Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 7).djvu/24

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6
ALLEN
AMBLEE


sembly relating to the practice of the courts, are valuable. In 1883 he received the degree of LL. D. from the New Brunswick university, and in 1889 he was made a knight bv the queen.


ALLEN, William Vincent, senator, b. in Jlidway, Madison eo., Ohio, 28 Jan., 1847. He removed with his family to Iowa, where he was educated in the common schools, and attended for a time the Upper Iowa university, but was not gra*iuated. lie served in the rebellion as a private, and during the last five months of the war as a member of the staff of Gen. James I. Gilbert. He was admitted to the bar in 1869, practising in Iowa and Nebraska, to which place he removed in 1884. Some years later Mr. Allen was elected judge of the ninth judicial district, and in 1893 he was president of the Nebraska Populist state convention. He succeeded Algernon Sidney Pollock as U. S. senator for the full term of six years.


ALLEYN, Charles, Canadian lawyer, b. in SIvrus Wood, County Cork, Ireland, in September, 1817; (b. in Quebec, 4 April, 1890. His father was a commander in the British navy. The son was educated at Pcrmoy school and Clongowes col- lege, and settled in Quebec in 1834. He studied law, and was called to the bar in 1840. He began early to identify himself with politics, and in 1854 he was elected mayor of Quebec, and a member of parliament. Three years later he was created a queen's counsel, and invited by Sir John A. Macdonald to enter the government of Canada as commissioner of public works. This otiice he held for a year, and on the reconstruction of the cabinet he was sworn in as provincial secretary. He ad- ministered the affairs of this department with ef- ficiency during a critical period. On the fall of the government he resigned with his colleagues, and though he sat in parliament until 1866 he did not again enter the ministry. In 1866 he was appointed sheriff of the district of Quebec. In 1883, on the reconstruction of the shrievalty, he was appointed, with fitienne Paquet, joint sheriff of the district. — His brother, Ricliard, Canadian jurist, b. at Trabolgan, County Cork, Ireland, in 1836; d. in St. Germain de Riraouski, Quebec, 16 Aug., 1883. He went to Canada at an early age, and was graduated in law at Laval university in 1856. In the following year he became a member of the bar of Lower Canada and entered into partnership with his brother Charles. For many years he was crown prosecutor at the court of queen's bench, and in 1873 he was made a queen s counsel. He early connected himself with the militia and volunteers, and in 1861, at the time of the "Trent" affair, he joined the active force. Two years afterward, as commander of the Victoria rifles, he was sent to the western frontier of Ontario, and he remained in that capacity until 1865. Soon after this he was promoted to the majority of the 8th royal rifles, and in due time he became colonel of the regiment, which post he continued to hold until he accepted a seat on the bench. He was chosen to the Quebec house of assembly in 1877, but in 1878. on the famous Letellier question, he was defeated, and in 1881 he was raised to the bench. He was granted the degree of LL. D. by Laval university, and named professor of criminal law in that college.


ALLINSON, David, publisher, b. in Woodbury, N. J., in 1774; d. in Burlington, N. J., in 1858. His father, Samuel Allinson, a prominent New Jersey lawyer and a member of the Society of Friends, compiled the as.seml)lv laws of that state from 1703 till 1776, a vaUiable'compilation, which is known as " Allinson 's Laws." The son was for many years a printer and publisher at Burlington, and edited several periodicals, among them the "Rural Visitor." He published many valualile legal, literary, and theological works, a small dictionary, and a large English and classical dictionary, which is regarded as valuable (1813). — His nephew, Samuel, reformer, b. in New York city, 24 Dec., 1808; d. near Yardville, N. J., 5 Dec., 1883, was educated at the Friends' boarding-school at Westtown, Chester co.. Pa., and established himself, at the age of twenty-one, on a farm near Yardville, where he continued to reside till his death. He was instrumental in founding the reform school for boys at Jamesburg and the industrial school for girls near Trenton. He was one of three commissioners that were apjMjinted in 1868 to consider better methods of discipline and government in the state prison, and was the author of the commutation law of New Jersey. He read a paper on "Discharged Prisoners" before the prison reform congress in 1873, and one on "Scholastic and Industrial Education in Reform Schools" at the meeting in 1876.


ALMON, William Johnson, Canadian senator, b. in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 27 Jan., 1816. He was the son of William Almon, M. D., a member of the legislative council of Nova Scotia, and grand.son of William James Almon, who was appointed assistant surgeon to the royal artillery in New York in June, 1776, and after serving till thecloseof the war settled as a surgeon in Halifax, Nova Strotia. The son was graduated at King's college, Windsor, in 1834, studied medicine at the universities of Edin- burgh and Glasgow, and in 1838 was graduated at the latter. In 1872 he waselectetl to the Dominion parliament for the county of Halifax, and he was called to the senate in 1879. He is a governor of King's college, Windsor, consulting physician to the Halifax hospital and dispensary, and surgeon of the Halifax field artillery. He is a Conservative, and in favor of strengthening the connection between Canada and the mother country.


ALTGELD, John Peter, lawyer, b. near Berlin, Germany, 30 Dec., 1847. He was brought to this country in childhood by his parents, who lived on a farm in Richland county, Ohio. After a limited elementary education he enlisted in the volunteer army in 1864, and afterward taught for several years. In 1869 he went to St. Louis, a great part of the way on foot, and later taught and studied law in northwestern Missouri, being admitted to the bar in 1872. In 1875 he removed to Chicago. where he built up a large practice. In 1884 he was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for congress. In 1886 he was chosen judge of the Cook county superior court, and in 1890 he became its chief justice. After serving as judge for five years he resigned, giving as his reason the necessity of devoting all his time to his private business. In 1892 he was nominated by the Democrats for governor, and during his canvass visited all parts of the state, seeking to meet voters personally as well as by holding public meetings. He was elected by a plurality of 23,000 over Joseph W. Fifer, his Republican predecessor. The most striking incident of his administration was his protest against the sending of federal troops to Chicago during the railway strikes (see Cleveland, Grover). In 1896 he was a candidate for re-election, but was defeated by his Republican opponent, John K. Tanner, by a plurality of more than 100,000.


AMBLER, James Markhani Marshall, surgeon, b. in Fauquier county, Va.. 30 Dec, 1848; d. in the Lena delta, Siberia, 31 Oct., 1881. He was educated at Washington and Lee university, Virginia, and at the medical college of the University