Allen Trimble

Allen Trimble
From a Freeman Thorpe painting in Statehouse
8th & 10th Governor of Ohio
In office December 19, 1826 – December 18, 1830
Preceded by	Jeremiah Morrow
Succeeded by	Duncan McArthur
In office January 4, 1822 – December 28, 1822
Preceded by	Ethan Allen Brown
Succeeded by	Jeremiah Morrow
12th Speaker of the Ohio Senate
In office December 6, 1819 – December 3, 1826
Preceded by	Robert Lucas
Succeeded by	Abraham Shepherd
Personal details
Born	(1783-11-24)November 24, 1783 Augusta County, Virginia
Died	Hillsboro, Ohio
Political party	Democratic-Republican National Republican Whig Know Nothing Constitutional Union
Relations	James Trimble (father) Jane Allen Trimble (mother)
Children	Eliza Thompson (daughter)

Allen Trimble (November 24, 1783 – February 3, 1870) was a Federalist and National Republican politician from Ohio. Son of James Trimble and Jane Allen. He served as the eighth and tenth Governor of Ohio, first concurrently as Senate Speaker, later elected twice in his own right.

Biography

Governor Trimble was born Hugh Allen Trimble in Augusta County, Virginia to James Trimble, Revolutionary War veteran, and Jane Allen Trimble. He was of Ulster Scots ancestry. In October 1784, his father moved his family to a veterans land grant in then Fayette County, Kentucky. In October 1804, James Trimble died leaving Allen head of the family. Allen Trimble moved them to a homestead he and his father had established outside of Hillsboro, Ohio.

Career

Trimble was a clerk of the Common Pleas Court in 1808. He also served as recorder of deeds in 1808.

After briefly serving during the War of 1812, Trimble served in the Ohio House of Representatives from 1816 to 1817 and then in the Ohio State Senate from 1818 to 1826. Trimble became Speaker of the Senate, and it was in this capacity that he became governor from January to December 1822 when Governor Ethan Allen Brown resigned to take a seat in the United States Senate.

Trimble ran an election for a full term in 1822, but narrowly lost. He challenged Jeremiah Morrow again in 1824, narrowing the distance between the two, but still losing. He won a landslide election in 1826, however, as a National Republican and then won a second full term in 1828. Trimble did not seek re-election in 1830.

He then retired to farming, taking little part in politics for the next quarter-century, but did consent to accepting the nomination of the Know-Nothings for governor in 1855. Trimble came in third, losing to Republican US Senator Salmon Chase and incumbent Democrat William Medill. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Constitutional Union Party convention in Baltimore.

Death

Trimble died at his family farm in Ohio, and was buried in Hillsboro Cemetery in Hillsboro, Ohio.

Legacy

Trimble, Ohio, a village in Athens County, Ohio, is named in Trimble's honor. Court Street, a street in Hillsboro, Ohio, on the north side of the Highland County Courthouse, was renamed "Governor Trimble Place" in 1974.

Trimble's daughter, Eliza, helped to initiate the temperance movement in the United States.

External links

• National Governors Association
• Ohio Memory
• Allen Trimble at Find a Grave

 

Political offices
Preceded by Robert Lucas	Speaker of the Ohio Senate 1819–1826	Succeeded by Abraham Shepherd
Preceded by Ethan Allen Brown	Governor of Ohio 1822	Succeeded by Jeremiah Morrow
Preceded by Jeremiah Morrow	Governor of Ohio 1826–1830	Succeeded by Duncan McArthur
Ohio House of Representatives
Preceded by James Johnston	Representative from Highland County 1816–1817	Succeeded by Joseph Swearingen
Ohio Senate
Preceded by Samuel Evans	Senator from Highland and Fayette Counties 1817–1826	Succeeded by John Jones