Ernest Fenwick Johnstone

(1867-1938)

frontis photograph

E.F. Johnstone, The Original Poems of E.F. Johnstone: With Contributions by L.E. Krotz (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Courier, printers and binders, 1893)

Dentist, lawyer and poet

"Ernest Fenwick Johnstone, dentist, lawyer and poet, was born at Waterville, Nova Scotia, 1867. He graduated from the University of Michigan (two degrees there), and was admitted to the Michigan bar. After a few years he moved east, practised law and studied medicine. Coming to Vermont, he began the practice of dentistry; lived for some years in Rutland; then in Orwell, and Shoreham. For the last ten years he practiced in Bristol, Vt. He died there April 7, 1938, leaving a wife and two daughters."

[Walter John Coates (ed.), A Bibliography of Vermont Poetry and Gazetteer of Vermont Poets 235 (Montpelier: Vermont Historical Society, 1942)] [Vol. 1] [Vol. 2, apparently, was never published] [Used with permission of the Vermont Historical Society]

Johnstone, known as an "extraction dentist," traveled around small towns in Vermont in a horse and buggy pulling teeth. With the appearance of cars he found his customers by way of Model T. [Source: Vermont Obituaries: Dr. Ernest Fenwick Johnstone]

Johnston died in Bristol, Vermont on April 7, 1938. [Source: Vermont Obituaries: Dr. Ernest Fenwish Johnstone]

Dr. Ernest Fenwick Johnstone

Dr. E.F. Johnstone

Vermont Obituaries

Poem

"No Vermonters in Heaven"

Poetry

E.F. Johnstone, The Original Poems of E.F. Johnstone: with contributions by L.E. Krotz (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Courier, printers and binders, 1893) [online text]

___________, Selections from Johnstone's Poems ([Brandon, Vermont: The Johnson Press], 1916)