Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/88

ALLEN.ALLEN. ALLEN, Joseph Henry, theologian, was born in Northboro, Mass., Aug. 21 1820; son of the Rev. Joseph and (Ware) Allen, and a direct descendant of "Walter Allen of Durham county, England, who immigrated to America and settled at Dedham, Mass., in 1630. His father was pastor of the church at Northboro, 1816-'73, and his mother was a daughter of Prof. Henry Ware of Harvard college. He was graduated at Harvard, A.B. in 1840, and from the divinity school in 1843. He was minister of the Third Unitarian parish at Roxbury, Mass., 1843-'47; Washington, D.C., 1847-'50; Bangor, Maine, 1850-'57; private instructor at Jamaica Plain, Mass., 1850-'63; minister at Northboro, 1863-'66; Ann Arbor, Mich., 1877-'78; editor of the Christian Examiner, 1857-'69, and of the Unitarian Review, 1887-'94. He was lecturer on ecclesiastical history in Harvard, 1878-'82, and received from Harvard the degrees A.M., 1879, D.D., 1891. He was married in May, 1845, to Anna, sister of S. M. Weld, and a descendant of Thomas Welde, first minister of Roxbury. They had three sons, Richard Minot, Gardner Weld and Russell Carpenter. He is the author of "Ten Discourses on Orthodoxy" (1849); "Memoirs of Hiram Withington" (1849); "Manual of Devotion" (1852); "Hebrew Men and Times from the Patriarchs to the Messiah" (1861); "The Great Controversy of States and People"; "Fragments of Christian History to the Founding of the Holy Roman Empire"; "Christian History in its Three Great Periods" (3 vols., 1883); "Outline of Christian History, A.D. 50-1880"; Positive Religion" (1891); "History of Unitarianism" (1894): "Our Liberal Movement in Theology" (1897) and edited the Allen and Greenough Classical Series. He died in Cambridge, Mass., March 20, 1898. ALLEN, Nathan, physician, was born in Princeton, Mass., April 25, 1813, son of Moses and Mehitable (Oliver) Allen, and a lineal descendant of Walter Allen, one of the original proprietors of Old Newbury, who died in Charlestown, Mass., in 1673. His boyhood was spent on a farm, and after acquiring an academical education he was graduated at Amherst college in 1836. He then devoted four years to the study of medicine at the Pennsylvania medical school, and was graduated in 1841, removing to Lowell, Mass. Aside from establishing a large practice, Dr. Allen devoted considerable time to physiological research, and his published papers attracted attention among physicians in both the old world and the new. In 1856 he was chosen by the legislature a trustee of Amherst college, and established in that institution the department of physical culture. Governor Andrew appointed him a member of the Massachusetts state board of charities in 1864, and he served in that body throughout its existence, a period of fifteen years. In 1872 he was sent by Governor Washburn as a delegate to the international congress which met in London to discuss prison and other reforms. In 1873 Amherst college conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. He was a member of the American medical association, the American academy of medicine, the American public health association, and the Massachusetts medical society. His published writings include: "An Essay on the Condition of Mental Philosophy with Medicine" (1841); "The Opium Trade" (1850); "The Law of Human Increase; or Population Based on Physiology and Psychology" (1868); "Physical Culture in Amherst College" (1869); "The Inter-marriage of Relations" (1869); "Physical Degeneracy" (1870); "The Physiological Laws of Human Increase" (1870); "Lessons on Population Suggested by Grecian and Roman History" (1871 ); "Important Medical Problems" (1874); "State Medicine, in Its Relation to Insanity" (1875); "Normal Standard of Women for Propagation" (1876); "Claims of the Sick Poor" (1877); "The New England Family" (1882); and "Physical Development" (1888). He died in Lowell, Mass., Jan. 1, 1889. ALLEN, Philip, governor of Rhode Island, was born in Providence, R. I., Sept. 1, 1785. In 1803 he was graduated at Rhode Island college, and then engaged in the importation of goods from the West Indies. The war of 1812 hindered this business, and he began to manufacture cotton goods at Smithfield, R. I., gradually acquiring a foremost position in that industry. He was noted for introducing improvements into his mills, and the "Allen Prints," manufactured at the works which he established at Providence, R. I., in 1831, made his name familiar to every housewife in the country. He acquired prominence as a statesman, being elected to the Rhode Island legislature in 1819; also serving on the committee for the settlement of the state debt. He was democratic governor of Rhode Island in 1851, and was re-elected to the same office in 1852 and 1853. He was a United States senator from Rhode Island from 1853 to 1859, and served on the committees on commerce and naval affairs. He died at his home in Providence, Dec. 16, 1865. ALLEN, Richard L., author, was born in Hampden county, Mass., in October, 1803. He entered commercial life in New York city and wrote on agricultural subjects. He afterwards studied law in Baltimore, but his health becoming impaired he settled on a farm in Niagara county, N. Y., in 1832. In 1842 Mr. Allen and his brother began the publication of the American Agriculturist, and in 1856 they opened a store for the sale of improved agricultural implements in New York. Mr. Allen was a clear and practical writer