Oscar O. Allison Biography Hancock County, WV ********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ********************************************************************** Submitted by Valerie F. Crook The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 244-245 Hancock County OSCAR O. ALLISON. The really valuable men of any com- munity are not necessarily those whom fate has placed in commanding political positions where they compel ap- plause from their associates and the admiration and support of their constituents, but rather the men who rise steadily through sheer merit to governing places among commercial and financial enterprises where their abilities are directed toward the control or finances and the creation of better conditions for the working majority. Such men are not to he found everywhere. The requirements of the positions they fill and the weight of the responsibilities they volun- tarily assume are of such a nature as to bar out all but the chosen minority who have proven themselves. When such an individual has shown his worth, his value to the com- munity cannot be overestimated. Judged by these standards one of the valuable men of Chester is Oscar O. Allison, cashier of the First National Bank of Chester and secre- tary-treasurer of the Hancock County Building and Loan Company. Mr. Allison was born at Chester, March 31, 1872, a son of Samuel and Eliza (Finley) Allison, natives of the same community. Samuel Allison was born in 1837 and died May 5, 1907, in his seventy-first year, while Mrs. Allison was born December 3, 1840, and died March 17, 1910, on the anniversary of her wedding day. She and her husband had enjoyed fifty years of happy wedded life. Samuel Alli- son was a son of Charles Allison, whose father, Jonathan Allison, died in his ninety-sixth year, the latter's father, Datty Allison, being buried on his 100th birthday. Charles Allison was eighty-six years of age at the time of his demise, so it will be seen that this is a family somewhat noted for its longevity. Samuel Allison lived at the old home two miles south of Chester, at the head of Cunningham's Run or Creek. He followed farming for a long period and won success through industry and good management, so that he was able to retire in the evening of life, and tor some years lived comfortably in his pleasant home at Chester. He was a man of popularity and influence in his community, and on two occasions was the democratic can- didate for the office of sheriff, and on one occasion met defeat by but seven votes, although in a strong republican county. He and his wife were the parents of the follow- ing children: Charles F.; Sarah Jane, the widow of John L. Bernard, of Chester; Ida Mary, the wife of A. J. Glass, a retired farmer of Chester; Oscar O.; and Olive E., who was active in the First Presbyterian Church at East Liverpool, Ohio, and died in young womanhood. Charles F. Allison, brother of Oscar O. Allison, was bora on the old home farm in Hancock County, and died in March, 1921. He remained on the home farm until 1900, at which time he was elected sheriff of Hancock County, the only member of his party to be accorded that honor in forty years. During President Wilson's administration he served in the capacity of deputy United States marshal- Prior to 1900 he had made a special appraisement of real estate in Hancock County. During the last years of his life he was connected with the jewelry business. Mr. Allison was one of the incorporators and a member of the board of directors of the First National Bank of Chester. He was an elder of the Presbyterian Church at New Cumber- land. His widow, who bore the maiden name of Sally Cameron, survives him as a resident of Chester. Oscar O. Allison received his education in the country, attending the Washington Schoolhouse, which was situated on a corner of the home farm. On first coming to Chester he became interested in a general store business, with which he was identified for five years, the firm finally becoming Allison & Hobbs. Mr. Allison disposed of his interests in this enterprise to become one of the five incorporators of the First National Bank of Chester, of which be was the first cashier, a position which he still retains. A history of this institution will be found on another page of this work, as will also a review of the Hancock County Building and Loan Company, of which Mr. Allison is secretary-treasurer. He is a director in the Bucher-Smith Company, one of Chester's important industries, and in former years was a member of the board publishing the Tribune of East Liverpool, Ohio. He is a charter member of the Chamber of Commerce of East Liverpool and a director of the Kiwanis Club of that city. An adherent of progress and advancement, he has been a helpful and constructive supporter of all worthy civic, educational and religious movements. As a young man Mr. Allison joined the Presbyterian Church at Fairview (now Pughtown), and was a trustee thereof until coming to Chester, where he became one of the organizers of the church at Chester, of which he has been an elder since its inception. He has also served as clerk of the session and as delegate to the Presbytery. He has likewise been prominent in political matters, and as a stanch and uncompromising democrat has been a delegate to several congressional conventions and was formerly a member of the Democratic Executive Committee. Mr. Allison has an unique distinction as a fraternalist, having been the first member initiated in any fraternal order at Chester, where, October 4, 1890, he was accepted into the Junior Order United American Mechanics. He presided over this lodge during the first year, and for twenty years has filled one or another of its offices, in addition to having passed all the state chairs. He was made an Odd Fellow aa a charter member of New Cumberland Lodge, and was the first noble grand of Pride of Chester Lodge No. 245, being twice delegate to the Grand Lodge. He became a charter member of Chester Lodge No. 142, A. F. and A. M., of which he was made treasurer at the time of organization, an office which he still retains. In October, 1921, he was crowned inspector general of the thirty-third degree in the House of the Temple at Washington, D. C., and is the only thirty-third degree Mason in West Virginia north of Wheel- ing, there not being one even at East Liverpool. His mem- bership is as a thirty-second -degree Mason in the Con- sistory at Wheeling. Since 1910 he has been a Knight Templar in the Commandery at Wheeling, belongs to Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and on two occasions has been a representative to the Imperial Council, in 1918 at Atlantic City, and in 1920 at Portland, Oregon, and attended both. Mr. Allison is a member of the board of directors of the Scottish Rite Educational Association of West Virginia, president of the Scottish Rite Club of Chester, treasurer of the Shrine Club of Chester, a member of the Masonic clubs of Wheeling and East Liverpool and a member of the board of directors of the Masonic Temple Company of Chester, and he and Mrs. Allison are charter members of Chester Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star. Mr. Allison is greatly interested in tennis, baseball and all forms of whole- some athletics and recreations. Mr. Allison married Miss Anna Baxter, a daughter of Absalom Baxter, a farmer of this locality. She was edu- cated in the normal school at West Liberty, and prior to her marriage was a successful and popular teacher in the public schools. To this union there have been born two daughters and two sons: Eunice M., a graduate of Wilson College, Chambersburg, and principal of Newell High School, who la active in the work of the Presbyterian Church; Helen R., a graduate of the Pennsylvania College for Women at Pittsburgh, class of 1922; and Ralph B. and Howard R.., both deceased.