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Below is a family biography included in the History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania published in 1889 by A. Warner & Co.   These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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JAMES ALLISON, D. D., Pittsburgh, is a native of Pittsburgh, Pa., born Sept. 27, 1823. James Allison, Sr., his father, was born in 1793, in the Cumberland valley, and was of old Scotch Presbyterian stock. He came to Pittsburgh in 1811, and was married there to Elizabeth, daughter of George and Lydia Brickell. The Brickell family settled in Pittsburgh in 1760, and owned and farmed a large amount of property in Birmingham. James Allison was a tanner, and later in life a farmer in Deer (now Richland) township, Allegheny county, Pa., where he died aged seventy-five years. Politically he was identified with the whig and afterward with the republican party. Dr. Allison graduated at Jefferson College, class of 1845, and at the Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny, in 1848, after which he was pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Sewickley for sixteen years, and for several years was connected with the late Rev. Dr. McKinney as editor of the Presbyterian Banner. Dr. Allison, in 1864, along with Robert Patterson, bought the Presbyterian Banner, which they have published and edited ever since, and its circulation has been quadrupled under their management. Dr. Allison is a director of the Western Theological Seminary; trustee of Washington and Jefferson College; one of the managers of the Pennsylvania Reform School at Morganza, which position he has filled fourteen years. He has been a member of the Presbyterian General Assembly seven times; from 1865 to the present time he has been a member of the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen; has been a member of the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce for several years, and has always taken an active part in public movements in church and state. He has been twice married; first, Aug. 20, 1851, to Miss Mary Anderson, of Sewickley, Pa., and second, Nov. 6, 1856, to Miss Caroline Snowden, of Pittsburgh. His only son, John M. S. Allison, seven years connected with him in the Banner, a young man of great ability and high promise, died of typhoid fever Dec. 27, 1887. His only daughter now resides in Boston, the wife of S. W. Reinhart, general auditor of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad.

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This family biography is one of 2,156 biographies included in the History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania published in 1889 by A. Warner & Co.

View additional Allegheny County, Pennsylvania family biographies here: Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Biographies

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