Rev. James Allison, D.D.

 


biography

 

 

 Allison, Rev. James D.D. , as born in Pittsburg, Pa., September 27, 1823, son of James Allison, who was born in the Cumberland valley, Pennsylvania. When seventeen years old, he was brought by his father to the neighborhood of the Lebanon church, Allegheny County, where the family resided for several years. Then they removed to what is now known as Allison Park, on the Pittsburg & Western Railroad, nine miles from Pittsburg. His mother was a daughter of George Brickell, one of the earliest settlers of a district now included in Pittsburg. George was brought from Fort Redstone to this place in 1760, when only six years old; and there he lived until his death in 1852, at the age of ninety-eight.

Dr. Allison's father was of Scotch-Irish descent, his ancestors coming from the north of Ireland to the Cumberland valley between the years 1729 and 1750, that they might escape from the extortions of the landlords. Their descendants are now found in large numbers in different parts of Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Indiana. The mother of Dr. Allison was a descendant of one of the German families that came to Pennsylvania at an early day. Her father and uncles took an active part in the conflicts with the Indians, and both the parents of Dr. Allison came of Revolutionary stock.

When he was an infant, his father purchased a large farm near Bakerstown, in the northern part of this county, where he passed his boyhood, beginning at a very early age to work on the farm. He attended first the common schools of the neighborhood. Then for a time he went to a private school taught by the Rev. Peter Jones, afterward to an academy in Bakerstown, of which the Rev. Thomas C. Guthrie, D.D., a Covenanter clergyman, was principal; and for six months previous to entering college he was a student in an academy at Hickory, Washington County, of which the Rev. John Moore was principal. He entered Jefferson College at Cannonsburg Pa., in the autumn of 1842, and graduated in the fall of 1845. Immediately afterward he became a student of the Western Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in the spring of 1848, having been licensed in the previous October by the old Presbytery of Allegheny at a meeting held in the church of Slate Lick, of which the late Rev. John Reddick was then pastor.

On the Sabbath after leaving the seminary he preached to what was then the small place of Sewickley, on the bank of the Ohio River, twelve miles below Pittsburg. He was at once invited to become "stated supply," which he did; and on the 16th of October, 1849, he was ordained and installed pastor. He served this church for a period of sixteen years, during which time two hundred and seventy-six members were received on confession of faith and two hundred and thirty-one by certificate. In the meantime the largest and finest house of worship in Allegheny County outside of Pittsburg had been built.

In February, 1864, Dr. Allison resigned his pastoral charge to devote himself entirely to editorial work. When a student at college he had occasionally written for the secular press, and soon after entering the ministry he became a frequent contributor to the religious papers. For a time he was the regular Pittsburg correspondent for the Presbyterian Banner, which had been established in Philadelphia by the Rev. David McKinney, D.D. Upon its removal to Pittsburg and consolidation with the Presbyterian Advocate he became an assistant editor. In 1857 he became a partner of the publishers, who dissolved partnership in 1862; but in February, 1864, he and the late Robert Patterson, Esq., then a professor in Centre College, Kentucky, forming the firm of James Allison & Co., purchased the Presbyterian Banner from Dr. McKinney. Mr. Patterson had studied law and been admitted to the bar, but for many years had devoted himself to teaching. He was a gentleman of a most agreeable character, an earnest Christian, of faultless literary taste, a fine scholar, and a clear and forcible writer. He died from an attack of paralysis in the fall of 1888, greatly lamented. To Dr. Allison his death was a personal bereavement.

The Presbyterian Banner, at the time of its purchase by Messrs. Allison and Patterson, had only a small circulation, but this at once began to increase; and for many years it has been among the most widely circulated and most influential religious journals of the world. It is really the unbroken continuance, though the name has several times been changed, of the Recorder, founded by the Rev. John Andrews, July 5, 1814, at Chillicothe, Ohio, the first religious newspaper, of the matter and style of such publications now, published in the world. During all these years Dr. Allison has taken an active and leading part in the discussion of religious and ecclesiastical questions and of matters of public interest at home and abroad. "The Pittsburg Circular," which was the means of bringing about the reunion of the old and new school branches of the Presbyterian church, was suggested and written by him. In what is known as the "Briggs Controversy" he stood out prominently and successfully, always contending that the Bible is absolutely infallible, and for the interpretation given to it in the Confession of Faith, and for the latter as interpreted by the General Assembly. In the meantime the Presbyterian Banner has been one of the largest, most attractive, and most influential of the religious journals. In 1865 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church appointed its Committee on Freedmen for the evangelization and education of the negroes in the South, which has become the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen. Dr. Allison was a promoter of this enterprise from its beginning until his resignation in 1889; and for eighteen years he was its treasurer, serving without compensation, and travelling in its interests thousands of miles through the South, and speaking in its behalf before Presbyteries, Synods, and General Assemblies.

Dr. Allison resides in Sewickley, one of the most beautiful of the Pittsburg suburban towns. He has been married twice. His first wife, to whom he was married August 19, 1851, was Mary Anderson, daughter of one of the leading citizens of Allegheny County. She died October 31, 1853, leaving one daughter, Lizzie Taylor Allison, now the wife of Joseph W. Reinhart, a well-known railroad man, residing in Plainfield, N.J. His second wife is Caroline Snowden Allison, daughter of the Hon. John M. Snowden, a widely known and highly influential citizen of Pittsburg. He was married to her November 6, 1856. The only child of this marriage was a son, John M. Snowden, born August 19, 1859. A young man of rare promise, John M. graduated with honor from the Western University of Pennsylvania, entered the office of his father, and soon gave evidence of the possession of the highest order of newspaper ability. Previous to his death, December 27, 1887, he stood at the head of all the younger men connected with the religious press.


Biographical review: containing life sketches of leading citizens of Pittsburg and the vicinity, Pennsylvania. Boston: Biographical Review Pub. Co., 1897, Author: Anonymous.

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