Political And War Record

The following data is extracted from Allin Township, McLean County, Illinois.

Unlike the greater portion of McLean County, Allin is Democratic. In all State and national questions, it turns out strongly for the old party which it has honored with its suffrage for so many years. In township elections, the dominant party is generally remembered, although the returns do not always show strict party tendencies.

Further than a general scare, we hear of no harm from the Indian war of 1832. If there were persons who enlisted in the companies sent out from this county, we were not fortunate enough to learn their names. They rest in their unknown graves, with hone to cherish their deeds of valor.

Allen Palmer and Joseph Bozarth were in the Mexican war. These were all, we suppose, that were among the few whom the Government accepted to fight its battles ; for it will be remembered that of the 8,370 men who offered themselves from the State of Illinois, only 3,720 could be accepted.

During the war of the rebellion, Allin furnished its share of men for the defense of the Union. We learned the names of the following who gave their lives to the cause : Austin Bond died from the effects of the measles ; James Gourley, John Brooks and Josiah Bozarth died while in the United States service ; William Ryan volunteered and was captured and paroled, when he returned home. Afterward he went again as a teamster, and was kicked to death by a rebellious mule. If any fell in battle we know them not. To meet an enemy on the field of battle, and there to be shot down like a beast, is hard, regardless of all the glory that is attached to heroic deeds; but to languish on beds of disease, in foreign lands, and there to sicken and die, where no sympathetic hand of mother or sister or brother or wife can press the aching brow, is far worse.

Source: Allin Township, McLean County, Illinois

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