Champaign Co, ILGenWeb, The USGenWeb Project - Biography, William H. Allison

William H. Allison

SOURCE: "History of Champaign County, Illinois with Illustrations," 1878

SURNAMES: ALLISON, KARR, LITTLETON

WILLIAM H. ALLISON. Mr. ALLISON, a citizen of Brown township, has been a resident of Champaign county since 1869. His birth occurred in Loudon county, Virginia, February 23d, 1837. Both his maternal and paternal grandparents emigrated from England to America and settled in Virginia. His father was Wilfred ALLISON, and his mother's maiden name Susan H. LITTLETON. When the subject of this sketch was a year and a half old his father emigrated with the family to Ohio and settled in Champaign county of that State. Mr. Allison was raised there. Attending the common schools till he was eighteen, he then for two terms was a student at a select school at Urbana, Ohio, the county seat. When nineteen he began teaching school in Ohio, where he taught two terms, and then in 1857 came to De Witt county, Illinois. Returning to Ohio the fall of the same year he taught a school there during the winter term, and then came back to De Witt county, Illinois, and had charge of schools in that part of the State, from the spring of 1858 to the spring of 1869. On the 8th of December, 1861 he was married to Mary E. KARR, of De Witt county.

He became a resident of this county in 1869, when he settled in section thirty-five of Brown township. He has here been engaged in farming, and also for five years has taught winter schools. For three years he has also filled the office of magistrate, the duties of which he has discharged in a creditable and impartial manner. He has been practicing as attorney in justice's courts for two years, and is known as a gentleman of intelligent judgment, and sound knowledge of ordinary legal points. He has been a resident of the township only a few years, and is a comparatively young man, but already holds a position of influence in the township. He has always been a Republican in politics, and is a member of the Christian Church.