Hancock and Johnston streets were both named circa 1875 for Hancock McClung Johnston (1847-1904), nephew and business partner of physician/developer John Strother Griffin. Johnston’s mother was Griffin’s sister Eliza (1821-1896; see Fair Oaks Avenue) and his father was Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston (1803-1862), a Texas-raised Army man who, living in San Francisco at the outbreak of the Civil War, resigned from his Union duties and led Confederate troops at the Battle of Shiloh, where he was killed. Around that time, the rest of the Johnstons migrated to Los Angeles to live with Griffin. Hancock grew up to subdivide this neighborhood with his uncle, raise horses, have four surviving children with his wife Mary (daughter of Benjamin Eaton), and suffer from arthritis. He also owned land in Hemet. There is one funny story attributed to him: While visiting a friend at the Pico House hotel, Johnston reportedly whipped out a pistol and shot a cockroach off the cuff of his friend’s trousers.
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