Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1890 — AN OFFICIAL FAMILY. [ARTICLE]

AN OFFICIAL FAMILY.

Its Members Have Held Offices for a Hundred Years. A Harrodsburg (Ky.) correspondent >f the Louisville Courier-Journal says: The Allin family of this place, of whioh >ur venerable County Clerk Bod Allin s the head, have a history that for ofloers and office-holders is without t parallel in the state, and perhaps in •he United States, In September, 1786, at the first oourt )ver held in Mercer county, Thomas Allin, Sr., father of Ben C., the subject of this article, held the office of both county and circuit clerk until 1830, a period of foriy-feer- years.' Ho was succeeded by his son, Thomas Allin, Jr., a brother of Ben C. Thomas Allio, Jr., held the office (both county and circuit) until 1866, a period of thirty-six years, and in 1849 Uncle Ben took one of the offices from him. He was succeeded in turn by Ben CL, our present county olerk, who had been circuit clerk from 1849 to 1862. ’Squire Richard Bonsel was then elected to the circuit court clerKship. and held the offloe until 1884, when he was deteated by Bush W. Allin, son of Ben C., who is the present Circuit clerk. Ben C. was ousted from the County court’s officer during the war- -fov-.'-,- ~a~- --. period. .ofyears, during which time the office was held by Dr. C. S. Abell. This period is the only! time slnoe this has been a-edunty .that one or both offices have not been in the Allin family, and in 1866 Ben C., the

present clerk, was re-elected oounty clerk and has held it uninterruptedly every since, a period of nearly fortyone years. Barring the period of four years during the war the office of oounty clerk will have been in this family 105 years next September, and theCircuit court clerkship in the family for eighty years. Nor is this all. ■ .... , _ ' 1 . I' ■ - Uncle Ben had a brother Jack whe was clerk of Huntsville Mo., who held theoffice for a number of years, and he in turn was succeeded by two sons, who held the offiop for a long while, and still another nephew, Thomas H-, was clerk of Kirtsville, Mo., for three terms. Phil Allin a sop of Uncle Ben, is circuit clerk of Claib.orne, Tex., and has been for three tern* of two years each. Another son William 8., ol this place, was county attorny for twelve years, and I doubt if there is a a man in the country who could beat him now if he offered for the place. One of the most remarkable features ol Uncle Ben’s office-holding is yet to come. At the last, primary there were 1,707 votes cast, of which he got 1,706, Uncle Ben refusing to vote for himself. He is the only man who ever run for office in the country who got the entire vote cast. He is in his 82d year, and enjoys good health and attends to the duties of the offioe with that regularity that he did thirty years ago. In 1878 he got his second sight, and he now sees as well us he did when he was a youth. It is proposed that next September Mercer celebrate the centennial election of the first of the Allins in a way to make the old man’s heart prouder than it was last election day. when he got every vote cast but his own. Uncle Ben’s actual term of office does not include all his time spent in the office. He acted as deputy to boti his father and brother. When this time is considered he has been in on« or the other of the offices for over six-ty-five years.