Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/39

 to the close of the war. He was in all of the marches and battles of this regiment and the last few months was on the staff of General James I. Gilbert. At the close of the war, Mr. Allen read law with L. L. Ainsworth at West Union, was admitted to the bar in 1869 and at once entered upon the practice of his profession. In 1884 he removed to Madison, Nebraska, and in 1891 was nominated by the Populist party for judge of the Ninth Judicial District and elected. In February, 1893, he was elected by a union of the Populists and Democrats to a seat in the United States Senate. As a judge he had acquired a State-wide reputation and in the Senate he soon attained high rank in debate and was the acknowledged leader of his party in Congress. He served six years in the Senate, and upon the expiration of his term was appointed judge of his old district where he served until December 13, when he was appointed United States Senator to fill the term of Senator Hayward whose death had caused a vacancy. Mr. Allen has served as chairman of four State Conventions of his party in Nebraska and was president of the National Convention at St. Louis in 1896. WILLIAM B. ALLISON was born in Wayne County, Ohio, March 2, 1829. He worked on his father's farm summers and attended school winters until the age of sixteen when he entered the Academy at Wooster. Later he spent a year in Meadville College and one at Western Reserve College at Hudson, Ohio. He then studied law and in 1852 was admitted to the bar of Wayne County and began practice in Ashland. In April, 1857, he came to Iowa, locating at Dubuque, and two years later was a delegate to the Republican State Convention which nominated Samuel J. Kirkwood for Governor. In 1860 he was a delegate to the National Republican Convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln for President, acting as one of the secretaries. When the War of the Rebellion began, Mr. Allison was appointed a member of Governor Kirkwood's staff to assist in organizing the volunteer service. In 1862 he was elected to Congress in the Third District and was three times reflected, serving until 1871. In 1865 he became a member of the committee of ways and means and entered upon a career which eventually made him authority on financial legislation. In 1870 he was a prominent candidate for United States Senator but was not successful. In 1872 he was again a candidate, was nominated over Senator Harlan and elected, taking his seat in the Senate March 4, 1873. Mr. Allison was appointed on the committee on appropriations of which he became chairman in 1881. He was chairman of the committee on Indian affairs from 1875 to 1881, and chairman of the joint committee of investigation of the affairs of the District of Columbia, in which capacity he wrote a report which was embodied in a bill that has since constituted the municipal government. He has been a member of the Senate finance committee since 1877 and was largely instrumental