Mr. McAllister is descended from some of the oldest and best American families, his paternal line coming originally from Scotland. The first of the name now known was Hugh McAllister, who came of Scotch parentage, and emigrated from Ireland to America about 1730, settling in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. His wife was a Miss Harbison, and they had children: Mary, Nancy, Jane, Eleanor, John, Hugh, Elizabeth, and William. All the sons settled in Pennsylvania. The second, Major Hugh McAllister, was born in 1736 in Pennsylvania, and enlisted in the French and Indian war at the age of twenty-two years. He was in Captain Forbes' company under George Washington in 1755 in the expedition to Fort Duquesne. He married Sarah Nelson, of Lancaster county, who came in infancy from northern Ireland with her parents, both of whom died on shipboard. They settled on a small farm in Sherman's Valley, Pennsylvania, which he sold about 1761, and removed to Lost Creek Valley, in the same state. He served in Pontiac's war in 1763, and was successively sergeant, lieutenant and captain in the army of the revolution. He was commissioned major of the Seventh Battalion of Militia in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, May 1, 1783. He was hospitable, religious, public-spirited and progressive. He died September 22, 1810, surviving his wife more than eight years. She died July 7, 1802. By will his homestead was bequeathed to his fourth son, William McAllister, mentioned below.
Judge William McAllister, as he was known, was born in August, 1775. He was paymaster of the Eighty-third Pennsylvania Regiment in the war of 1812, and on March 4, 1842, was appointed one of the two associate judges of Juniata county. He was a man of fine appearance, was energetic, hospitable and uncompromising, and for forty years was a trustee of Lost Creek Presbyterian Church. He died December 21, 1847. He married, November 2, 1802, Sarah Thompson, born 1783, daughter of William and Jane (Mitchell) Thompson. William Thompson, born 1754. died 1813, participated in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown during the revolution. He was a son of John Thompson, a Scotch covenanter who came from Ireland to Chester county, Pennsylvania, about 1730.
Thompson McAllister, son of Judge William McAllister, was born August 30, 1811, on the old homestead in Lost Creek Valley, and settled near Chambersburg. Pennsylvania, his farm being known as "Spring Dale." He was a member of the Pennsylvania legislature in 1848, and in December, 1849, removed to Covington, Alleghany county, Virginia, where he had purchased a tract of two thousand, two hundred acres, the larger portion of which is still held by his descendants. On the opposite side of the river from Covington he built, in 1856-1857, his homestead, known as "Rose Dale." He was closely associated with his brother Robert in business enterprises, a well as in military service, and as partners under the style of T. McAllister & Company, they built section eighteen between the Lewis and Alleghany tunnels on what is now the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, seventeen miles west of Covington, Thompson McAllister having charge of the work. At that time Robert was living in New Jersey, and at the opening of the civil war he tendered his military services to the state, while Thompson was loyal to Virginia. In March, 1861, the latter raised, and largely at his own expense, equipped the first volunteer company for the impending war in that part of Virginia, and was made its captain. This became Company A of the Twenty-seventh Virginia Infantry of the original Stonewall brigade. Captain McAllister was the oldest member of the company, and his son William the youngest. In the second charge at the battle of Manassas he led his broken regiment and contributed largely to the confederate victory of that day. His brother Robert, then a colonel, afterwards general, commanded the First New Jersey in the same battle. On account of business interests, and also through an attack of camp fever (furlough having been denied), Captain McAllister resigned August, 1861. In the fall of the same year he was placed in command of all the home guards and reserves in the Alleghany section, continuing this service until the close of the war. For nearly twenty years he was a ruling elder in the Covington Presbyterian Church. He died at "Rose Dale," March 13, 1871. He married, February 14, 1839, Lydia Miller Addams, of Millerstown, Pennsylvania, descended from an old and conspicuous family of that state. The records of William Penn's colony show that on December 22, 1681, he deeded five hundred acres to Robert Adams of Ledwell, Oxfordshire, England. The will of Robert Adams, made July 27, 1717, refers to his brother Walter Adams. The latter was the ancestor of Mrs. Thompson McAllister. Walter Adams lived in Oxford township, Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania, and his son, Richard, of Providence township, same county, married Elsie Withers, at Christ Church, Philadelphia, December 22, 1726. Their son, William Addams, founded Adamstown, Pennsylvania, in 1761. He married Anna Lane, of English ancestry, and their youngest son, Isaac, was born October 27, 1746, in Cocalico township, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, near the site of Adamstown. He was accustomed to spell his name with two d's, and this has been adhered to by his descendants. Early in life he settled in Berks county. Pennsylvania, and subsequently moved to Reading, same state, where he was a merchant. From 1777 to 1800 he was a county commissioner of Berks county; was a member of the state legislature in 1804-1805, and captain of the Fourth Company of Associators in the Ninth Battalion, commanded by Colonel John Huber. With this company he went to New Jersey in August, 1776, and remained with Washington's army until early in 1777. He died at Reading, April 11, 1809. He married at New Holland, Pennsylvania, May 28, 1776, the widow of his brother William, Barbara (Ruth) Addams, born January 8, 1741, died in Reading, October 5, 1832, daughter of Peter Ruth. Abraham Addams, youngest of the six sons of Isaac Addams, was born March 12, 1786, in Adamstown, and was a merchant in Reading as a young man. About 1811 he removed to Perry county, Pennsylvania, and purchased the land on which Millerstown is built. He was prominent in religious, business and social matters of the town and county, and was thrice married. His first wife, Lydia, was the second daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Feather) Miller. She was the mother of Lydia Miller Addams, who became the wife of Thompson McAllister, as previously noted.
Abraham Addams McAllister, son of Thompson and Lydia Miller (Addams) McAllister, was born August 25, 1841, at "Rose Dale." He received a fair education, but the civil war prevented his completing a college course. He continued to reside at "Rose Dale." When his father entered the military service he was placed in charge of affairs at home. After his father's return to take care of his business, which had been badly broken up by dishonest employees, the son entered the military service, serving from 1862 to 1865 in Bryan's Battery, Thirteenth Battalion Virginia Artillery, in which he was successively gunner and sergeant. He participated in much fighting, and was within sight of the national capitol for about two days. The only engagement of his battery in which he did not participate was that of Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864, when he was home on sick leave. Following the war ensued a condition of great distress and business depression through Virginia, and both Sergeant McAllister and his father were active in assisting the needy and in improving the roads and other conditions about them. Soon after the war Mr. McAllister became a magistrate, and served until 1866, when the civil government was replaced by military rule. This lasted for about two years, and during this time Mr. McAllister resided at Maiden. In May, 1866, he returned to "Rose Dale" and soon after occupied ''White Hall," which was constructed for him by Mr. McAllister's father. In the spring of 1866, he pursued a business course at Bryant and Stratton's College in Cincinnati, and soon after took charge of the business affairs of the estate of his father. When the latter died in 1871, Sergeant McAllister was made manager of the estate by his father's will, and thus continued for five years, paying off war debts of more than twenty thousand dollars. By the division of the estate, A.A. McAllister came into possession of a tract including the present paper mill, the Rose Dale tract, and lands lying on both sides of the creek. In 1884 he rented the mill property in partnership with John W. Bell, and for six years they operated it, after which it was sold. In 1891 they purchased the mill from the new owners, and in 1909 the property passed into the hands of a corporation known as the Covington Roller Mills. In 1876 Mr. McAllister became a merchant in Covington, with a partner, and continued to be interested in it until 1902. In the meantime he had purchased an estate of three hundred acres and another of forty-one acres, on which the greater part of East Covington has been built. He also made extensive purchases of farming lands, and operated about six hundred acres east of and near Covington. His total holdings amounted to 2,282 acres, about the same as his father's holdings when he located in Virginia. He plaited an addition to Covington, on which were built attractive homes. He was instrumental in securing paper and pulp mills, the largest industry at Covington, and one of the largest mills of the kind in the south. He sold the land for the mills and accompanying buildings at a very low-figure, in order to secure the location of the industry here, and his public spirit has been rewarded by the appreciation of his own property, as well as that of his neighbors. He has also been instrumental in securing other industries for Covington, and will long be remembered as one of the chief benefactors of the town. He assisted in the organization of the Covington National Bank, of which he was first vice-president, and the Citizens National Bank, of which he was vice-president from 1900 until he was made president in 1908, continuing thus to 1912.
He married, May 10, 1865, Julia Ellen Stratton, who was born in Maiden, Kanawha county, Virginia, daughter of Joseph Dickinson and Mary Ann (Buster) Stratton. The Stratton ancestry has been traced to England through Edward (1) Stratton, of Bermuda Hundred, whose son Edward (2) Stratton, married Martha, daughter of Thomas Shippey. Their son, Edward (3) Stratton, married Ann, daughter of Henry Batte, and they were the parents of Thomas Stratton, who married Elizabeth Elam. Their son, Henry Stratton, was lieutenant in the naval service during the revolution, and married Sarah Hampton. They were the parents of Archibald Stratton, who married Edna Dickinson, and were the parents of Joseph Dickinson Stratton, who married, October 30, 1832, Mary Ann Buster. Their daughter, Julia Ellen, graduated with honor at the Virginia Female Institute at Staunton, Virginia, in 1857, being especially distinguished in vocal and instrumental music. She won a medal in 1855 for scholarship and deportment, and for music in 1856.
Addams Stratton McAllister, son of Abraham Addams and Julia Ellen (Stratton) McAllister, was born February 24, 1875, at Covington, Virginia. He received his preliminary education in the public schools of that town. In 1894 he entered the Pennsylvania State College, from which he received the degree B.S. in 1898, and subsequently that of E.E. During his college course he spent one summer in the shops of the Covington Machine Company, where he gained practical experience, and also spent two summers with a civil engineering corps doing local railway and other surveying. From July, 1898, to August, 1899, he was engaged with the Berwind-White Coal Mining Company at Windbar, Pennsylvania, where he obtained practical experience in operating electric locomotives, and the following year was spent in the factory of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company at East Pittsburgh, where he gained further knowledge relating to manufacturing details of direct-current and alternating-current machinery. He took a post-graduate course in electric engineering at Cornell University, and received the degree of M.M.E. in 1901. In 1905 the degree of Ph.D. was conferred upon him by Cornell. From 1901 to 1904 he was successively assistant and instructor in physics and applied electricity at Cornell, and in 1904 was acting assistant professor of electrical engineering there. From 1905 to 1912 he was associate editor of the "Electrical World," an engineering journal, of which he is now editor-in-chief. Since 1909 Dr. McAllister has been professorial lecturer on electrical engineering at the Pennsylvania State College. He was the first to expound and formulate the application of the law of conservation in illumination calculations (1911). To him is due the credit for the development of simplified circle diagrams of single-phase and polyphase induction motors and synchronous motors and the absorption-of-light method of calculating illumination. He has been granted patents for alternating-current machinery under dates of 1903, 1904, 1906 and 1907. Dr. McAllister has lectured on subjects pertaining to his special line of work before the Cornell Electrical Society, the New York Electrical Society, the Columbia University Electrical Society, the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute Electrical Engineering Society, the Franklin Institute, and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is the author of "Alternating-Current Motors" (1906), used as a text-book in many of the leading engineering schools, and of chapters on "Transformers" and "Motors" in the "Standard Handbook for Electrical Engineers." He has been a voluminous contributor on engineering subjects to the technical press, embracing about one hundred original articles, the most important being: "Complete Commercial Test of Polyphase Induction Motors Using One Wattmeter and One Voltmeter" (1902); "Excitation of Asynchronous Generators by Means of Static Condensance" (1903); "Asynchronous Generators" (1903); "A Convenient and Economical Electrical Method for Determining Mechanical Torque" (1904); "Simple Circular Current Locus of the Induction Motor" (1906); "The Exciting Current of Induction Motor" (1906); "Simple Circle Diagram of the Single-phase Induction Motor" (1906); "Magnetic Field in the Single-phase Induction Motor" (1906); "Circular Current Loci of the Synchronous Motor" (1907); "Absorption of Light Method of Calculating Illumination" (1908); "Bearing of Reflection on Illumination" (1910); ''Graphical Solution of Problems Involving Plane Surface Lighting Sources" (1910); and "The Law of Conservation as Applied to Illumination Calculations" (1911). Dr. McAllister is naturally associated with numerous scientific organizations including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Electro-chemical Society, the National Electric Light Association, the New York Electrical Society, of which he has been vice-president; the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education, and the Illuminating Engineering Society, for which he has served as a director. He is also identified with numerous social organizations which include the Pennsylvania State College Association of New York, of which he was president in 1911; the New York Southern Society; the Virginians of New York; the Virginia Historical Society; the Cornell University Club and the Engineers Club, New York; the University Club, State College; the Cornell Chapter of the Sigma Xi honor society, the Pennsylvania State College Chapter of the Phi Kappa Phi honor fraternity, and honor member of the Pennsylvania State Chapter of the Eta Kappa Nu electrical fraternity.
Source: Lyon Gardiner Tyler. Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, vol. 4. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1915, pp. 12-15.
Contributed by: Nancy.