Ernest A. Allinson Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 579-580

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.

	This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside
	a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at

	http://usgwarchives.org/sd/sdfiles.htm


ERNEST A. ALLINSON, a prosperous agriculturist of Antelope township, 
Spink county, South Dakota, engaged in mixed farming, is one of the 
rising young men of this section of the state, and his energy and 
business ability, supplemented by his honesty, have gained him as fine 
a farm as can be found in the county, and he is held in the highest 
esteem by the entire community. 

Our subject was born in Illinois in 1867. His grandfather on the 
paternal side was a Methodist divine, and the grandfather on the 
maternal side, bearing the name of Banta, was a stock buyer by 
occupation. The parents of our subject were natives of Illinois and 
Indiana respectively. He received a liberal education and after 
locating in Illinois engaged in farming for five or more years in Macon 
county, after which he purchased a drug business in Macon, disposing of 
his farm. He was successful in this business, but ill health demanded a 
change and he went to Dakota in 1882 and located in Spink county on the 
west half of section 3 in Antelope township. There were but two or 
three houses in sight at that time, and trails across the prairie were 
the only roads or guides. His first crop was on rented land and was 
hailed out, but the following year he raised a fair crop on his own 
land. In the fall of 1887 he rented out the land, sold his chattels, 
and personal effects and the family went to California, where the 
father engaged in the fruit business. The father died in California in 
November, 1897, and the family reside there at the present time aside 
from our subject. 

While residing in California our subject was engaged at clerking in a 
wholesale house, and in 1892 he returned to Dakota, teaching school 
during the winters of 1893-94, when he started farming, but taught two 
more winters to pay the expenses of running the farm. A failure of 
crops for the first two years did not deter him from going forward, and 
he is now successfully engaged in mixed farming, and is making a 
comfortable income from dairying and stock raising. He cultivates about 
three hundred and fifty acres, has a fine pasture, good well and 
windmill attached, about forty-five head of stock, and the property is 
well improved. 

Our subject was married in 1893 to Miss Mertie Hoy, a native of Ohio, 
and daughter of one of the early settlers of Dakota. Mrs. Allinson is a 
lady of excellent education, and for ten years previous to her marriage 
was a teacher in the public schools, teaching for nine successive years 
in one school. The family circle is completed by one son and one 
daughter. Earl and Jessie. 

Mr. Allinson is one of the public-spirited citizens of his county and 
takes an active interest in the matters of local import. He is at 
present township treasurer and was previously township clerk. He is the 
son of an ex-soldier, his father having served in the Civil war, as a 
member of the One Hundred and Fifteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. 
Mr. Allinson is a member of the Evangelical church.