Tempting in beauty of design. brilliancy of finish, richness of effect and low prices, and yet of a quality both in material and workmanship, so poor that durability is out of the question, that the prudent, distrustful of their judgment, wisely secure their needs from establishments where they are known and from persons whose methods invite confidence. Such a concern is that owned and conducted by Mr. David Johnston who, for the last seventeen years, has responded faithfully to every demand made in household equipment in furniture. He has in all these years stood by every representation and guarantee, quoted prices, quality always considered. which allowed him a fair profit, and possessed every advantage which experience could suggest or capital provide to supply anything and everything known to the business. Hence the large and select trade enjoyed and hence too the favor and recognition his business shares, because of the extreme simplicity of the methods enforced as well as their integrity and popularity. Mr. Johnston is prepared to satisfy the demand or any article in the furniture line, and carries constantly on hand a variety of styles and qualities of bedroom and parlor suites, couches, hall racks, chairs, tables, wardrobes, bookcases, etc. He, also, prepares the dead for burial and directs funerals. In the latter profession Mr. Johnston possesses a thorough knowledge and experience in the art of embalming, and holds a certificate for his proficiency from the State Board of Health. Mr. Johnston is among the representative merchants and esteemed citizens of Sangamon county. Born in Dumfreeshire, Scotland, he came to America with his parents when a child in arms, and grew up at Dawson, this county. By the death of his father, he was deprived when three years of age of paternal guidance and care, a misfortune which stimulated the efforts and ambition of his younger years to provide for his widowed mother. In 1866 he moved to this township and applied himself diligently to farm work, securing such education as the meager facilities of the times afforded. He afterward taught school successfully for two years but gave up this occupation to follow farming. Such was his life until 1883, when he embarked in the hardware, furniture and undertaking business in Illiopolis and has conducted these enterprises ever since except the hardware line which lie sold out two years ago. Mr. Johnston has served as president of the town board, and was postmaster during Cleveland’s first term, both of which positions were filled with characteristic fidelity and efficiency. Mr. Johnston is active in religious affairs, as is judged by his having been both a Deacon and Elder in the Christian Church. As a citizen and business man, the esteem and regard entertained for him is but the natural and just appreciation for sterling worth wherever and whenever it is found.