Allison T. Ayres (Biography)

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Taken from Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc.  Vol. III, part 2

Allison T. Ayres, of Howard, Kan., vice president of the First National Bank of that city and a lawyer of high standing at the Elk county bar, is a native of Kentucky, born in Madison county of that state, July 14, 1865.  He is a son of Dr. Jeremiah Ayres and Margaret E. Douthitt, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter a Kentuckian by birth.  Dr. Jeremiah Ayres removed from Pennsylvania to Kentucky in an early day and located in Madison county, where he was an active and successful medical practitioner unti his death in 1901.  He was also interested in farming and was one of the prominent and well known citizens of the county.  Dr. Ayres was a staunch adherent to the tenets of the Republican party and both he and his wife were devout members of the Methodist Episcopal church.  Jamison Douthitt, the maternal grandfather of Allison T. Ayres, was a pioneer settler in Kentucky and was a farmer.

Allison T. Ayers, having determined upon a professional career, was largely dependent upon his own resources in obtaining the higher education which he earnestly dersired and deemed necessary in order to be prepared thoroughy for his life work.  Having the will he also found the way.  He was a student for some time at Ayres Academy at College Hill, Ky., and also attended De Pauw University at Greencastle, Ind., one year.  He completed his education at the University of Kansas in 1887.  He first came to Kansas in 1883 and taught one term of school in Elk County, then he returned to Indiana, and after spending one year there in college and one year teaching in Kentucky, came once more to Kansas and in 1887 located permanently in Howard, Elk county.  There, since 1890, he has been actively engaged in the practice of law, and through his abillity, energy and integrity has attained to a foremost rank among the professional and business men of his community.  He studied law in Howard in the office of his uncle, H. S. Douthitt, and was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1889.  He spent the following winter in Texas, then returned and became a partner of his uncle, his former preceptor, and was associated with him in practice until the death of Mr. Douthitt in 1904, since which time Mr. Ayres has practiced alone.  He is admitted to practice before all the courts of the state and in the federal courts.  He was elected county attorney of Elk county in 1902 and served two terms, or four years.  A loyal Republican in politics, he prominently participates in his party's counsels, having served as a member of the Republican state central committee of Kansas for one year and having otherwise been actively engaged in furthering Republican party interests.  Progressive and energetic alike in professional work and in business life, he has by persistence and industry become one of the substantial men of finance in Elk county, as well as one of the leading lawyers, and he may have a justified pride in his accomplishments, for they represent the result of wholly his own pluck and merit.  Aside from his law practice he became interested in farming and cattle feeding and is now engaged in that line.  Horses, mules and hogs are bred on his farms, and he feeds cattle extensively.  He is also vice-president of the First National Bank of Howard.

In 1892 Mr. Ayres was united in marriage to Miss Olive Jackson, a daughter of J. C. Jackson.   Mr. Jackson, who is a native of Ireland, immigrated to America, when but a boy and located in Indiana, where he bacame a wholesale jeweler and has ever since been engaged in that line of business.  He now resides in Elk county, Kansas.  Mrs. Ayres is member of the Presbyterian church.

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His obit appears on the obituary board.