BIO: Hon. Hugh N. McALLISTER, Centre County, Pennsylvania

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Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: Including the 
Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion: Containing Biographical 
Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Etc. 
Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1898.
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD, pages 16-19

HON. HUGH N. McALLISTER, who was a distinguished citizen of Bellefonte, Centre 
county, and one of the most prominent lawyers of this part of the State, was the 
eldest son of Hon. William McAllister and Sarah (Thompson), and was born on the 
farm owned by his father 

H. McAllister [portrait]

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 17

and grandfather in Lost Creek Valley, Juniata Co, Penn., June 28, 1809.
  His great-grandfather emigrated from Ireland to Lancaster county, Penn., about 
the year 1730.  Major Hugh McAllister, grandfather of Hugh N., was born in 
Little Britain township, Lancaster county, in 1736.  He served in the Indian war 
of 1763, and also in the war of the Revolution.  At the close of the latter he 
retired to his farm in Lost Creek Valley, in Juniata county.  He married Sarah 
Nelson, and reared a large family.  A son, Hon. William McAllister, was born on 
the farm in Lost Creek Valley in August, 1774.  He married Sarah Thompson.  He 
served in the war of 1812, and was for a long time one of the associate judges 
of Juniata county.
  Hon. Hugh N. McAllister was reared on his father's farm, living at home and 
working on the farm during his minority, and receiving such elementary education 
as the neighborhood schools afforded.  He obtained the rudiments of the classics 
from Rev. John Hutchinson.  In 1830 he entered the freshman class at Jefferson 
College, Canonsburg, and stood so high before the end of the year as to be 
chosen by his society as one of its debators, which honor, however, his modesty 
and timidity induced him to decline.  He graduated, in 1833, high in a class in 
which were many more since distinguished in the Church and State.  As soon as he 
graduated Mr. McAllister commenced the study of law in the office of Hon. W. W. 
Potter, at Bellefonte.  After completing the ordinary course of studies pursued 
by students in an office, he attended a law school then conducted at Carlisle by 
Hon. John Reed, president judge of the district, and author of "Pennsylvania 
Blackstone."  On November 25, 1835, on motion of W. W. Potter, Mr. McAllister 
was admitted to practice in several courts of Centre county.  He was at once 
taken into full partnership by Mr. Potter, and the election of the latter to 
Congress soon after threw the whole labor and responsibility of an extensive law 
practice upon the younger partner.  As in every subsequent situation in life, 
Mr. McAllister brought so much ability, earnestness, zeal and indomitable 
perseverance to bear as to overcome all obstacles, and to successfully meet all 
responsibilities resting upon him.  The early death of Mr. Potter, while in 
Congress, left Mr. McAllister alone in the practice to compete with one of the 
ablest Bars in the State.  He remained without a partner until Gen. James A. 
Beaver was called to the Bar in 1859.  From that time the law practice was 
conducted under the firm name of McAllister & Beaver.  During the long 
professional career of nearly thirty-eight years he had an extensive, laborious 
and lucrative practice.  Up to the last eight or ten years of his life he 
regularly attended the courts of Clinton and Huntingdon counties, and, at times, 
courts of other counties.  As a counselor he was always discreet, careful and 
safe; as an attorney he was faithful, honest and industrious; as an advocate, he 
was earnest, zealous, and, at times, impressively eloquent.  He would embark in 
no man's cause unless thoroughly impressed with its justice, and then he 
battled, as only a man of his temperament could battle, for the right.  In the 
preparation of causes he was most thorough, and frequently performed an amount 
of labor which seemed beyond human endurance.  His arguments before the Supreme 
Court of the State, of which the books of reports are full, were always strong, 
clear and exhaustive.
  During the Civil war Mr. McAllister was one of the most earnest and zealous 
supporters of the Administration.  He was ever foremost in contributing means, 
and performing work to secure volunteers, and in supporting the families of 
those who were in the service.  He did more than any other one man to raise and 
organize the many companies which left Centre county, and finally, almost by his 
unaided exertions, raised a full company, of which he was elected captain, and 
upon its arrival at Camp Curtin, in Harrisburg, was assigned as Company F to the 
232d Regiment of Pennsylvania Militia, commanded by Col. George B. Weistling.  
Although far beyond the age when men are relieved from military duty, and being 
unfit by education, habits and the state of his health for the hardships of a 
campaign, he accepted the responsibility, went with his company to the field, 
and served faithfully until his place could be filled by a younger man.
  Mr. McAllister never held many public offices.  Gov. Bigler, when a vacancy 
occurred in the Fourth Judicial District, desired to appoint him to the 
presidency of the Common Pleas, and asked his friends to induce him to grant the 
use of his name, and Gov. Curtin twice formally offered him commissions as 
president judge, which he declined.
  After the close of the war, he was appointed by the Governor as one of the 
commissioners to investigate, settle and adjust the claims of citizens of the 
border counties, for losses sustained by the war.  This arduous and responsible 
duty he performed in a manner highly satisfactory to the State officials, as 
well as to the people immediately interested.  He was elected one of the 
delegates at large to the Constitutional Convention of 1873, and was appointed 
chairman of the im-

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 18

portant committee on "Suffrage Election and Representation," and a member of the 
committee on "Railroads and Canals."  He entered upon his work with the energy 
and zeal which ever characterized him.  Unfortunately he did not limit his labor 
by his physical capacity to endure it, but by his desire for the permanent good 
of his native State.  Toward the close of winter his strength gave way under 
incessant toil, and he was compelled by his physician to return home for rest.  
He remained at home four or five weeks, during which time he improved in 
strength.  Three weeks before his death, which occurred at Philadelphia, May 15, 
1873, and actuated by an intense desire to take part in the important 
discussions then going on in the convention, and being in improved health, he 
went back to Philadelphia, and at once engaged arduously in the labor of the 
convention.  He made several important speeches upon questions pending before 
that body.  He had over-estimated his strength, for his intense labor brought on 
disease, which in a few days terminated his earthly career.  Literally he 
offered himself a sacrifice upon the altar of his Commonwealth.  He sacrificed 
his life in his effort to protect the people from the corruptions of the times, 
and the evils of misgovernment.  Referring to him in this connection, his 
biographer said:  "The delegates at large, elected upon the ticket with him, 
will select a successor, but they cannot fill his place."
  As a citizen Mr. McAllister was always enterprising, public-spirited and 
patriotic.  He took the lead in every enterprise designed to promote the public 
good.  He labored hard and contributed liberally for all such purposes.  This he 
did not in a spirit of speculation to promote his own good, but to benefit the 
people.
  He was one of the projectors, the constant friend and liberal supporter of 
what is now the Pennsylvania State College.  He kept the Agricultural Society in 
existence for years almost unaided.  He was the friend and supporter of the 
common schools, academies and seminaries, as well as Sunday-schools.  For many 
years he was the recognized head of the organizations in the county for the 
promotion of temperance.  As a neighbor he was ever considerate, kind, obliging 
and liberal.  As a man he was just, upright and inflexibly honest.  He was not 
honest from policy, but from an innate love of right and an intense hatred of 
everything wrong.  As a husband and father, he was most kind, gentle and 
affectionate.  As a Christian, he was sincere, faithful and most exemplary.  For 
a long time he was not only a member but an elder in the Presbyterian Church of 
Bellefonte, and took an active part in the labors of the Sessions, Presbyteries, 
Synods and General Assemblies.  It would take a volume to contain an enumeration 
of his virtues and his labors, and in this brief notice we will attempt no 
further to detail what all who had the benefit of his acquaintance knew so well.  
He was a man of no vices, and as few of the imperfections incident to human 
nature as is ever found in our race.
  Mr. McAllister was twice married-first to Henrietta Ashman Orbison, of 
Huntingdon, by whom he had seven children, four of whom died in infancy, and 
one, Ellen E., a lovely daughter, died in 1866 at the age of twenty.  Two 
daughters, Mary A., the wife of Gen. James A. Beaver, and Sarah B., wife of Dr. 
Thomas R. Hays, both of Bellefonte, survived their father.  The first Mrs. 
McAllister died April 12, 1857, and on September 12, 1859, Mr. McAllister 
married Margaret Hamilton, of Harrisburg, who died April 27, 1876, aged fifty-
three years.  She was the daughter of Hugh Hamilton, an editor of note, and 
granddaughter of Capt. John Hamilton, under whom her husband's grandfather 
served in the Revolution.
  On the death of Mr. McAllister the Constitutional Convention passed 
appropriate resolutions, and, out of respect for his memory and great public 
services, adjourned.  Extracts from these and from addresses delivered in the 
Convention, together with those from a similar meeting of the members of the Bar 
of Huntingdon, Clearfield, Clinton and Centre counties held in the courthouse at 
his home in Bellefonte, follow:
  "Resolved:  That his death deprives the convention of one of its most 
enlightened and industrious members, the Commonwealth of one of her most public-
spirited and useful citizens, the community in which he lived of a man whose 
indomitable energy, inflexible integrity and spotless moral character attracted 
to him the confidence and affection of all who knew him, and his family of a 
kind and devoted husband and father.
  "But in no other work of his life did the great characteristics of H. N. 
McAllister appear to so much advantage as in the discharge of his Christian 
duties.  As an elder in the Presbyterian Church, representing his congregation 
in Presbytery, he was uniformly in the lead of the clergy in everything with 
which it was proper for him to deal; he was full of suggestion, of work and 
devotion; so he appeared in the Synod, in the General Assembly, and so also at 
the great meeting that united the old and new school of the Presbyterian Church.  
Becoming chairman of the sustension committee of the Presbytery of Huntingdon, 
he found opened before him a field for unselfish labor and charity commensurate, 
and only commensurate, with his enlarged desire to carry forward the work of the 
Lord.  The clergy of his denomination throughout the State bear willing 
testimony to the wisdom and high ability he displayed in the management of that 
work.  He had unequaled ability to induce others to give up their means to the 
work of the Church, and he possessed in an eminent degree the disposition to 
give abundantly himself.  I shall excite criticism from no one in this section 
when I say that the private charities he has bestowed 

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 19

upon the needy, in number and in the aggregate sum, far exceed those of any 
other man in the interior of the State.  What a character!  Always excitable, at 
times passionate, imperious and relentless, and yet generous, benevolent, 
compassionate and affectionate.  As neighbor, husband and father, I believe his 
life was faultless.-MR. BIGLER.
  "It was in the spring of 1841-thirty-two years ago-that I was sent to preside 
in the courts of the Fourth Judicial District of Pennsylvania, consisting then 
of the counties of Mifflin, Huntingdon, Centre, Clearfield and Clinton, and 
there I first met Mr. McAllister.  He resided at Bellefonte, Centre county, but 
was growing into a large and lucrative practice in several counties of the 
district.  For ten years he practiced law before me with great ability and 
success.  I have never seen so laborious and painstaking a lawyer.  His great 
forte lay in the preparation of his causes.  He never came into court 
unfurnished with evidence, if evidence could, with any amount of research and 
industry, be obtained to establish the facts of the case.  Many ejectments upon 
original titles were tried in those ten years, and I have known Mr. McAllister 
to vie fifty or sixty warrants and surveys in evidence, to fix the location of 
the one tract in suit.  He would sweep over a whole district of country and 
examine surveyors as to every mark in miles of lines to verify the conclusions 
he wished to establish in the cause upon trial.  In all lawsuits, but especially 
in ejectments upon original titles, the law arises upon the facts in evidence, 
and he is the most philosophical and successful lawyer who arranges his facts 
most fully, and places them before the court and jury in that orderly sequence 
which is most natural and logical.  Perhaps I have known lawyers of more subtle 
reasoning faculties than Mr. McAllister possessed, but I never knew one who 
could prepare a cause so well."-HON. G. W. WOODWARD.
  "Resolved:  That we have learned with feelings of profound sorrow of the death 
of Hon. H. N. McAllister, who for a period of nearly forty years stood in the 
front rank of the legal profession, not only in this and the neighboring 
districts, but who, by his learning, his industry and integrity, has acquired 
throughout the entire State a high and enviable reputation as a lawyer of 
eminent ability; and who, by his liberality, his enterprising spirit, his 
devoted patriotism, his steady and earnest desire to be foremost in every good 
work, whether pertaining to religion, morality, education or patriotism, by his 
open-hearted benevolence and his unswerving devotion to duty, and to the 
advancement and promotion of whatever he regarded as right, has won the 
unbounded esteem, admiration and confidence of the entire community; and who, by 
reason of intense anxiety to perform his whole duty as a member of the 
Constitutional Convention regardless of the decline of his physical strength, 
fell at his post a martyr to that high sense of duty which has been the guiding 
star of his life.
  "One by one they have gone.  And now another is added to this list of the 
dead, and our memories are charged with sorrow at the departure of one more 
bright and shining light of this Bar.  More than all that-more than an 
admiration of the legal learning, or the strifes and antagonisms which follow 
the professional life, we hold in our memories their character as citizens of 
the community, and we measure to them our gratitude by the good they did during 
their lives.
  "I know full well that Mr. McAllister never had those attractive, magnetic 
qualities which make a man what is termed popular.  He never did; it was not in 
his nature to condescend to the arts by which men too often attain to high 
official position, of who become popular in the political acceptation of the 
term; and yet I doubt much whether we could have stood at the grave of one 
citizen of Centre county who would be so universally mourned and whose loss 
would be more severely felt.  It is not the Bar alone that sustains this loss.  
The society in which the man moved; the people to whom he gave an example of 
integrity and virtue; the community which surrounded him, has received a wound 
that is bleeding to-day, and throughout all this region of Pennsylvania there 
will be sincere mourning, because a useful citizen and a good man has died."-EX-
GOVERNOR ANDREW G. CURTIN, Chairman of the Committee of the Constitutional 
Convention.