Allen, William J
lawyer, jurist, congressman, was born in 1828, in Tennessee. He removed with his father to Illinois in 1829; studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1848. In 1854 was elected to the Illinois legislature; in 1855 was appointed United States attorney for the district of Illinois, which office he resigned in 1860, and was then elected judge of the circuit court. In 1862 he was elected a representative from Illinois to the thirty-seventh congress, for the unexpired term of John A. Logan, resigned, and was re-elected to the thirty-eighth congress.