- PETER ALLER (deceased) at one time superintendent of the
Rock County Insane Asylum and
- Poor Farm and one of the most widely known and influential
citizens of Janesville, Rock County, was largely instrumental
in the development and improvements of the material resources
of that locality.
- Mr. ALLER was born in Hunterdon County, N.J., March 18, 1817,
a son of William and Mary
- (DAIRYMPLE) ALLER, also natives of New Jersey. William ALLER
was a son of Peter ALLER, also a native of New Jersey, of German
descent, who was a lieutenant in the war of the Revolution, and
migrated to Pennsylvania, where he died at the age of eighty-six.
He was married twice, and had seventeen children. The maternal
grandfather of our subject, Jesse DAIRYMPLE, was also in the
Revolutionary war, and a native of New Jersey. The founder of
this family in America was born in Wales and immigrated to this
country. He had eight children, and died at the age of eighty-five
or eighty-six.
- William ALLER, who was a carpenter, moved to Pennsylvania,
and settled in Bedford County,
- where he resided a number of years. In 1840 he came to the
Territory of Wisconsin, and settled in Union township, Rock County,
where he took up eighty-acres of government land and greatly
improved same. He died at the age of eighty-six. Mrs. William
ALLER died several years before her husband, aged eighty. Both
of these good people were Baptists in religious faith, and were
highly esteemed for their admirable qualities. To them were born
five sons and three daughters, of whom but one is now living,
William, of Utah.
- Peter ALLER was only one year old when his parents removed
to Bedford County, Penn., and
- he grew to manhood on the farm there, attending the district
school, and learning the trade of stone and brick mason, which
he followed many years. In 1840 he came to Rock County, Wis.,
and took up 160 acres of government land, in Union township,
which he improved. There he lived until 1870, when he removed
to Evansville, and was in the drug business for a few years.
For nearly fourteen years Mr. ALLER was superintendent of the
Rock County Insane Asylum and Poor Farm, which was first located
in Johnstown township, but in 1894, the buildings being old,
the county erected new ones in Janesville township, about three
miles north of the city of Janesville, where the poor farm of
383 acres is also situated. The county buildings are very substantial
and well built, and the asylum is a quarter of a mile in circumference.
It now has about 145 inmates with a capacity of 160; while the
poor house inmates range in number from fifty to sixty.
- On March 28, 1841, Peter ALLER was married to Miss Eleanor
TEMPLE, daughter of
- Ebenezer and Hannah (STABARD) TEMPLE, and of the five children
born to them, two sons and three daughters, only one survives,
Hannah, wife of William ROBERTS, who lives in Mitchell County,
Iowa; they have five children, two sons and three daughters,
Claude (a lawyer in Holdrege, Neb.), Claire (a farmer), Nellie,
Essie and Maude. The deceased were named Ebenezer, Jennie M.,
Hale and Olive. On Oct. 20, 1860, Mrs. ALLER died, mourned by
all who knew her. On Dec. 2, 1863, Mr. ALLER was married to Maria
SMITH, who was born in Montpelier, Vt., daughter of Stephen and
Sarah (BEAN) SMITH, and one child was born of this marriage,
a son, Arthur P., who married Miss Ella C. BARKER; he is steward
at the Northern Hospital, near Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
- Mr. ALLER was a consistent member of the Congregational Church,
to which his widow also
- belongs, and enjoyed the highest esteem of all who knew him.
Politically, Mr. ALLER was a Republican, served as chairman of
the town board of supervisors for twenty years, and was a member
of the county board for the same length of time; was also township
assessor three years, and justice of the peace about eight or
ten years; and in all these various offices, gave unbounded satisfaction
on account of his integrity and strictness in the faithful discharge
of his duties. At the time of his death Mr. ALLER was quietly
enjoying the fruits of his long years of earnest effort, surrounded
by the comforts of life, and esteemed by a wide circle of friends.
He passed away March 14, 1901, at the home of his son, in Winnebago,
Wis., and was buried in Evansville.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c) 1901, pp. 28-29.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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