The oldest building on Lakin’s Main Street is small and unassuming. Glancing at its limestone façade, one could never guess the significance of the building to the people who called Lakin home in the first part of the 20th Century. The original part of the structure at 113 N. Main was completed in January 1904 for Dr. George F. Johnston, M.D. In addition to his office and consultation rooms, the facility also served somewhat as a hospital since there were no other ones here at the time.
Dr. Johnston arrived in Lakin in September of 1895 during the horse and buggy days of medicine. Born and raised in Reading, Pa., he was a graduate of Lafayette College. He graduated with high honors from the prestigious Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia in 1887 and completed his post graduate work at Bellevue Medical College of New York City. In 1892, Dr. Johnston made his way to nearby Leoti where he married Katherine Tipton in 1894.
A man of deep sympathy and humanity, the good doctor loved his profession. He made house calls both day and night, in good weather and in bad, sacrificing his physical self to relieve the suffering of others even when they had no money to pay his fees. Dr. Johnston often made the long drive to Ulysses and Garden City to treat patients. Accounts of his service were regularly related in the local papers such as when he had so many patients to call on that he hadn’t taken his clothes off for three nights. When Lake McKinney was under construction, one of the workers came down with small pox, and Dr. Johnston avoided an epidemic by immediately quarantining the camp. Answering a house call to Kendall in December of 1921 required the doctor to use a sled to get to his patient.
From 1899 to 1901, Dr. Johnston was Kearny County’s representative to the Legislature where he served as a member of the public health, railroad, and agricultural committees. Along with a fellow doctor from Ellsworth, Dr. Johnston succeeded in getting medical legislation passed that resulted in the organization of the first State Board of Medical Registration and Examination. Kansas Governor William Stanley appointed Dr. Johnston as the first president of the board, a selection made with much scrutiny and care. Dr. Johnston’s 1901 medical license was the first issued in the state and is on display at the Kearny County Museum.
Dr. Johnston also served as the chairman of the Republican County Central Committee for many years and was a delegate to nearly every state Republican convention for over 20 years. He was a member of the Lakin Presbyterian Church, Knights Templars of Garden City, and the Lakin Blue Lodge and Order of Eastern Star. According to information provided by his late daughter, the doctor was a lifelong student and could be found reading medical journals or historical readings in his free time.
At the time of Dr. Johnston’s death in 1925, there were thousands of dollars on his books that had gone uncollected. Despite almost impassable roads and poor weather conditions, nearly the entire town attended his funeral, a true showing of admiration and respect for the man who had given so much of himself for the health and well-being of others.
SOURCES: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans compiled by William E. Connelley; Tribute to Father by Elizabeth Johnston Gillespie; History of Kearny County Vol. 1; Dec. 13, 1894 Western Kansan; Sept. 26, 1895 Leoti Standard; Feb. 18, 1898 Lakin Index; Jan. 28, 1904 and Oct. 1, 1920 Advocate; Dec. 9, 1921 and Nov. 20, 1925 Lakin Independent; Nov. 16, 1901 Lakin Investigator; and museum archives.