USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I > Part 6
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into contact with him in the conduct of affairs trusted his judgment and had implicit confi- dence in his integrity and rectitude of pur- pose. Ile was a friend in time of need. When a friend was in financial trouble Mr. Allen was invariably appealed to for advice and assist- ance, and these appeals were never made in vain. Ilis activities during life covered a vast field of enterprise, and a multitude of in- dustries and commercial ventures felt the stimulus of his genius and sagacity. For some years he was largely interested in the "Mis- souri Republican" newspaper, now the St. Louis "Republic," and was one of the influen- tial factors in directing its policy and influenc - ing public sentiment through that channel. Few men who have lived in St. Louis have contributed more to the progress and advance- ment of the city than did he, and his death was mourned by all classes of people. He was twice married-first, to Miss Frances Adams, of Pike County, Missouri, and after her death to Mrs. Walter Carr, whose maiden name was Paschall. He left at his death four chil- dren, of whom Mary married Robert Newton Crane, of London, England ; George L. Allen married Lilly McCreery, of St. Louis; Grace married J. Geale Dickson, of Southampton, England. Taylor Allen is unmarried.
Allen, Jacob D., editor and owner of the "Butler Weekly Times," is a representa- tive of a Kentucky family whose members at- tained positions of prominence in that State. His father, Major Richard N. Allen, was a son of Rev. Richard Allen, a clergyman in the Protestant Episcopal Church, who left his home in Ireland to escape religious per- secution and came to America, settling in Maryland. Richard N. Allen married Jean- nette Campbell, whose grandfather immi- grated from Scotland and located in Cattaran- gus County, New York. Our subject's father was a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and was educated for the law in Allegheny College, at Allegheny, Pennsylvania. After graduating from college he engaged in teaching for a while and subsequently conducted a farm. In 1849 he joined an expedition of the California Argonauts in the great rush for gold, but soon returned to Frankfort, Kentucky, where he married Jeannette Campbell, engaged in teaching and other pursuits, and reared a family. Colonel R. T. P. Allen, his brother, who received a classical and military education
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at the West Point Military Academy, re- signed his position in the United States Army after the Seminole War and founded the Ken- tucky Military Institute, located near Frank- fort. In this institution, in its time a cele- brated one, Major Richard N. Allen served as a member of the faculty for some time. In 1875 he removed to Bates County, Missouri, and located on a farm in New Home town- ship, where he resided until a short time be- fore his death, which occurred in the spring of 1899, at the home of his son, in Butler. His wife passed away in 1896. Jacob D. Allen was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, September 12, 1859. His education was begun in the public schools there and concluded in the Kentucky Military Institute, founded by his uncle, from which he was graduated in 1882 with the degree of bachelor of arts. Before entering college he had come to Missouri with his parents in 1875, and from that year to 1879, when he began his college course, he at- tended the schools of Bates County. Upon his return home in 1882 he was almost imme- diately appointed deputy county clerk, in which office he served for a year and a half. In the summer of 1884 he purchased the "But- ler Weekly Times," which he has since owned and edited. During the second administra- tion of President Cleveland he served as post- master of Butler, administering the affairs of that office in a manner highly satisfactory to its patrons. Always a staunch Democrat, he was a member of the Missouri delegation to the National Convention in 1892, which nomi- nated Grover Cleveland, representing the Sixth District. In October, 1899, Governor Lon V. Stephens appointed him a member of the com - mission having in charge the erection and equipment of State Lunatic Asylum No. 4, lo- cated at Farmington, St. Francois County, and the commission at its first meeting elected him to the chairmanship. This body decided upon an innovation, as far as Missouri asylums are concerned, adopting plans for several cottages for the use of the inmates, in the place of the prison-like building commonly devoted to this purpose. Five cottages will be erected at the start, besides the domestic buildings neces- sary, as the appropriation, $150,000, is too limited to warrant the erection of a larger number. By the plan adopted the inmates of the new asylum will be accorded residential privileges more like those of a private home, and the most expert alienists in the country
now agree that this plan is more conducive to the speedy recovery of demented persons than the system, more commonly in use, of shelter- ing all in one large building. Mr. Allen has never been a candidate for public elective of- fice, preferring to devote all the time possible to the management of his newspaper, which has become a potent factor in the affairs of the State, especially in Southwest Missouri. In Masonry he is a member of the Blue Lodge, and has passed all the chairs in Odd Fellow- ship in the lodge at Butler. He was married, October 6, 1886, at Butler, to Ida R. Wood, daughter of George C. Wood, of that city. The last named, who was a native of Mary- land, came to Bates County, Missouri, from Iowa and engaged in business as a carpenter and cabinetmaker in Butler. He and his wife are both deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Allen are the parents of three sons, Robert D., Wil- liam Henry and Jacob Wood Allen. In his college days Mr. Allen fraternized with the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Society, whose chapters were composed exclusively of students in Southern colleges. The history of the frater- nity, under the heading, Class of 1882, Ken- tucky Chi, contains the following: "Jacob Dickinson Allen, editor. Butler, Missouri, A. B., 1882; lieutenant, 1880-1 ; senior cap- tain of corps, 1881-2; salutatorian, 1882; con -. gressional committeeman, 1886-8; delegate to National Democratic Convention, 1892; editor and publisher, 1884 -. " Perhaps the best estimate of the character of Mr. Allen, succinctly given, is contained in the following, which appeared in the "Missouri Editor." in October, 1896, from the pen of one of the best known editors of the State: "As an editor Mr. Allen is conscientious, bright, bold and able; as a postmaster he is obliging ; as a friend he is manly, true and steadfast. No power can swerve him from the pathway of right; and as he sees a duty, either public or private, he pur- sties it to the end. This characteristic has won him many warm and devoted friends, and his power in southwest Missouri is keenly felt whenever he attempts to assert his sway."
Allen, John Marshall, physician, was born July 23, 1833, in Clay County, Missouri, son of Colonel Shubael Allen, a distinguished pioneer of northwestern Missouri. Reared in his native county, he began his education in the common schools and completed it at Wil- liam Jewell College. In 1852 he began the
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study of medicine under the preceptorship of the accomplished Dr. Joseph M. Wood, then a practitioner at Liberty. The same year he entered the St. Louis Medical College, from which he was graduated in March, 1854. His talent and proficiency in his studies had won for him the regard and admiration of the faculty, and Dr. Charles A. Pope, the dean, urged him to apply for the position of physi- cian at the St. Louis Hospital. While much gratified with this evidence of appreciation, Dr. Allen declined, preferring to enter upon general practice, and at once located at Clays- ville, Clay County. IIe was then four hun- dred dollars in debt, and his sole possessions were six dollars in money, a limited wardrobe, "Russell's Modern Europe," the "Lord's Prayer," and a few medical works. He made frank confession of his circumstances to Cap- tain William Cummons, a genial Southern gentleman, noted for purity of character and kindly disposition, who proffered to take him into his home, trust him for his board and sup- ply him with such funds as he might need. Colonel A. W. Doniphan, Edward M. Samuel and other friends also proffered assistance, but he gratefully declined all loans and began practice, relying solely upon his own efforts. He remained in Claysville for seven years, and became one of the leading physicians in that region, enjoying a large practice, which ex- tended into Ray County. In 1861 he went to St. Louis to take a post-graduate medical course. Soon, however, occurred the first acts marking the conflict between the North and the South, and loyalty to his State im- pelled him to abandon his studies and go to Richmond, Missouri, where he organized a company of State Guards, of which he was elected captain. This company became a part of the regiment of Colonel Benjamin A. Rives, who was killed in action at Elk Horn. In May, 1861, Captain Allen was commissioned surgeon of this regiment, attached to the Fourth Division of the Missouri State Guard. Upon the expiration of the six months' term of enlistment he was one of seventeen men who voluntarily took an oath binding them- . selves to service "for forty years, or during the war," and this little company formed the nu- cleus for the Third Missouri Infantry Regi- ment, First Missouri Brigade, Confederate States Army. In December, 1861, Captain Allen was commissioned surgeon of his regi- ment, and became brigade surgeon by senior-
ity. While serving in this capacity he was placed in charge of the wounded from the bloody battle at Port Gibson, Mississippi, where his careful attention to the sufferers, the thoroughness of his hospital organization, and his punctual and accurate reports to liis su- periors, attracted the attention of General Joseph E. Johnston, who promoted him to the position of chief surgeon of the District of Mississippi and East Louisiana, attaching him to the staff of General Wirt Adams, and he served in this capacity until the close of the war. He participated in many of the great battles, including those of Wilson's Creek, Carthage, Dry Wood and Lexington, in Mis- souri : Elk Horn, in Arkansas ; Corinth, Iuka, Grand Gulf and Port Gibson, in Mississippi, and others of less importance. At all times, when not occupied with actual care of the wounded, Surgeon Allen ignored his rights as a non-combatant, and was found at the front in every engagement in which his regiment took a part, and from the beginning of the war until the end he was never absent from his command, even temporarily. He was dis- charged in May, 1865, at Gainesville, Ala- bama, and returning to Clay County, resumed practice at Liberty, which has since been his place of residence. Long and ardnous service in his profession has given him a high place among the best of Missouri physicians. Re- garding the practice of medicine as one of the noblest of callings, his constant effort has been to uplift its standards, and to aid in improving the attainments of practitioners. As early as 1856 he was active in the organization of the Clay County Medical Society, of which he was president at various times. In 1858 he be- came a member of the American Medical As- sociation, and in 1899 he was elected its first vice president. He was an original member of the Kansas City District Medical Society, and became its first president. In 1868 he became a member of the Missouri State Medi- cal Society, of which he was subsequently elected president : he was the first to urge the organization of a State Board of Health, by a resolution which he introduced in that body, and he has constantly maintained a zealous in- terest in its purposes and conduct. In 1878 he was appointed a special lecturer on diseases of the gastro-intestinal canal, before the medi- cal department of the State University, and resigned the position in 1881 to take the chair of Principles and Practice of Medicine in
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the University Medical College of Kansas City. In 1887 he was elected president of the latter institution, and under his guidance its thirty students were increased to three hun- dred. Overburdened with labors, he resigned the presidency in 1898, but retained his pro- fessorship and is yet serving. For many years he has been a liberal contributor to the high- est class of periodical medical literature, and has advanced many original views in relation to diseases of the gastro-intestinal canal, a branch of medical science to which he has de- voted much attention, and in which he is rec- ogmized not only as a practitioner of sur- passing ability, but as pre-eminently a pioneer. He was a representative in the Missouri Leg- islature in the session of 1884-5, and was known as an intelligent and industrious mem- ber. Among notable measures which he originated was one for the establishment of a State Inebriate Asylum, and a funding bill regulating the sale of State bonds, which saved to the people many thousands of dollars. A gentleman of culture and education, he has been for many years an active member of the Liberty Literary Club, and has given much systematic study to literary subjects and to educational affairs. He was for more than twenty-five years a trustee of William Jewell College, and was largely instrumental in plac- ing it upon a substantial basis when its condi- tion was precarious. In recognition of his services, and of his literary and professional attainments, the college conferred upon him the degree of doctor of laws. He has been a lifelong advocate of temperance, and has been concerned in all temperance move- ments since 1848. He is a fluent and forceful public speaker, and his utterances command attention and respect. In busi- ness concerns he has been habitually suc- cessful, and he is numbered among the most successful of the men of affairs in the portion of the State in which he has so long resided. While careful in his transactions, he is scrupulously upright, as well as generous in his relations with his fellows, and liberal in his benefactions to all worthy public objects. With his mental powers at their best and a superb physique, he affords no evidence of age, while he is youthful in his cheery dispo- sition and unaffected affability. Dr. Allen was married, April 15, 1866, to Miss Agnes MeAlpine, daughter of William R. MeAlpine, of Port Gibson, Mississippi. The living chil-
dren born of the marriage are Shubael W. Allen, a very successful business man, now re- siding in Houston, Texas, and Malvina, a graduate of Liberty Ladies' College, residing at home. The second child, Marshall Allen, died in 1895. He was a young man of splen- did attainments, and at the time of his death was just on the eve of completing his medical education at the University Medical College, Kansas City.
Allen, John W., clergyman, was born February 1, 1837, in Belmont County, Ohio. His parents were William and Jane Allen. Like so many of those who have acquired leadership and distinction in society, he was a farmer's son, spending his first years on the farm and there acquiring that strong and healthy physical development which lies at the foundation of an active and useful life. His academic studies were pursued in Miller Acad- emy, Guernsey, Ohio, which institution he en- tered in the year 1855. In 1857 he entered the sophomore class of Washington College, Pennsylvania, and was graduated in the class of 1860. Immediately after his graduation he entered the Western Theological Seminary, where he remained two years. The third year of his theological course was spent in McCormick Theological Seminary, where he finished his theological studies in 1863. After leaving the seminary he was called to the pas- torate of the Presbyterian Church in Van Wert, Ohio. During this pastorate, in the year 1865, he was married to Miss Roxanna Love Purmort. Ill health, resulting from a malarious climate, compelled his resignation from his first charge. Removing to Minne- sota he served one year as stated supply for the church at Lake City ; subsequently he re- moved to Kirkwood, Illinois, where he served two years as stated supply. In the spring of 1868 he removed to Kansas City, Missouri, where for a short time he occupied the pulpit of the First Church of that city. While thus engaged he was elected by his presbytery to be the presbyterial missionary of Kansas City Presbytery. His efficiency and success in dis- charging the duties of his new office drew to him the attention of the Synod of Missouri, as the man best qualified for the important office of synodical missionary, to which office he was unanimously elected by the synod in 1873. The duties of his office necessitated his re- moval to St. Louis, where he has since resided.
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His wisdom and fidelity in the discharge of his official duties won for him the confidence of his brethren to such a degree that for eight successive years he was unanimously re- elected as synodical missionary.
In 1880 he resigned his position to accept that of superintendent of the Board of Publi- cation of the Southwest. The administrative ability which he had shown as superintendent of missions was conspicuously manifested in his new work, and he had the satisfaction of seeing it grow from small beginnings to its present large proportions. The position which he occupied and his accurate knowledge of the field led him to see and urge the expediency of establishing a religious newspaper in the in- terest of the Southwest. Accordingly he be- gan the publication of a monthly, known as "The St. Louis Evangelist," of which he was the editor. The success of this effort led to the formation of a company to publish "The St. Louis Evangelist" weekly. Dr. Allen was chosen as treasurer of the new company and publisher of the paper. Subsequently the name of the paper was changed to that of "The Mid-Continent." He retained his connection with it until it was transferred to Cincinnati, often contributing to its columns and con- ducting it editorially. The laborious and manifold duties of his office have not limited the labors of Dr. Allen. No one in his pres- bytery has been more earnest and efficient in the work of evangelization than he. He is a recognized leader in the mission work of the Presbyterian Church in the State and in St. Louis. He is also the secretary and one of the managers of the St. Louis Bible Society. In 1875 he was elected moderator of the Synod of Missouri. In 1879 the degree of doctor of divinity was conferred upon him by the University of Wooster.
Allen Library .- An institution estab- lished at Westport (now Kansas City) by the Westport Board of Education, in 1896. It is housed in a fine building costing $10,000. In 1893 the Legislature appropriated money, which had been refunded by the Kansas City & Westport Horse Railway, for this purpose. but the project was retarded by a lawsuit to test the constitutionality of the law. The library has 1,300 volumes and a reading room.
AAllen, Shubael, one of the most dis- tinguished of the pioneer settlers of Missouri,
and conspicuous in the development of Clay County, was born February 27, 1793, near Goshen, Orange County, New York. His parents were Thomas and Bathsheba (Stod- dard) Allen, both from English families long established in America. Colonel Shubael Al- len was liberally educated, and was a civil en- gineer by profession. As early as 1816 he constructed a bridge over the Susquehanna River at Columbia, Pennsylvania ; and in 1817 he constructed another over the Kentucky River at Frankfort, Kentucky; the latter was a one-span bridge, of wood, and its building in those days of meager mechanical appli- ances could only have been accomplished through unusual engineering skill. Late in 1817 he removed to St. Louis, Missouri, and the following year to Old Franklin, Howard County. In 1820, in company with Colonel John Thornton, whose wife's sister he subse- quently married, he located in what is now Clay County, and made a farm in the Missouri River bottom at the western base of the bluffs at Liberty Landing, his property embracing a large portion of the contiguous hill region. This farm he made one of the most beautiful and romantic in the State, and his home was a place of interest to many distinguished trav- elers, among whom were military officers, statesmen and literateurs, who were enter- tained with lavish and unaffected hospitality. A large portion of this property has since been swept away by the ever changing river. While conducting his farm Colonel Allen also trans- acted a large business as a commission mer- chant. His warehouses were located at the western extremity of the bluffs, and the local- ity was known as Allen's Landing, which was, from 1826 to 1841, the main point of exit and entrance of nearly all the commerce and travel of northwest Missouri, having regular steam- boat service to St. Louis. Allen's Landing was also for many years the starting point for many of the employes of the American Fur Company in their expeditions to the interior, and an outfitting point for French voyagers and emigrants, presenting an ever varying scene of activity and picturesqueness. . \ man of wonderful energy and industry, Col- onel Allen not only gave diligent attention to the improvement of his farm and the conduct of his mercantile business, but he assumed various public burdens. From 1826 to 1830 he was sheriff, and from 1831 to 1834 he was a justice of the County Court of Clay County
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These years covered an important period in the inauguration of civil order and the estab- lishment of public institutions, and his duties were onerous and exacting. In no instance did he fail to perform unselfish service with signal ability and integrity, and his native dignity and decision of character gave him a peculiar exaltation in the estimation of a peo- ple whose conceptions of the position which he occupied, and of the type of man who could worthily fill them, were derived from the tradi- tions of colonial days under English rule. Colonel Allen derived his military title from his service in command of the Clay County regiment of militia during the Black Hawk War, in 1832. He again commanded the Clay County troops (see "Clay County") dur- ing the "Heatherly War," in 1836. Included in the latter was the "Liberty Blues," famous for its discipline and the elegance of its equip- ments, as well as for the social position of its members ; this company was commanded by Captain David R. Atchison, afterward United States Senator from Missouri. Colonel Allen was married, September 19, 1822, to Miss Dinah Ayres Trigg, daughter of the late Gen- eral Stephen Trigg, of Howard County, origi- nally from Virginia. Miss Trigg was a lady of great beauty and a brilliant conversationist. Her family probably originated in Corn- wall, England, and came from Wales, near the year 1710, to Virginia, where it attained con- siderable distinction. Major Jolin Trigg, pa- ternal grandfather of Miss Trigg, was an ar- tillery officer under Washington, and served at the siege of Yorktown. He was a member of the Virginia Convention of 1788, which ratified the Federal Constitution of 1787, and served therein with James Madison, Patrick Henry, George Mason and other men of great eminence ; and was afterward a representative from Virginia in the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Congresses, and in and out of Con- gress was a strong opponent of the alien and sedition laws. Born to Colonel and Mrs. Al- len were the following children: Elizabeth Bathsheba, who became the wife of the late General Alexander B. Dyer, U. S. A .; Trigg T., a druggist, of Liberty, Missouri; Eugene B .. a business man at Leavenworth, Kansas ; Shubael, who died in carly manhood. at the beginning of a legal carcer which promised usefulness and distinction ; Robert E., a mer- chant, who died in 1900; Augustus Evans, who died at the age of five years, and John M.
and DeWitt C., both of Liberty, Missouri, the former a physician, and the latter a lawyer. Colonel Allen died January 18, 1841. In height and size he was beyond the medium. He was quick and energetic in movement, and his mental characteristics corresponded with the physical. Quick and accurate in his men- tal processes, action immediately followed de- cision. He was a born leader of men and pos- sessed the faculty of commanding confidence without inviting it. An admirably equipped man of affairs, it was said of him that none could in the same time dispatch more business with greater precision, or with less discomfort to others or. to himself. His firmness of pur- pose and absorption in business gave to his countenance a certain austerity, but this dis- appeared in social life, where his conversation was fluent, graceful and apt, with an inde- scribable charm peculiar to himself. His man- ners were dignified and courtly, but so un- affected as to be entirely becoming. His personal appearance, mental qualities and idio- syncrasies were chiefly the gifts of his mother. In public enterprises, benevolences and ad- justment of business affairs he was liberal without ostentation. He was the first Clay- and-Webster Whig in northwest Missouri, and while not in any sense a politician, he took great interest in the success of his party, and was widely influential in its counsels in that part of the State.
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