Abraham Kurkindolle Allison was born on December 10, 1814, in Jones County, Georgia, to James and Sarah Allison. He earned a living as a merchant, and he moved from Georgia to Alabama and then to Florida. He took part in the Second Seminole War in the 1830s. He married Mary Jane Nathans, and they had at least three children: Charles, born around 1838; Ella, born around 1842; and Mary, born around 1847. They moved to Quincy, Florida, around 1839, and he worked as a lawyer.

 

His wife died in the 1850s, and he married Elizabeth Coleman on January 19, 1857. They had at least three children: Abraham, born around 1859; Thomas, born around 1862; and Sarah, born around 1867. By 1860, he owned $16,000 of real estate and $120,000 of personal property.

 

He supported the Democratic Party, and he served in Florida’s state legislature in the 1840s and early 1850s. He was a member of the Florida Secession Convention, and he voted in favor of secession. During the Civil War, he served in the Florida State Senate. When Governor John Milton died on April 1, 1865, Allison assumed became the state’s governor. He resigned on May 19, 1865, shortly before federal soldiers occupied Tallahassee. Union forces, however, captured him on June 19, 1865, and imprisoned him for several months.

 

He returned to Quincy after the war and resumed his legal practice. He applied for a presidential pardon in June 1865 and received one four months later. The war, however, had apparently destroyed his finances, and by 1870, he owned $2,000 of personal property. He fiercely opposed Reconstruction. During the election of 1870, he led a group of armed men who blocked Black voters from the polls. As one historian explains, he was later “convicted of violating federal laws and served six months in jail.” His health deteriorated in the 1890s, and he died on July 8, 1893.

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