My Genealogy Hound

JAMES McALLISTER was born in the town of Gerry, on September 1, 1825, and is the son of John and Sarah (Brewster) McAllister. His great-grandfather, William McAllister, was born in Scotland and emigrated to New York State in the Adirondack region with a surveying party, where he was taken sick and died. His grandparents were born in the New England States, where also was born our subject’s father. The father was by occupation a tanner, and in the earlier part of his life removed from Boston, Massachusetts, to Amsterdam, New York, where he operated a tannery and in conjunction therewith dealt in boots and shoes. In 1817 he moved to the town of Gerry and purchased a farm from the Holland Land company, upon which one of his sons now lives. Here he engaged in farming and other collateral lines, through which he acquired considerable money. In politics he first voted with the Whig party and afterwards allied himself with the Democratic party, under the latter of which he held the office of justice of the peace, supervisor and collector for a number of years. He was a member of the Baptist church, in which he held the offices of deacon and trustee at different times. His death occurred in the town of Gerry on the old farm, which he had originally cleared and improved, at the age of ninety years.

James McAllister was reared and educated in the town of Gerry, left school at an early age and worked with his father in the tannery and on the farm. He shortly afterward commenced his independent career on the old homestead, where he carried on the business of farming, lumbering and dairying. At the age of twenty-two he purchased the old farm, erected a saw-mill and increased his facilities for manufacturing and shipping lumber.

James McAllister, on June 21, 1863, was united in marriage to Laura, daughter of Jonas Willow, of the town of Poland, New York, who bore him five children: Cora Bell (deceased); Lottie (deceased); Joseph Lynn, a graduate of Sinclairville academy and a student at the University of Michigan, where in 1890 he was taken sick and died; Guy Brewster; and Ray Barnard.

James McAllister has always been a republican in politics, while his religious views were Unitarian.