ALLEN, William, Congress, OH (1803-1879)

Senate Years of Service: 1837-1849
Party: Democrat

ALLEN, William, a Representative and a Senator from Ohio; born in Edenton, Chowan County, N.C., December 18 or December 27, 1803; moved to Lynchburg, Va., and attended private schools; moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1819; attended Chillicothe Academy; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1827 and commenced practice in Chillicothe; elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-third Congress; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1834 to the Twenty-fourth Congress; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in January 1837; reelected in 1843, and served from March 4, 1837, to March 3, 1849; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1849; chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations (Twenty-ninth Congress); retired to his estate, “Fruit Hill,” near Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio, and engaged in farming and stock raising; Governor of Ohio 1874-1876; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1875; resumed agricultural pursuits; died at “Fruit Hill,” July 11, 1879; interment in Grand View Cemetery, Chillicothe, Ohio.

Bibliography American National Biography ; Dictionary of American Biography ; McGrane, Reginald C. William Allen: A Study in Western Democracy. Columbus: Ohio State Archeological and Historical Society, 1925.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present