William V. Allen

William Vincent Allen
United States Senator from Nebraska
In office December 13, 1899 – March 28, 1901
Preceded by	Monroe L. Hayward
Succeeded by	Charles H. Dietrich
In office March 4, 1893 – March 4, 1899
Preceded by	Algernon S. Paddock
Succeeded by	Monroe L. Hayward
Personal details
Born	January 28, 1847 Midway, Ohio
Died	January 12, 1924 (aged 76) Los Angeles, California
Resting place	Crown Hill Cemetery Madison, Nebraska
Political party	Populist
Occupation	Attorney, Judge

William Vincent Allen (January 28, 1847 – January 12, 1924) was a jurist and twice a U.S. Senator from Nebraska.

Biography

Allen was born in Midway, Ohio. He moved with his parents to Iowa in 1857, where he attended the common schools and Upper Iowa University at Fayette, Iowa. He served as a private with the 32nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War; he then studied law at West Union, Iowa and was admitted to the bar in 1869. Allen practiced in Iowa until 1884, when he moved to Madison, Nebraska. He served as judge of the district court of the ninth judicial district of Nebraska from 1891 to 1893.

Allen was the permanent chairman of the Populist State conventions in 1892, 1894 and 1896. Allen was elected as a Populist to the United States Senate by the Nebraska State Legislature and served from March 4, 1893, to March 4, 1899. During his term, he served as the chairman of the Committee on Forest Reservations and Game Protection (Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses). Allen championed various bills for public buildings and drought relief along the Missouri River Valley and authored the bill that would establish the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha, Nebraska.

Allen was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1899. After that, he was appointed and subsequently elected judge of the district court of the ninth judicial district of Nebraska and served from March 9, 1899 to December 1899, when he resigned to return to the Senate, because he was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his successor, Monroe L. Hayward. He served from December 13, 1899, to March 28, 1901, when a successor was elected; he was not a candidate for election to the vacancy.

Allen then resumed the practice of law in Madison, where was again elected judge of the district court of the ninth judicial district of Nebraska in 1917 and served until his death. He died in Los Angeles, California on January 12, 1924. He was interred in Crown Hill Cemetery at Madison, Nebraska.

Committee assignments

At various times during his tenure as a United States Senator, Allen served on 10 standing committees^[1] and 3 select or special committees.^[2] During his first term in the Senate, he chaired the Select Committee on Forest Reservations, and retained his chairmanship when the committee became the standing Committee on Forest Reservations and the Protection of Game during the 54th Congress.^[3] When he returned to the Senate for his second term during the 56th Congress, he was again appointed to this committee, but did not serve as chairman.^[4]

Committee	Congresses	Notes
Forest Reservations (Select) Forest Reservations and the Protection of Game	53rd 54th – 56th	Chairman (53rd – 55th) Renamed and made a standing committee in the 54th Congress
Claims	53rd – 56th
Indian Affairs	53rd – 55th
Public Lands	53rd – 55th
Transportation Routes to the Seaboard	54th – 55th
Privileges and Elections	55th
Agriculture and Forestry	56th
Interstate Commerce	56th
Pensions	56th
The Philippines	56th
Transportation and Sale of Meat Products (Select)	53rd – 55th
Investigate Attempts at Bribery, etc. (Special)	53rd

Works

• "Necessity of the People's Party," The Arena, vol. 30, no. 4 (Oct. 1903), pp. 410–414.

Footnotes

1. Official Congressional Directory. 53rd Congress (1893); 54th Congress (1895); 55th Congress (1897); 56th Congress (1900)
2. Canon, David T.; Nelson, Garrison; Stewart, Charles, III (2002). Committees in the U.S. Congress: 1789-1946. Vol 4, Select Committees. Washington, DC: CQ Press. ISBN 1-56802-175-5.
3. "Chairmen of Senate Standing Committees 1789-Present" (PDF). Senate Historical Office. June 2008. p. 35. Retrieved 2009-05-07.
4. Official Congressional Directory. 56th Congress, 1st session. 2nd edition. Page 134 (1900)

Other sources used

• American National Biography
• Dictionary of American Biography

• United States Congress. "William V. Allen (id: A000153)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• William V. Allen papers at the Nebraska State Historical Society

Further reading

• Coletta, Paolo E. “A Tempest in a Teapot? Governor Poynter’s Appointment of William V. Allen to the United States Senate.” Nebraska History, vol. 38 (June 1957), pp. 155–163.
• Hoelscher, David W. "Genuine Populist: William V. Allen in the United States Senate, 1893-1901." M.A. thesis, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 2003.
• 1898 bio w/photo

William V. Allen at Find a Grave