Degree Recipient

Life Experience

Richard Taylor Allison, after studying the law profession, began practicing law in Baltimore, Maryland. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, he was stationed at the Navy Yard in Washington, DC. He resigned his office on April 20, 1861, traveled south, and was appointed paymaster in the Marine Corps of the Confederate States.He served in this capacity throughout the rest of the war. After the war was over, he returned to Baltimore, filling different positions, one of which was the Clerk of the Superior Court of Baltimore City. He ascribed one of his chief pleasures and resources to his love of books and reading, for which he was indebted in a great degree to IU and to its late revered president, Dr. Andrew Wylie.

Marriage and Family

One of Allison’s wives was Maria Key Taney, daughter of the late Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the U.S., who administered the oath of office to President Abraham Lincoln in 1861. Allison and his wife did not have any children.

Interesting Anecdote

Allison was appointed by his uncle, President Taylor, Paymaster in the U.S. Navy.In this capacity,he served in the Pacific and East Indies, in China and Japan, and notably in the squadron which, under Commodore Perry, constituted the Japan expedition, which opened Japan to the world. He is credited with saving most of the remaining Confederate States Marines Corps (CSMC) records from being ultimately burned and destroyed by the conquering Union troops. Very little written evidence of the CSMC survived the war intact, and Allison's cache of records ensured that the history of the CSMC would be preserved for future study.

In 1889, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which was written by his wife’s uncle, Francis Scott Key, seventy-five years earlier, became officially recognized by the U.S. Navy and would eventually become the national anthem.

References

1. Wylie
2. Findagrave.com
3. Wikipedia
4. ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LCP2-RD5/
5. famechain.com/family-tree/57568/
6. obscureamericanhistory.blogspot.com
7. ronulrich.com/rfuged/fam11454.htm
8. wikitree.com/wiki/Key-1451
9. Watson, Annah Walker Robinson (1898) Some Notable Families of America (New York: self-published)