February 3, 2021 is now officially Howard Johnston Day, Proclaims County Judge Executive David Fields. Mr. Johnston, who turned 92 years old on that day, was elected to hold the Pendleton County Property Survey office in 1989 and still holds that office to date. Mr. Johnston is the oldest serving elected official and has held office longer than anyone in Pendleton County.
Mr. Johnston was born on the family farm of a little over 100 acres acres on Pond Creek Road in Campbell County. He has a nephew who still lives there. He married the love of his life in 1950, Alta Mae Fryman, and they had three children, Billy, Connie and Carolee. He moved his family into the stone house in Butler to care for his in-laws and tend to the farm due to the decline in their health. Upon their passing, they inherited the home and farm.
Mr. Johnston had farmed all of his life but wanted more. His love for being outdoors and his excellence in math led him to pursue his lifelong career as a surveyor. In 1966, legislature passed a law naming land. In 1967, Mr. Johnston earned his surveyors license. He was number 1041 to receive a license. Mr. Johnson told me that surveying was all trigonometry. When asked him how he got so good in school, he stated the following:
His mother was a school teacher and had spent a lot of time teaching him math and other subjects before he entered school. When he did start school, he started in the second grade, totally bypassing first grade. In 1936, Campbell County was consolidated and he was one original students in Grants Lick school. He went to school in Ohio for math and engineering. During this time he was still farming. A serious accident left him in a body cast for a year when some young person hit him from behind as he was driving his tractor with a bush hog behind it. He was hit so hard that it broke the bush hog and did major damage to him. Mr. Johnston had story after story of places he had been, places like Bethel Ohio, Clay County, Manchester, Owensboro, Bowling Green, Beaverdam, Hartford, Illinois, Bloomington, Lincoln, Cold Springs, Bracken County, Kenton County, Campbell County, Presidents Park, Ohio County, West Virginia and many more. He would be gone for a week at a time and then get to come home for a weekend. Part of his job was to do the crawl spaces and situation surveys such as highway crossings and stream crossings.
Some of the more known areas Mr. Johnston designed are Whites Trailer Park, American Trailer Park, Blueberry Hill here in Falmouth, Cool Farm Subdivision, Daniel Boone Parkway and the Brent Spence Bridge.
Mr. Johnston says he has probably completed over 2000 surveys in his career. His dues are paid up until 2022 and when asked if he would renew again, he said he just didn’t know.
He was ask what was one of the most shocking things he remembers during his career, and he recalled that before he was sent to Prestonsburg to do a job, he remembers being told by the supervisor that the three surveyors sent before him were shot. He didn’t know if that was a true story or a joke, and he never did find out.
Mr. Johnston lost his wife on March 17, 2019, just two months short of their 70th wedding anniversary. He is still very active and very much loves reading, basketball and newspapers.
Thank you for your dedication to the citizens of Pendleton County and a belated happy birthday.
