B. F. Allebach, the efficient city clerk of El Dorado is a native of Pennsylvania. He was born in 1848, and is a son of Aaron and Philena (Janes) Allebach, both natives of Pennsylvania. The father was born in 1822, and the mother in 1824. They were the parents of the following children, who are now living: John R., DeGraff, Ohio; William I., Maplewood, Ohio; and B. F., the subject of this sketch. The Allebach family removed from Pennsylvania to Ohio where the father followed farming.

B. F. Allebach was reared on his father's farm in Ohio, and educated in the public schools of Logan county, Ohio. When he was about sixteen years of age, the great Civil war was in progress, and January 1, 1864, he enlisted as a private and was mustered into United States service at Columbus, Ohio, February 29, 1864, as a member of Company K, Fifty-seventh regiment, Ohio infantry. Capt. John A. Smith commanded his company, and Col. Americus V. Rice commanded the regiment. Mr. Allebach immediately went to the front with his regiment, and was with Sherman on his march to the sea, and participated in the engagements at Atlanta and the campaign in the Carolinas.

He was never wounded, but he experienced what the soldiers of the North feared much more than the enemy's bullets—the famine and filth of a Confederate prison hell. Mr. Allebach was captured, during a charge on the enemy's works at Atlanta, Ga., July 22, 1864, and confined in the Confederate military prison, at Andersonville, Ga., for two months, when he was paroled. He returned to his regiment, and at the close of the war, took part in the grand review at Washington, D. C., after which his regiment was sent to Louisvile,[sic] Ky., and from there, started to Little Rock on June 25, 1865, and arriving there August 6, after a long, hot, dusty march. They then returned to Camp Chase, Ohio, where the regiment was mustered out of service, August 14, 1865,

and Mr. Allebach received his honorable discharge. As a soldier he rendered faithful and meritorious service.

At the close of the war, he returned to his home in Logan county, and in 1871, was united in marriage to Miss M. J. Epler, a native of Ohio and a daughter of Peter Epler, a farmer of that State. To Mr. and Mrs. Allebach have been born three children, as follows: Mrs. Marian Studebaker, El Dorado, Kans.; E. R., Douglass, Kans., and O. C., El Dorado, Kans.

Mr. Allebach came to Kansas in 1886 and settled in El Dorado, where he has since made his home. He followed the profession of teaching for a number of years, and then became assistant postmaster at El Dorado, a position which he held for seven years. He has held the office of justice of the peace, and has been city clerk since 1907. Mr. Allebach is a capable and painstaking public official, and his courteous and obliging manner has won for him many friends, among the vast number of acquaintances with whom he has come in contact during his career as a public official. He has always supported the policies and principles of the Republican party, and he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

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