Clyde H. Allphin

CLYDE H. ALLPHIN is a competent and widely-known lawyer in central Kansas, formerly of Wichita County and now of Barton County, where he is serving as county attorney.

The Allphin family has been represented in Kansas since 1884. It was founded here by his grandfather, Henry Allphin, a man of most interesting character and experience. Henry Allphin was born in Boone County, Kentucky, in 1826. About 1835 he moved with his parents to Schuyler County, Illinois. The days he attended school were limited in number and of not great significance in results. But he obtained a really sound and broad education from experience, and his wonderfully active mind increased his accumulated wisdom through all the years of his life. It is said that he began his career penniless and he gave his last dollar to the minister who married him. For about fifty years he lived in Schuyler County, Illinois, and was devoted to farm and agriculture, an occupation that brought him a modest fortune. On transferring his home and business interests from Illinois to Kansas, Henry Allphin first settled in Kiowa County, spending two years at Greensburg. He then moved to Leoti and has since been given the honor of being the founder of that well-known little city of Wichita County. He erected the first business house and engaged in banking. He also added something to his previous reputation as a successful farmer. For years he was president of the Leoti State Bank. Though rather advanced in years when he came to Kansas, he acquired the Kansas spirit in the method of doing things worth while, and left the state only when he and his faithful wife could no longer care for themselves in their own home. In 1915 he moved to Walla Walla, Washington, where he now resides and where his beloved companion passed away in December, 1918, at the age of ninety-one. Henry Allphin is now in his ninety-third year.

While a resident of Wichita County he became the lending spirit of the locality, and though keenly interested in politics never sought any office. The type and spirit of his political affiliations are well understood from the fact that he was what is called a "Kentucky republican." He was a very active and devout member of the Presbyterian Church, and for sixty years he and his faithful wife went to church and Sabbath School whether anyone else did or not. There was no more sincere and liberal supporter of the Union cause during the Civil war than Henry Allphin. He had a personal acquaintance with Mr. Lincoln and supported him through all his trials. He listened to some of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, and he also had a personal acquaintance with the "Little Giant." It always afforded him great pleasure to discuss the merits of the martyred President, and his own reflections and recollections of Lincoln and his time have furnished instruction and entertainment on many occasions.

Henry Allphin married Hannah Pettijohn, a sister of the Pettijohn who became famous as the breakfast food manufacturer. Mrs. Henry Allphin was born in Brown County, Ohio, in April, 1829. She became the mother of ten children, only two of whom are now living, Mrs. T. H. Reed, of Shenandoah, Iowa, and Mrs. W. P. Hooper, of Walla Walla, Washington. The other children who lived to maturity were Oscar, an early settler of Liberal, Kansas; Charles R., father of the Great Bend attorney; Quin, an early settler about Augusta, Kansas; Hattie, Ida and Etta. Hattie died at Leoti and was buried at Greensburg, while Etta became the wife of R. W. Carey, a banker at Leoti, where she died.

Charles R. Allphin, father of Clyde H., was born in Schuyler County, Illinois, June 27, 1854. He acquired a liberal education in the Illinois Normal School and in the Gem City Business College at Quincy, and coming to Kansas in the spring of 1887 had an active experience as a banker at Leoti, but in later years was a merchant. He died at Leoti October 6, 1907. As a citizen he was much like his father, had an interest in a wide scope of affairs, but differed from his father in the fact that at one time he held an office in Leoti. He was a devout church and Sunday school worker of the Presbyterian faith and for nearly twenty years was superintendent of the Sabbath school. He was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of the World and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. On December 25, 1876, in SchuyIer County, Illinois, he married Miss Lydia H. Clark, daughter of Harrison and Lydia (Coffman) Clark. The Clarks were old Americans and were colonial settlers in Virginia, from which state their descendants became widely scattered. The year following the death of Charles H. Allphin his widow took her family to Lawrence, Kansas, to give her children the advantages of the University, and she is still living in that city. Clyde H. is the oldest of her children. Harry C. is with the Home State Bank at Junction City, Kansas. Helen L. is the wife of Gaylord Weilepp, a merchant of St. John, Kansas. Wayne, the youngest, is with the One Hundred Thirty-ninth Infantry in the Thirty-fifth Division with the Army of Occupation.

Clyde H. Allphin was born in Schuyler County, Illinois, October 29, 1877, and was ten years old when his parents came to Kansas. He received most of his education in Leoti, graduating from the high school at Mount Sterling, Illinois, and took his degree in the Law Department of Kansas University in 1902. While at the university he played on the football team three years and four years with the baseball team.

Mr. Allphin opened his law office at Leoti in September, 1903, and tried his first court case there. In 1904 he was elected county attorney of Wichita County, and by re-election in 1906 and 1908 completed three terms. In December, 1910, he moved to Great Bend and has since succeeded in achieving a most creditable place in his profession in Barton County. He was elected county attorney in 1916 as the successor of R. C. Russell and was re-elected in 1918. In this office he has advised the Board of County Commissioners during the building of many miles of hard surface roads and in the construction of the new court house, which was finished without any litigation. Before becoming county attorney Mr. Allphin served three years as city attorney, a period in which much street paving was laid.

Undoubtedly he inherits an interest in politics from his ancestors. His loyalty to republican principles began with his first vote, and his political course can be traced by his presidential balloting, for McKinley in 1900, Roosevelt in 1904, Taft in 1908 and 1912, and Hughes in 1916.

At Mount Sterling, Illinois, January 1, 1908, Mr. Allphin married Miss Edith M. Curry, daughter of Joseph A. and Mary (Pinkston) Curry. Her great-great-grandfather, Alexander Curry, was a Kentuckian who moved to Illinois and was the founder of Mount Sterling.

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