Biography of Octavius Warren McAllaster



Excerpted from "Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1911-1912", Edited by Geo. W. Martin, Secretary. 

Vol XII., State Printing Office, Topeka, Kansas 1912.



submitted by Teresa Lindquist (merope@radix.net); (copyright) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist

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OCTAVIUS WARREN MCALLASTER was born in Morristown, N. Y., January 11, 1834. He died at Lawrence on December 26, 1911. His 

grandfather, William McAllaster. came from Londonderry, Ireland, in 1739 and settled at Londonderry, N. H. Here he married 

Miss Jerusha Spofford, in 1765. He enlisted May 18, 1775, in the Revolutionary army, and participated in the battle of 

Bunker Hill. He was commissioned ensign January 1, 1777. After the war he settled at Bedford, N. H. Here his son Benjamin 

was born, April 12, 1782. Benjamin married Martha McKinney in 1822. They settled in Morristown, where they raised a family, 

O.W. McAllaster being their third son. When fifteen years old this young McAllaster went to Ogdensburg, N. Y., to learn the 

trade of printer. In the spring of 1855 he started west, reaching Lawrence in 1857. In September, 1865, he married Ella 

Parry Jones, the daughter of Rev. Evan Jones, a Baptist missionary to the Cherokee Indians. In 1871 he was elected a member 

of the board of education of the city of Lawrence and served twenty-one years. He was a Mason, an Odd Fellow and a member 

of the Unitarian Church. He had been a member of the State Historical Society for several years.



(Included with the article "My Experience in the Lawrence Raid", page 401)