Butte County
Biographies
JOHN L. ALLISON
JOHN L. ALLISON.--Descended from a pioneer family of Kentucky, John
L. Allison, Chico, was born at Paradise, Coles County, Ill., January
28, 1848. His father, also named John L. Allison, was born Louisville, Ky., and
was the son of Dr. William Allison, also a native of the Blue Grass State and a
graduate physician and a pioneer practitioner of that state. He moved to Coles
County, Ill., in early days and farmed and practiced medicine there until his
death. J. L. Allison, Sr., was general land agent for the Illinois Central
Railway, with headquarters at Mattoon. He was one of the original locators of
one half of that city, James Cunningham having laid out the east half. In 1864,
Mr. Allison leased a cotton plantation thirty miles below Vicksburg and went
down there to start operations. He carried about $50,000 in currency on his
person and had some sixty head of mules and horses on the place. The provisions
were shipped to him by boat, but the first boatload was sunk and his partner,
Thomas A. Apperson, went to negotiate for another
supply. At that time the land was infested with guerrillas, and before the
return of Mr. Apperson, they had visited the
plantation and killed Mr. Allison and run off his stock. Mr. Allison’s wife was
Jerusha Hanson, in maidenhood, and she was born in
Illinois, a daughter of the late George M. Hanson, a California pioneer. He was
likewise an early settler in Illinois and erected and started in operation a number
of sawmills on the Sangamon River. He was a personal friend of President
Lincoln when he was a lawyer at Springfield. In 1849 Mr. Hanson and several
members of his family came across the plains, and
after their arrival he and two his sons went to the mines for a time. They
later returned to Marysville and he and a son, William
P., built the first toll bridge across the Feather River between Marysville and
Yuba City. This cost over thirty thousand dollars, and it was washed away by
the high water, causing a total loss to the originators. Mr. Hanson
erected the first large house in Yuba City, the lumber having been brought
around the Horn. That house is still standing and is still occupied as a
residence. He was one of the pioneer settlers in Lake County, being piloted in
there by Indian guides. Grizzly Gulch was named by him from the fact that on
his trip over the mountains he killed a large grizzly at that place. He became
one of the most prominent pioneers of Northern California and spent his last days
in Lake County. Only one of his children is now living, Hon. D. M. Hanson, of
Vallejo. Mrs. Allison, the youngest child of the family, died in Illinois,
leaving one daughter and a son.
John L. Allison, of this review, was a
babe of but three months of age when his mother died. He was reared on the home
farm near Mattoon and attended the pioneer schools of that period. He was but
sixteen when his father was killed, and from that time on his education was
obtained in the stern school of experience. He left school and entered upon
newspaper work as “devil” in the office of the Mattoon Gazette. After he had
learned the trade he worked on the Mattoon Journal as a compositor until 1873,
when he went to Kansas, and while there worked on the Emporia Republican, and
later on the Topeka Capital.
It was about this time, in 1875, and Mr.
Allison was married at Wakarusa, to Miss Emma Tice, a native of Pennsylvania,
who had come to Kansas with her parents in the early fifties. Her father, Capt.
Perry Tice, served as a captain of the state militia, and he also served in the
state legislature of Kansas. After his marriage, Mr. Allison returned to
Illinois and for one year was with the Mattoon Journal. In 1876 he went to
Neoga, Ill., and established the Neoga News and managed its destinies for two
years, then sold it to T. R. Hancock, who died there leaving a widow
who is still the guiding star of the Neoga News. After selling out, Mr. Allison
returned to Mattoon and for eight years was employed by the Mattoon Mining
Company as superintendent of machinery. When he resigned from that position it
was to go to Osage County, Kans., where for seven years he was engaged in the
real estate business in that bustling locality. He was meeting with good
success, but unfortunately had gone on several notes with friends, who left him
to pay the indebtedness, some thirty thousand dollars. This broke him, as it
was about the time of the panic prior to 1888.
In that year Mr. Allison decided he would
come to California to get a new start. Accordingly, with his wife and family,
he left the East and on his arrival here went to Lake County to visit with
relatives and to get the lay of the land in the state. His intention was to
start in at San Francisco, but through the advice of his uncle, D. M. Hanson,
he bought the Clear Lake Press, at Lower Lake, from W. H. Adamson. Six months
later, Mr. Cook, editor and owner of the Lakeport Democrat, died suddenly, and
as soon as the news reached Mr. Allison he packed up his printing outfit and
loaded it on three freight wagons and the next morning at 10:30 he was in
Lakeport. He established his paper by its original name and at once success
began to crown his efforts. For two years he was located in the Lakeview Hotel
building, then moved to the location where the Clear
Lake Press is still housed. He devoted his entire time to building up his
paper, always publishing it in the interest of the county development; he also
built up a good job-printing business and for five years was sole owner. He
then sold a half interest to McIntire and Mayfield, and six months later sold
his entire interest and moved to a ranch in Long Valley and began to raise
cattle and hogs. While he was thus employed the coyotes killed over eight
hundred head of shoats. Becoming discouraged, in February, 1898, he sold his
stock and located in Colusa, where he purchased the Colusa Transcript, changed
the name to the Colusa Herald, ran it as a weekly for eighteen months and then
changed it to a morning daily, with strong Republican tendencies. In 1905 he
sold out to C. D. McComish and in January, the
following year located in Chico.
Soon after his arrival here Mr. Allison
purchased a lot and erected his residence at the corner of Second Avenue and
Linden Street, and the following year opened a job-printing office on Broadway,
between Fourth and Fifth Streets. Soon he merged it into the Commercial Review,
a weekly devoted to the best interests of Chico and championing the cause of
temperance. His job business grew to such proportions that he suspended the
publishing of the paper. He later moved his job office to Third and Wall
Streets and there started the Chico Advertiser, issuing the paper every
Saturday and distributing over three thousand copies throughout the county and
adjacent territory, free. In 1912, he built a building at the corner of Eighth
and Oleander Streets, Chico Vecino, and installed one
of the most up-to-date job offices in the county. While he was publishing the
Advertiser, he published General Bidwell’s
“Reminiscences” in serial form, and later published fifteen hundred copies in
pamphlet form entitled “Echoes of the Past,” which sold for twenty-five cents
each. In 1913, Mr. Allison sold out his establishment and business. Two years
later he started another job and advertising office and has met with good
success. However, on December 5, 1916, his residence and contents
were destroyed by fire with a loss of thirty-six hundred dollars above the insurance.
He lost many valuable keepsakes, for he had gathered a large collection during
his many years in California. Nothing daunted, however, he at once rebuilt a
residence, bungalow style.
Mr. and Mrs. Allison became the parents of
eleven children: Perry, foreman on the Santa Rosa Republican; Mary, Mrs.
Charles Schuckman, of Williams; Sadie, a dressmaker
in San Francisco; Beulah, Mrs. Ed Evans, of Williams; Susan, employed in a
printing office in San Francisco; Latie, a printer in
the job department of the Chico Enterprise; Irena, a graduate from the Chico
State Normal School, who married Henry Bruce, now a sergeant in the United
States Army stationed at Camp Kearny; John L., Jr., a printer by trade, but now
in the employ of Minderman Grocery; Agnes, a graduate
of the Chico State Normal School and formerly a teacher, who is now Mrs. Herd
of Oroville; Fay, Mrs. William Palmer, of Reno, Nev.; and Dorothy, Mrs. H. P. Galarneaux, of Chico. This family has lived for over
forty-five years without a death to mar the happiness of its members, and for
twenty years all gathered together on Christmas day. Mr. and Mrs. Allison are
members of the Christian Church. In politics he is a Republican. In 1917, after
an absence of thirty-three years, Mr. Allison made a trip to Mattoon, Ill., and
found only three or four landmarks that carried him back to the pioneer days
when he began newspaper work. There are but few men now living in Northern
California who have had a longer record in the newspaper world than Mr.
Allison, who is one of the best known men in this section of the state.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
11 May 2008.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages
905-908, Historic Record
Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies