Allen Levering

As printed in 1880

HON. ALLEN LEVERING, Mt. Gilead, Ohio, the subject of this sketch and whose portrait appears in this work, was born in North Woodbury, Richland Co., Ohio (since 1819 Morrow Co. Nov. 12, 1839. The name of Levering is traced through a long line of ancestors, back to France, which country they left about the time of the edict of Nantes, and went into Holland (they being Huguenots); they came to America with Wm. Penn, and settled at Roxborough and Germantown, near Philadelphia, Pa. His ancestors on his mother’s side came from England, and settled in Sussex Co., N.,T. His great grandfather, Robert Bell, Sr., moved from New Jersey to Belmont Co., Ohio, in 1796, and to Richland Co., Ohio, in the year 1816, where he laid out the town of Belleville, now on the B. and O. R. R., where most of his mother’s family have since lived and died. Robert was uncle of John Bell, of Tennessee, a candidate for President in 1860, on the Constitutional Union Ticket. Morgan Levering, his father, was born in Bedford Co., Pa., in 1808, and came with his father, Wm. Levering, to Knox Co., Ohio, in 1816. In 1835 our subject’s farther started a general merchandise store in company with Mr. John Rule, Sr., under the firm name of Levering & Rule, in North Woodbury, and continued for sixteen years. Our subject was sent to common school in the winter terms and in summer was kept at work in his father’s store and on the farm. At the time of his father’s death in 1860 (occasioned by the effect of a surgical operation in removing a wen from the side of the face), though but little over 20 years of age, he took charge of his father’s store in partnership with Dr. Amos Rule, a son of his father’s partner; the new firm, Levering & Rule, using the old sign of same name, and continued for three years — after which he attended the Union schools at Belleville, Ohio, for two winters, and in the summer of 1865 he finished a course of study in Eastman’s Business College, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y.; he then engaged as Bookkeeper and Teller in the ist Natl. Bank of Mt. Gilead, Ohio, and remained in that capacity nearly one year, when he purchased the dry goods business of R. P. Halliday, in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, and conducted the business for ten years. In Oct. 1873, he was elected one of the nine directors of the bank he formerly clerked in, and in January following he was elected Vice President of the same bank, which position he still holds.

In 1875 he was one of the five who obtained a charter to organize the Mt. Gilead Building Association, and was elected Secretary and Treasurer, and still holds the same offices. In 1876, this Association, in connection with the Town Council, built the Van Horn Block, and in it a hall having a seating capacity of nearly 1,000 persons, which was named Levering Hall. In Aug. 1877, on the second ballot, he was chosen by the County Democratic Convention, the nominee for the office of Representative, and, in October, elected by 90 majority, he being the first Democrat elected from his county in twenty-two years. By an examination of his record there, we find he was an active member of two important standing committees — that of Finance and School and School Lands; he was also very successful in the business assigned to his care, having— in a total of nineteen bills and five resolutions— but two bills lost and two withdrawn.

He says the bill that gave him most labor and anxiety, was the one to build the Mt. Gilead Short Line R. R. (which road afterward complimented him by favoring him with throwing the first dirt and driving the last spike on same). On his return tk Mt. Gilead he de-

-V died a re-nomination, and in company with N. Merwine and his brother, Robert B. Levering, bought his former store, and now does business in the old stand, under the firm name of Levering, Merwine & Co. In social matters, we find Mr. Levering has also taken a prominent part; in 1868, as author of a society of young ladies, called Twelve Friends, which is yet in existence, and has its written history; also in 1875, ’6 and ’7, as President of the Plug Fraternity, a society of young men. In Aug. 1878, when Governor Bishop accepted the then Co., I, of 12th Regt., now Co. E of lath Regt., O. N. G., at the suggestion of Asst. Adjutant-General, and later, by the unanimous vote of the Company, it was christened “Levering Guard of Mt. Gilead, Ohio also, in April, 1880, when the C. C. C. & I. R. R. completed the leading of the Mt. Gilead S. L. R. R., the name of Gilead Station, on suggestion of Mr. Pappleton, their attorney, was changed to Levering Station, as a compliment, he having gathered the bill in the Legislature for building the S. L. R. R. In May, Mr. Levering was made an honorary member of the Philomathian Literary Society, of Otterbein University, at Westerville, Ohio. He is also an active member in the Masonic Fraternity, having filled the highest offices in his Lodge, and next highest in Chapter, and Junior Warden of his Commandery. In 1875, he received all the degrees in the Scottish Rite of Masonry to 33rd degree. He is Chairman of his County Central Democratic Committee, and a member of the Town Council of Mt. Gilead.

As printed in History of Morrow County and Ohio : containing a brief history of the state of Ohio ... a history of Morrow County ... biographical sketches, portraits of some of the early settlers and prominent men, (1880). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.