The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-07-11
WILLIAM ALLEN.
His Sudden Death This Morn
ing at Fruit Hill.


Special to the Star.
CmLLIcoTHE, O., July 11.-Hon. William
Allen, Ex-Governor of Ohio, died suddenly
this morning at his residence, Fruit Hill,
near this place.
Gov. Allen has been in rather poor health
tor some time, but no serious danger was
apprehended till few hours previous to
his death.
No serious apprehension was felt, and the
news of his death this morning created
great surprise and the most profound sor.
row. He died of a complication of diseases
incident to advanced age. No announce.
ment of the time of the funeral has yet
been made.
William Allen was born at Lyncbburg,
Va, in 1906 and there lived, receiving o
half school education, until his sixteenth
year, when he tramped it across the noun
tains with Kentucky drover to Chilli
cothe, O., where he then had half sister
and brother-in-law living. He was heart
lily welcomed to her Western home by his
sister and her husband, the parents of Hon.
Allen G. Thurman, the present Senator
from Ohio. He received two years in.
struction in the Chillicothe Academy, and
commenced the study of law in the office
OF Judge Scott, which he soon left, how
ever, for that of Colonel King, son of Rufus
King of New York.
When not quite twenty-one he was ad-
mitted to the bar of the Supreme Court,
then sitting at Portsmouth, o., and it is
said that during his examination one of
the Judges, a bluff old lawyer of a school
now fast dying out, exclaimed "Oh, h!
that fellow can take care of himself; let's
go an liquor!' The proposition was agreed
to. William Allen was announced as a
member of the Ohio Bar, and so ended this
examination of the olden time.
He entered into partnership with Col.
King, and speedily rose to prominence at
the bar.
Allen entered political life while vet a
young man by becoming the Democratic
candidate for Congress in opposition to
Dick Douglass, Whig, and W. K. Bond, q
Wing bolter.
He was even then famed for his oratory
and carried his district by majority of one
vote, the usual Whig majority ex'
ceeding 1,50O votes. At the expiration ol
his term he was again candidate but was
defeated by majority of 200. Two years
later Allen was elected to the United States
Senate, where he served two consecutive
terms. In 1913 he was rendered the nomi
nation to the Presidency on the Demo
cratic ticket, but peremptorily declined it
His wife, to whom he was fondly at
tached, died toward the end of his second
term in the Senate. He mourned her with
all the depth and sincerity Of his strong
earnest nature, and was so shaken by hel
loss that his interest in politics for long
time abated. At the expiration of his term
he returned to his home, near Chillcothe and
did not again accept Office until he was
elected Governor of Ohio in 1873. Since
then Governor Allen has repeatedly de
clined public honors, and only few
months since, when asked why he refused
to re-enter public life, he replied
because | am one of the few old men
who, unlike Harry Clay, know when have
reached my highest point, when it is time
for me to give up the power which am nc
longer strong enough to- use for the good OF
the people"