Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/92

ALLEN.ALLEN. in Philadelphia, Pa. In 1862, after his father's death, he became a rodman on the Camden & Amboy railroad, and in 1863 was promoted to be assistant engineer. In 1868 he became resident engineer of the West Jersey railroad; on Oct. 1, 1872, assistant editor of the Official Railway Guide, and in May, 1873, was made its editor, and business manager of the National railway publication company, then of Philadelphia, afterward of New York. In 1875 Mr. Allen was elected permanent secretary of the general time convention, composed of the general managers and superintendents of the principal railroad trunk lines, which then met to determine upon schedules of through trains on the eastern and western roads. In the following year he was elected secretary of the southern time convention, consisting of representatives of the leading southern railway lines. These conventions were consolidated in 1886, and from them the American railway association, composed of companies operating and controlling 186,000 miles of road, was developed, and Mr. Allen became secretary of the association. By unanimous resolutions of the conventions his services were acknowledged for the formulation of the plan, and the accomplishment of the practical part of the work, which culminated in the adoption of standard time, based upon the Greenwich hour-meridians, by the United States and Canada, Nov. 18, 1883. The same system was subsequently adopted by other countries, and came into general use in Japan, the Philippines, Porto Rico, Spain, Australia, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Roumania, Servia, and part of Turkey, for which purpose a large amount of information was furnished by Mr. Allen. He was appointed by President Arthur one of the five delegates who represented the United States at the international meridian conference held in Washington, D.C., in October, 1884. Twenty-five nations were represented and the Greenwich meridian was adopted as the prime meridian and standard of time reckoning. An address delivered by him at this time on standard time as adopted in the United States was reprinted in many languages, with the proceedings of the conference. On April 22, 1890, he was elected as honorary member of the K.K. geographical society of Vienna, Austria, in recognition of his services in the adoption of standard time. He was selected as one of eight delegates to represent the American railway association at the meeting of the international railway congress, held in London, 1895, and one of six delegates, and an official U.S. delegate, to the congress in Paris in 1900 He was one of the council of the American metrological society for introducing the metric system; a member of the American society of civil engineers; a member of the American economic society; of the American society for the advancement of science; of the American academy of political and social science, and of the American statistical association. ALLEN, William Henry, educator, was born near Augusta, Me., March 27, 1808. After preparatory study in the Maine Conference seminary, he entered Bowdoin college, where he was graduated in 1833. He was professor of Greek and Latin in the Methodist seminary at Cazenovia, N. Y., from 1833 to 1836, when he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy and chemistry in Dickinson college; and in 1846 he accepted additional duties as professor of English literature and philosophy, acting, during 1847-'48, as president of the college. In January, 1850, he received the appointment of president of Girard college, and in 1862 left there to assume the presidency of the Pennsylvania agricultural college, which he held until 1867, when he returned to Girard college, of which he was president until his death. Dr. Allen was chosen president of the American Bible society in 1872. The degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by Union college in 1850, and the same degree by Emory and Henry college, Virginia. He was a frequent contributor to the secular and religious press. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., Aug. 29, 1882. ALLEN, William Joshua, jurist, was born in Wilson County, Tenn., June 9, 1828, son of William Allen. He removed to Illinois with his parents in 1829; was educated in the public schools and was employed in the office of the Clerk of Williams county, 1846-'47. He attended the law school at Louisville, Ky., 1847-'48, and practised in Metropolis, Ky., 1848-'53, and in partnership with his father at Marion, Ill., in 1853. He was a representative in the Illinois legislature in 1854; U. S. district attorney for the southern district of Illinois, 1855-'59; circuit judge of the 26th Illinois circuit, 1859-'61; and a member of the State constitutional convention of 1861. He was elected to the 37th Congress as a Democrat to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of his law partner, Gen. John A. Logan, and was re-elected to the 38th Congress, serving 1862-'65. He practised law at Cairo, Ill., 1865-'74, and at Carbondale, Ill., 1874-'87, becoming in the latter year, U. S. district judge of the southern district of Illinois. He died at Springfield, Ill., in 1900. ALLEN, William Vincent, senator, was born at Midway, Madison county, Ohio, Jan. 26, 1847. At the age of ten he emigrated with his family to Iowa, where he attended the common schools, and for a time studied at Upper Iowa university. Soon after the outbreak of the civil war he volunteered as a private in the 32d Iowa infantry, and served till the close of the war, during the