JOHNSTONE, a police burgh of Renfrewshire, Scotland, on the Black Cart, 11 m. W. of Glasgow by the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901), 10,503. The leading industries include flax-spinning, cotton manufactures (with the introduction of which in 1781 the prosperity of the town began), paper-making, shoe-lace making, iron and brass foundries and engineering works. There are also coal mines and oil works in the vicinity. Elderslie, 1 m. E., is the reputed birthplace of Sir William Wallace, but it is doubtful if “Wallace’s Yew,” though of great age, and “Wallace’s Oak,” a fine old tree that perished in a storm in 1856, and the small castellated building (traditionally his house) which preceded the present mansion in the west end of the village, existed in his day.
JOHNSTOWN, a city and the county-seat of Fulton county, New York, U.S.A., on Cayadutta Creek, about 4 m. N. of the Mohawk river and about 48 m. N.W. of Albany. Pop. (1890), 7768; (1900), 10,130 (1653 foreign-born); (1905, state census), 9765; (1910) 10,447. It is served by the Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville railroad, and by an electric line to Schenectady. The city has a Federal building, a Y.M.C.A. building, a city hall, and a Carnegie library (1902). The most interesting building is Johnson Hall, a fine old baronial mansion, built by Sir William Johnson in 1762 and his home until his death; his grave is just outside the present St John’s episcopal church. Originally the hall was flanked by two stone forts, one of which is still standing. In 1907 the hall was bought by the state and was placed in the custody of the Johnstown Historical Society, which maintains a museum here. In the hall Johnson established in 1766 a Masonic lodge, one of the oldest in the United States. Other buildings of historical interest are the Drumm House and the Fulton county court house, built by Sir William Johnson in 1763 and 1772 respectively, and the gaol (1772), at first used for all New York west of Schenectady county, and during the War of Independence as a civil and a military prison. The court house is said to be the oldest in the United States. Three miles south of the city is the Butler House, built in 1742 by Colonel John Butler (d. 1794), a prominent Tory leader during the War of Independence. A free school, said to have been the first in New York state, was established at Johnstown by Sir William Johnson in 1764. The city is (after Gloversville, 3 m. distant) the principal glove-making centre in the United States, the product being valued at $2,581,274 in 1905 and being 14.6% of the total value of this industry in the United States. The manufacture of gloves in commercial quantities was introduced into the United States and Johnstown in 1809 by Talmadge Edwards, who was buried there in the colonial cemetery. The value of the total factory product in 1905 was $4,543,272 (a decrease of 11.3% since 1900). Johnstown was settled about 1760 by a colony of Scots brought to America by Sir William Johnson, within whose extensive grant it was situated, and in whose honour, in 1771, it was named. A number of important conferences between the colonial authorities and the Iroquois Indians were held here, and on the 28th of October 1781, during the War of Independence, Colonel Marinus Willett (1740-1830) defeated here a force of British and Indians, whose leader, Walter Butler, a son of Colonel John Butler, and, with him, a participant in the Wyoming massacres, was mortally wounded near West Canada creek during the pursuit. Johnstown was incorporated as a village in 1808, and was chartered as a city in 1895.
JOHNSTOWN, a city of Cambria county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., at the confluence of the Conemaugh river and Stony creek, about 75 m. E. by S. of Pittsburg. Pop. (1890), 21,805; (1900), 35,936, of whom 7318 were foreign-born, 2017 being Hungarians, 1663 Germans, and 923 Austrians; (1910 census) 55,482. It is served by the Pennsylvania and the Baltimore & Ohio railways. The city lies about 1170 ft. above the sea, on level ground extending for some distance along the river, and nearly enclosed by high and precipitous hills. Among the public buildings and institutions are the Cambria free library (containing about 14,000 volumes in 1908), the city hall, a fine high school, and the Conemaugh Valley memorial hospital. Roxbury Park, about 3 m. from the city, is reached by electric lines. Coal, iron ore, fire clay and limestone abound in the vicinity, and the city has large plants for the manufacture of iron and steel. The total value of the factory product in 1905 was $28,891,806, an increase of 35.2% since 1900. A settlement was established here in 1791 by Joseph Jahns, in whose honour it was named, and the place was soon laid out as a town, but it was not incorporated as a city until 1889, the year of the disastrous Johnstown flood. In 1852 a dam (700 ft. long and 100 ft. high), intended to provide a storage reservoir for the Pennsylvania canal, had been built across the South Fork, a branch of the Conemaugh river, 12 m. above the city, but the Pennsylvania canal was subsequently abandoned, and in 1888 the dam was bought and repaired by the South Fork hunting and fishing club, and Conemaugh lake was formed. On the 31st of May 1889, during a heavy rainfall, the dam gave way and a mass of water 20 ft. or more in height at its head swept over Johnstown at a speed of about 20 m. an hour, almost completely destroying the city. The Pennsylvania railroad bridge withstood the strain, and against it the flood piled up a mass of wreckage many feet in height and several acres in area. On or in this confused mass many of the inhabitants were saved from drowning, only to be burned alive when it caught fire. Seven other towns and villages in the valley were also swept away, and the total loss of lives was 2000 or more. A relief fund of nearly $3,000,000 was raised, and the city was quickly rebuilt.
JOHOR (Johore is the local official, but incorrect spelling), an independent Malayan state at the southern end of the peninsula, stretching from 2° 40′ S. to Cape Romania (Ramūnya), the most southerly point on the mainland of Asia, and including all the small islands adjacent to the coast which lie to the south of parallel 2° 40′ S. It is bounded N. by the protected native state of Pahang, N.W. by the Negri Sembilan and the territory of Malacca, S. by the strait which divides Singapore island from the mainland, E. by the China Sea, and W. by the Straits of Malacca. The province of Mūar was placed under the administration of Johor by the British government as a temporary measure in 1877, and was still a portion of the sultan’s dominions in 1910. The coast-line measures about 250 m. The greatest length from N.W. to S.E. is 165 m., the greatest breadth from E. to W. 100 m. The area is estimated at about 9000 sq. m. The principal rivers are the Mūar, the most important waterway in the south of the peninsula; the Johor, up which river the old capital of the state was situated; the Endau, which marks the boundary with Pahang; and the Bātu Pāhat and Sĕdĕli, of comparative unimportance. Johor is less mountainous than any other state in the peninsula. The highest peak is Gūnong Lēdang, called Mt Ophir by Europeans, which measures some 4000 ft. in height. Like the rest of the peninsula, Johor is covered from end to end by one vast spread of forest, only broken here and there by clearings and settlements of insignificant area. The capital is Johor Bharu (pop. about 20,000), situated at the nearest point on the mainland to the island of Singapore. The fine palace built by the sultan Abubakar is the principal feature of the town. It is a kind of Oriental Monte Carlo, and is much resorted to from Singapore. The capital of the province of Mūar is Bandar Maharani, named after the wife of the sultan before he had assumed his final title. The climate of Johor is healthy and equable for a country situated so near to the equator; it is cooler than that of Singapore. The shade temperature varies from 98.5° F. to 68.2° F. The rainfall averages 97.28 in. per annum. No exact figures can be obtained as to the population of Johor, but the best estimates place it at about 200,000, of whom 150,000 are Chinese, 35,000 Malays, 15,000 Javanese. We are thus presented with the curious spectacle of a country under Malay rule in which the Chinese outnumber the people of the land by more than four to one. It is not possible to obtain any exact data on the subject of the revenue and expenditure of the state. The revenue, however, is probably about 750,000 dollars, and the expenditure under public service is comparatively small. The revenue is chiefly derived from the revenue farms for opium, spirits, gambling, &c., and from duty on pepper and gambier exported by the Chinese. The cultivation of these products forms the principal industry. Areca-nuts and copra are also exported in some quantities, more especially from Mūar. There is little mineral wealth of proved value.
History.—It is claimed that the Mahommedan empire of Johor was founded by the sultan of Malacca after his expulsion from his kingdom by the Portuguese in 1511. It is certain that Johor took an active part, only second to that of Achin, in the protracted war between the Portuguese and the Dutch for the possession of Malacca. Later we find Johor ruled by an officer of the sultan of Riouw (Rīau), bearing the title of Tumĕnggong, and owing feudal allegiance to his master in common with the Bĕndahāra of Pahang. In 1812, however, this officer seems to have thrown off the control of Riouw, and to have assumed the title of sultan, for one of his descendants, Sultan Husain, ceded the island of Singapore to the East India Company in 1819. In 1855 the then sultan, Ali, was deposed, and his principal chief, the Tumĕnggong, was given the supreme rule by the British. His son Tumĕnggong Abubakar proved to be a man of exceptional intelligence. He made numerous visits to Europe, took considerable interest in the government and development of his country, and was given by Queen Victoria the title of maharaja in 1879. On one of his visits to England he was made the defendant in a suit for breach of promise of marriage, but the plaintiff was non-suited, since it was decided that no action lay against a foreign sovereign in the English law courts. In 1885 he entered into a new agreement with the British government, and was allowed to assume the title of sultan of the state and territory of Johor. He was succeeded in 1895 by his son Sultan Ibrahīm. The government of Johor has been comparatively so free from abuses under its native rulers that it has never been found necessary to place it under the residential system in force in the other native states of the peninsula which are under British control, and on several occasions Abubakar used his influence with good effect on the side of law and order. The close proximity of Johor to Singapore has constantly subjected the rulers of the former state to the influence of European public opinion. None the less, the Malay is by nature but ill fitted for the drudgery which is necessary if proper attention is to be paid to the dull details whereby government is rendered good and efficient. Abubakar’s principal adviser, the Dāto ’Mĕntri, was a worthy servant of his able master. Subsequently, however, the reins of government came chiefly into the hands of a set of young men who lacked either experience or the serious devotion to dull duties which is the distinguishing mark of the English civil service. Mūar, in imitation of the British system, is ruled by a rāja of the house of Johor, who bears the title of resident.
(H. Cl.)