PHIL T. ALLIN. By reason of his identification with the town of Cleburne from the time it consisted of only a few houses until its population is close on to ten thousand, Mr. Phil T. Allin, who is head of the well-known real estate firm of Phil T. Allin and Company at that place, is rightly considered one of the old-time residents of Johnson county and also one of its most prominent and influential citizens.
Mercer county, Kentucky, was his birthplace, December 15, 1839, and his family history goes back to colonial days, including among its members his grandfather major Thomas Allin, who served as an officer in the Continental army during the Revolutionary war. His parents were Ben C. and Susan (Warren) Allin, his father also a native of Mercer county, where both he and the grandfather died.
For many years the father was clerk of the court of Mercer county, and the son Phil, after spending his early days on the farm, became his father’s assistant in the court house at Harrodsburg. He made a trip to Missouri before the war, and in 1860, having in the meantime returned to his native state, made the move, which was destined to be permanent, to Texas, locating first in Anderson county. He made various trips of inspection about the state, and for a short time in 1861 lived in Johnson county, his present home. Mr. Allin had just reached his majority when the Civil war began, and like thousands of other young southerners of his age he volunteered in defense of the beloved southland. Enlisting in Company G, First Texas Infantry, his first colonel being the noted and afterward general Louis T. Wigfall, he joined the Army of the Potomac in Virginia and participated in much of the fighting in that state, including the seven days’ fighting around Richmond, the second battle of Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, etc. From Virginia he was sent with the reinforcements for Bragg’s army at the battle of Chickamauga, where he was wounded, and thereafter was unable to take part in much active service.
On his return to Anderson county Mr. Allin, up to 1871, was principally engaged in farming. In the year mentioned he came to his present home, Cleburne, in Johnson county, where he has been a resident ever since and where he has been actively concerned with the development of town and country. In 1878 he was elected clerk of the district court and following his eight years’ service in that business engaged in the insurance and real estate business, which he has prosecuted with success to the present time. He was chief clerk of the insurance department of Texas during three years and a half of the Governor Hogg administration. He now has associated with him in business his son Phil W. Allin, who was born at Magnolia, Anderson county, and for some time was a clerk in the state treasurer’s office at Austin, being a bright and capable young business man. Besides other interests Mr. Allin owns a nice farm in the northwest part of Johnson county.
Mr. Allin’s wife was before her marriage Miss Maggie Van Noy. They were married at Palestine, Texas.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, pp. 153-154.