Samuel W. Allerton

Allerton was born May 26, 1828 in Amenia, New York, the youngest of nine children of Samuel Waters Allerton Sr., a tailor and wool mill operator, and his wife Hannah Allerton née Hurd.[1][2][3]

He was a descendant of Mayflower pilgrims Isaac Allerton[3] and Elder William Brewster. Isaac Allerton married Brewster's daughter Fear, who became the mother of Samuel Allerton′s ancestral line.

When Allerton was seven, his father′s business failed financially, and the family property was auctioned off.[1] This was reported to be a formative experience in Allerton's life.[1] At the age of twelve, Allerton entered the workforce.[1] The family experienced further financial difficulty as a result of the Panic of 1837 and some members moved as far west as Dubuque, Iowa, but ultimately they settled on an upstate New York farm in 1842[2]

Allerton rented and purchased farms, netting profits from them, and became a small-time livestock trader.[1][2] He built up his involvement in livestock and made money in a venture transporting livestock over land after a break occurred in the rail line between Erie, Pennsylvania and Dunkirk, New York.[1]

Allerton then moved west, ending up in Illinois where he again raised cattle.[1] He moved his cattle operations to Chicago in 1860, opening up Allerton Swine Yards at the terminus of the Hudson River Railroad.[4]

On July 1, 1860, Allerton wed Pamilla Wigdon Thompson in Peoria, Illinois.[1] She was the oldest daughter of wealthy cattle farmers Asler and Berintha Thompson who lived near Canton in Fulton County, Illinois.[4][5] The Allertons moved into the Orient House, a Chicago boardinghouse. They soon bought a house at 644 Michigan Avenue and lived there until 1879 when they moved to 1936 Prairie Avenue. The Prairie Avenue house had been built for Daniel M. Thompson in 1869, and the Allerton family owned it until it was demolished in 1915.

On 10 June 1863, their daughter Katharine ″Kate″ Reinette Allerton was born.[5]

In 1863 Allerton was a co-founder of the First National Bank of Chicago.[4][5][6]

In 1864, Allerton was a key partner in the founding of the Pittsburgh Joint Stock Yards and he was a leader in the push to consolidate Chicago's railroad stockyards into the Union Stock Yards in 1865.[4] He led a group that invested $1 million to construct the St. Louis National Stockyards in 1871 and also invested in stockyards located in Baltimore, Jersey City, St. Joseph, Missouri, and Omaha.[3]

On 20 March 1873, Allerton and his wife Pamilla had their second child, a son named Robert Allerton.[4][5] A series of three oil paintings of the family by Henry H. Cross (1837−1918) in 1879 showed Samuel and Pamilla in a horse−drawn sleigh, Samuel and Robert in the sleigh, and Robert on his black pony.[7]

Allerton was widowed on 15 March 1880 when Pamilla died of scarlet fever.[1][4][5] On 15 March 1882 he married Pamilla's youngest sister, Agnes C. Thompson.[1][4][5] Agnes was 24 at the time of their wedding, whilst Allerton was 53.[5] While he and Agnes never had any children of their own, Agnes acted as a mother and mentor in the arts to Allerton's young son Robert, who was both her stepson and nephew.[5]

In 1893 he was the Republican nominee for mayor of Chicago.

Allerton died on February 22, 1914[2] at the Allerton winter home in South Pasadena, California. He is buried with his wives Pamilla and Agnes in Graceland Cemetery, Chicago.

By the turn of the twentieth century, Allerton was among Chicago's wealthiest men.[5] At one point, he was ranked by the Chicago Tribune as the third-wealthiest man in Chicago, behind only Marshall Field and J. Ogden Armour.[4] He was also a regular presence on Chicago's society pages.[5]

Allerton owned a private Pullman railcar.[4]

In addition to the residence on Chicago's prestigious Prairie Avenue[5] the Allerton family maintained a summer home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin called The Folly and a Mission style winter home in South Pasadena, California.[5]

Allerton owned stockyards and farms throughout the Midwestern United States.[5]

Bowman, David. ″Samuel W. Allerton (1828−1914)″ Proceedings of The Allerton Legacy Symposium. Robert Allerton Park, Monticello, Illinois 22 May 1981.

Burgin, Martha and Maureen Holtz (2009) Robert Allerton, the Private Man and the Public Gifts. Champaign: The News−Gazette, Inc. ISBN 978−0−9798420−7−8

Rotenstein, David S. ″Hudson River Cowboys: The Origins of Modern Livestock Shipping.″ The Hudson Valley Regional Review. Poughkeepsie, New York. Volume 19, number 1.