|
|
F. E. ALLISON, of East Hickory, was born in Clinton county, Penn., about five miles from the city of Lock Haven.
His grandfather, Archibald Allison, who was of Scotch Irish descent, born in 1718, was married to Mary Kennedy,
third daughter of John Kennedy, a native of the shire of Galloway, and parish of Kirkmaddon, Scotland, November
1, 1730. They landed in America June 18, 1773, the family consisting of four sons: David, Mathew, Archibald, Jr.,
and James - and three daughters: Catherine, Jane and Eleanor. Archibald, Jr., was about six feet three inches in
height, weighing about 190 pounds, "cordy as an elk, and swift as a reindeer." He was an expert with
the rifle in his day, and was a chosen scout of Lee and Washington. [See history of the early settlement in the
eastern counties, also, history of Dauphin and Camberland counties.] His brother, Mathew (the father of the subject
of our sketch), was born September 15, 1756. He enlisted in the Revolutionary army, at the age of nineteen, and
at the close of the war he received his pay in what was called "Continental money," which afterward proved
to be worthless. He married Sarah Mahaffy, of Cumberland county, Penn., and to them were born four children: William,
Margaret, Mary and Sarah. Removing from Cumberland to Nittany Valley, Mathew there purchased 200 acres of land,
where he opened up a farm. In 1800 he was appointed by the governor of Pennsylvania to run the boundary line for
a new county which he named "Centre County," and for many terms served as commissioner of the same. After
the death of his wife, Sarah, he married Miss Catherine Lamb, who bore him eight children: Samuel L. (who in turn
enlisted and served during the war of 1812-13, under Gen. Wm. Harrison, grandfather of our present chief magistrate),
Archibald, James, David, John, Jane, Catherine and Nellie. John removed to Ohio, married a Miss Mary Williams,
and became the father of William B. Allison, the present United States senator from Dubuque, Iowa; Jane married
William Goodfellow, of Wayne county, Ohio; Nellie married James Moore, of Seneca county, Ohio, and Catherine married
Hugh McManigal, of Big Valley, Centre Co., Penn. Mr. Allison was again married, to a Miss Sarah Baine, a Quakeress
of Philadelphia, and to this union were born five children: Mathew Jackson Allison, of Enterprise, Warren county,
Penn.; Mary Ann (now Mrs. George Rishel, of Clinton county), Robert C. Allison (a Presbyterian minister, graduate
of Amherst College), died in Southerland, Mass., A. D. 1886; Thomas J. Allison (removed to Freeport, Ill., in 1846),
died May 22, 1850. Their father died February 9, 1828. F. E. Allison was reared in Clinton county, in the small
village of Salona, until he was eighteen years of age. When a youth he was the" village chore boy," earning
and receiving small sums of money for doing errands, chopping stove wood, etc., which money he invested in books,
and tallow candles to enable him to study by night. Having obtained a fair education by his own efforts, he came
to Venango county, and engaged in school teaching, but soon abandoned the profession as $13 were the highest monthly
wages paid by the school boards; and it might be added here that he boarded around with the scholars, and occasionally
"aired the spare bed." He was employed as superintendent of an iron furnace by James Hughes, Myers &
Hunter, for several years, and again accepted a similar position with William Cross, in Hickory township, where
subsequently he engaged in the mercantile and lumber businesses. Mr. Allison was married in August, 1851, to Barbara
A. Smith, and to them were born nine children, viz.: Orlando I., Josephine A., William Forest. Mary, Ann, Susan
Almyra (now Mrs. I. L. Klienstiver), Emma Jane (now Mrs. N. G. Cole), Lucy Elvernon and Irvine Holbrook. Mrs. Allison
died on November 17, 1885: He has also an adopted daughter, Ellen C., who married James K. Green, now of Harmony.
(The oldest son was blown up by the premature explosion of nitroglycerine, near the mouth of Scrubgrass, in Venango
county; he had a wife and three children - two boys and one girl). Josephine A. was thrown from a carriage near
Flummer, Venango county, and killed, on the 4th of July, 1854. Politically Mr. Allison was one of the first Republicans
in northern Venango county (now Forest), but is now among the prominent leaders of the Prohibition party. He is
an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
From:
History of the Counties of
McKean, Elk and Forest,
Pennsylvania
With Biographical Selections.
J. H. Beers & Co., Publishers
Chicago, 1890.
Privacy Policy for
OnlineBiographies
|
NAVIGATION
Forest County, PA Biographies
Online
Biographies
Pennsylvania
Biographies
Pennsylvania
Histories
New York
Histories
New York
Biographies
|