ALLEN CLORE. A man who has taken an active part in the upbuilding of his township and has given to it an example in the way of patient industry, speculative investigation, and great attention to the minutia of agricultural work, Mr. Clore, of whom here we shall attempt to give a sketch, has well earned the rest from active labor that he now enjoys. He now from the richness of his own experience, can advise and instruct the young men who are coming up and following in his footsteps, and while they, in the light of new and practical sciences applied to the common act of farming, can give him many new lines of thought, he, in return can pass opinion upon the feasibility of their investigations in the light of actual experience.

Mr. Clore is one of the oldest settlers in Moultrie County, and his friends hope for him still many years of agreeable existence, and as he belongs to a long lived family, doubtless their wish will be gratified. His parents were Benjamin and Ann (Christopher) Clore, both of whom were natives of Virginia. There they were married and removed to Kentucky at a very early day, settling in what was then Jefferson County, but since divided, and that part of the county in which they lived is now called Oldham County. There both parents died, the father being ninety-four years of age, and the mother about eighty. They had eleven children, all of whom lived to be grown. Our subject was one of the youngest members of the flock and he was born in what is now Oldham County, Ky. November 27, 1810, so that the patriarchal snows may now be seen upon his reverend and venerable head.

Our subject was reared on a farm in his native county and there he grew to manhood and continued to live until he came to this county and State in 1833, and settled on section 28, of Lovington Township, a short distance west from where the village of Lovington now stands, and covering a portion of the present site of the town, he having sold four acres of his farm for the use of the village. Thus he has lived to see spring up around him, families and children's families, with the newcomers that are inevitably attracted to a place with a vigorous growth, and one having such local advantages as has Lovington.

Just previous to coming to this State, the original of our sketch was married in Oldham County, Ky., July 28, 1833, to one of the Kentucky women who are so notable for beauty and housewifely skill. The lady's name was Ann E. Hardin. Her parents were Jonathan and Lucy (Wilhoite) Harden. Their decease occurred in her native county and State and at an advanced age. Mrs. Clore's natal day was October 20, 1813. A little brood of children soon gathered around the family hearth and board. They were seven in number and were by name, Lucy A., John H., William S., Mary E., James W., Zachary T. and Susan E. The eldest daughter became the wife of Stanton Adkins, while the eldest son is engaged in farming in Missouri. William S. was a soldier in the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Illinois Regiment and died at Pine Bluff, October 20, 1864, while in the discharge of his duty; Mary E. married Jacob Jones; James W. is a farmer in Moultrie County; Zachary T. resides in Lovington, and for a further history of his life see sketch in another part of this volume; Susan E. became the wife of Sissel Boggs and died in Bement, Ill.; her death was the result of burns. While sweeping, her dress caught fire and, running across the street before help could be brought, she was so severely burned that she died from the effects, February, 1872.

Mrs. Ann E. Clore, our subject's wife died March 8, 1877. She was an admirable Christian character, performing her duties about the domestic realm so conscientiously and sweetly, never impatient or fretful, that her example in itself did much to convince a careless person of the beauty of Christian life. A tender, loving wife, a devoted mother and a good neighbor, her ear was ever ready and her heart sympathetic to the troubles or interests of others. She was a devoted member of the Christian Church and had been so since fifteen years of age.

During the war, Mr. Clore was President of the Union League in Moultrie County, and he is proud of the fact that since the organization of the Republican party, he has been one of its most loyal and stanch supporters. In his church relation, he has been a member and communicant of the Christian Church since he was twenty-three years old. Personally, in his younger days our subject was a man of great physical strength, and of well proportioned, though Herculean mold. When but fourteen years of age he gathered twenty-two barrels of apples in a single day, jumping from the outreaching branches of one tree to those of another; the trunks of the trees were forty feet apart. When sixteen years old, he was able to stand in a half bushel basket and shoulder three bushels of wheat, and when thirteen years old he made a full hand in the harvest field for eleven days. In these days, few men outside of trained athletes, could perform such feats. Mr. Clore's experience has not been devoid of adventure and incident, although he has devoted his life to the peaceful pursuit of bucolic labor. The romance and tragedy, however, that is nearest and dearest to him, is not the subject for general reading, nor for prying eyes to look into. Every man has his secrets that go down into the grave with him, and that are only read in the bright white light of the other world.

Portrait and Biographical Record of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, 1891 - p. 667/668

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