Matthew Allison, the eldest of all these eighteen children, was born in Haverstraw, and died before 1795, leaving several children, among them Hendrick Allison, who married Sarah Marks, daughter of George Marks, of the same town. They moved to Manhattan Island, thence to New Dock, N. J., and finally to Hackensack Township, Bergen County, to a point beneath the Palisades, near what is now Englewood Township. They were the grandparents of the subject of this article. William Henry Allison, son of Hendrick and father of William 0., was born in Hackensack Township on the 10th of September, 1820. In 1840 he married Catherine, daughter of David and Elizabeth (Blauvelt) Jordan and granddaughter of Joseph Jordan, a French soldier, who came over with Lafayette and fought for American independence, and who, after the Revolution, married Elsie Parsells, and settled at Closter, on the top of the Palisades, where he died.

The maternal ancestors of William O. Allison were among the original Dutch settlers at Old Tappan, one of the earliest settlements in New Jersey, and have resided in Bergen County for more than two hundred years.

William O. Allison was born in old Hackensack (now Palisade) Township, Bergen County, N. J., March 30, 1849. From his early boyhood he lived much of the time in the family of William B. Dana, a prominent resident of the Palisades, a man of forceful and exemplary character, and a journalist of culture. The accident of this environment had an important part in his career, and he has never failed to fully acknowledge, by word and deed, the benign influence which Mr. Dana's wife, Mrs. Katharine Floyd Dana, exerted upon him. She took a deep interest in the boy, and his intellectual development was guided by her in a manner born of superior intelligence and refinement and by the great strength of character which she possessed. Finding in him the inherent traits for development, she saw them expand into manhood, and broaden and increase in power. Never was a friendship more liberally rewarded. His gratitude was expressed by the devotion which he accorded to her and by his adoption of the name Outis " in compliment to a fancy of hers that his initials should correspond to those of her nom de plume, "Olive A. Wadsworth."

In 1868 Mr. Allison, having received an excellent training at the hands of this childless woman, entered the office of the Financial Chronicle and the Daily Bulletin, which were owned by Mr. Dana and John G. Floyd, Mrs. Dana's brother. Here he acquired a thorough and general knowledge of the publishing business, and with this and keen business instincts lie soon developed into the best commercial reporter ever connected with the New York press. He invented and instituted a system of thoroughness in reports which had previously been unknown, and which few reporters have been able to copy successfully. When he entered Mr. Dana's employ he received $7 per week; inside of three years he had a weekly salary of $40 as a reporter. But this rapid progress did not satisfy his ambition. The confidence which he felt in his system of making a specialty of a few markets and doing them thoroughly led him, on October 21, 1871, to issue the first number of the Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter, a small four-page paper of extremely modest appearance when compared with other publications already prominent in the industries to which it was devoted. The Reporter, however, contained more of real value to the subscribers than any other sheet, and its growth in circulation was remarkable, while its advertising patronage, in connection with added departments of valuable reading matter, forced numerous successive enlargments.

But it was not until after a hard struggle of several years that Mr. Allison saw the fulfillment of the hope which he had entertained at the beginning of his career. His perseverance, united with great business tact and skill, alone brought him into prominence in a field in which he now has no superiors and few if any equals. As a result of the policy of obtaining and furnishing accurate, comprehensive, and valuable information concerning all the markets which the paper covers and reports, the successful growth of the business is believed to have no parallel in commercial journalism. The Reporter soon became one of the most profitable class publications in the country, and exerts an influence in the trades to which it is allied such as no other commercial publication has wielded. In 1874 he established The Painters magazine, with which was subsequently consolidated the Wall Paper Trade Journal, and about the same time he purchased The Druggists Circular, which was started in 1857. These three publications – the Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter, The Druggists Circular, and The Painters Magazine – not only continue to hold their prestige and influence among the trades which they represent, but enjoy a constantly increasing measure of success and a world-wide popularity and reputation.

These relations have brought Mr. Allison into close personal contact with a large clientage, have made his judgment and opinions much sought after, and have led him into enterprises outside of the publishing business. Inheriting a tendency to operate in real estate, he has acquired from time to time considerable tracts of land on or near the Palisades until he has become one of the largest landowners in that section. And the eminent success which lie has achieved as publisher, financier, and real estate operator has won for him the respect, confidence, and admiration of all who know him. His industry and good judgment, his commercial and financial enterprises, and his many successful achievements, together with his unostentatious benefactions, mark him as a man of distinction and honor. He has gained by his own efforts an enviable place among the foremost publishers and financiers of the day, and may well regard with pride the career which he has carved out of surroundings shorn of none of the difficulties and temptations which every one encounters.