Boston Public Library - Electric Scotland

I]N"TEODUCTIO]Sr.
This work is vastly more comprehensive in its scope than was
intended at the commencement of its preparation. The stream has
been traced to its fountain, the river to its source, and the Allisons to
their homes in Scotland of many centiunes ago. There, among its
moors, its mountains, and its glens, they have lived till the present,
while collateral lines of this ancient stock, about whom lingers the
love of the freedom of Scotland's mountains, struck out into other
lands, have enlarged and become strong, numerous, prosperous,
and vigorous. The Allisons have won homes and reputations not
only in Scotland, but in England, Ireland, Australia, South America,
Canada, and in nearly every state of the great American common-
wealth, the United States.
A fascination, deep and abiding, clings to the ancient home of
the family at Loupe, Argyleshire, and at Cairnduff, Avondale, Lan-
arkshire, Scotland. The matter relating to those homes and to those
lines of the family are of preeminent value and absorbing interest. By
the publication of this volume kll of this information and history is
permanently preserved.
The Allison family, taken as a whole, is strong and intellectual.
In the Fatherland some of its members were martyrs for the "Solemn
League and Covenant," and elsewhere contended, even unto death, for
religious freedom, while others continued the struggle in Ireland, and
later crossed the ocean and maintained the finally successful battle on
American soil.
This family has loved church and state and learning. They helped
found a government of, and for, and by the people. There have been
many college graduates. The name Allison is found frequently in
the catalogues of both European and American universities. Lawyers,
physicians, ministers of the Gospel, senators, and other men high in
the civil or military service of the state are among those of this stock.
This is mentioned, not in a spirit of miwise laudation of a family but
as a historical fact, and that in the future, when those of other generations
shall read this and see that their predecessors and relatives, who
will then belong to '• a buried generation," loved the school, the church,