My Genealogy Hound

Joseph R. Allison, one of the leading citizens of Polk County, residing in Jefferson Township, was born in Todd County, Ky., February 15, 1834, and is a son of Abraham and Sarah (Wagster) Allison, who were born in Virginia and North Carolina, and died in Christian County, Ky., in 1863, when about sixty-eight, and in 1868, at the age of seventy, respectively. They were married in West Tennessee, whither they had both gone with their parents in childhood, and afterward located in Todd County, Ky., and later in Christian County. The father was a blacksmith and farmer, and as such was very successful. He was a Democrat politically, and he and wife were members of the Missionary Baptist Church. Joseph R. Allison is one of four surviving members of a family of ten children born to his parents, and when a young man learned the cabinet-maker’s trade, and also carpentering. He began working for himself in Fairview, Ky., and formed a partnership with Fidel Eggel, which lasted eighteen months, and in April, 1857, moved to Missouri, and located in Polk County, on the farm on which he is now living, and after working at the carpenter’s trade for some time, turned his attention to farming and stock-raising exclusively. When starting out in life for himself, it was without means; but, with a good constitution and a determination to succeed, he has been more than ordinarily successful. His first purchase of land was forty acres, and he now owns 362 acres located on Twenty-five Mile Prairie. In 1860 he was elected justice of the peace of Jefferson Township, and served twelve years, with the exception of the time he was in the State Militia, and in his political views has always been a Republican. January 29, 1857, he was married to Miss Tempy Mariam Johnson, a daughter of James Johnson. She was born in Muhlenberg County, Ky., April 10, 1838, and is the mother of two children: James W. A., practicing physician at Rondo, Mo.; and John M., who is also a physician and practices at Lawrenceburg, Mo.; both being graduates of the American Medical College, of St. Louis. Mr. and Mrs. Allison are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and he is clerk and elder in the same. He belongs to the I. O. O. F., and for about ten years held the position of postmaster at Rondo.