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HON. JOHN ALLEN
OLD SAYBROOK: Senator
John Allen of Old Saybrook. Middlesex county, Conn., was born in Meriden on the 6th day of February, 1815. He was the eldest of four children of Levi Allen, a farmer and prominent citizen of that place. He is a lineal descendant of Roger Allen of New Haven, who was a contemporary of Rev. John Davenport and deacon in his church. His grandfathers, Archelaus Allen and Aaron Hall of Wallingford, were patriots of the revolution, and served in the war for our national independence. After receiving a good academic education he was placed in the store of Major Elisha A. Cowles, in his native town, where, under the several changes in the style of the firm, he served a clerkship from the age of fourteen to twenty. In the spring of 1836 he removed to New York, and entered the employ of Perkins, Hopkins & White, wholesale merchants, then extensively engaged in the dry-goods jobbing business with the South. He remained with that firm in confidential relations through a period of unusual instability and difficulty in the mercantile affairs of the country, during which time, by active participation in the business, he gained valuable experience in laying the foundation of his future prosperity. Upon the re-organization of that firm in 1842, he became interested as a partner with Perkins & Hopkins; and upon a subsequent re-organization, was of the house of Hopkins, Allen & Co. It was, however, as a member of the last-named firm, whose high reputation was a fitting tribute to its enterprise, integrity, and success, that he became prominently known to the business world.
On the 10th day of November, 1847, he was married to Mary Ann Phelps, daughter of the late Hon. Elisha Phelps of Simsbury. His intercourse with the people of the South made him familiar with their views and policy in reference to the institution of slavery, and perceiving the growing antagonism between free and slave-labor, which foreshadowed serious difficulty to the country, he resolved to withdraw from mercantile business (then conducted largely upon credit), and established a residence in the town of Old Saybrook, where his family now resides. Being in active sympathy with the government of the United States in its efforts to maintain its integrity and suppress the rebellion, he received an unsought nomination to represent the nineteenth senatorial district in the state senate of Connecticut, and was elected thereto in 1863, and again in 1864, and in both years was chairman of the joint standing committee on finance, whose labors were of the highest importance in that critical period of public affairs, when the state was raising money for the war. The financial measures recommended by that committee and adopted by the legislature, not only enabled the state to creditably place its full quota of men in the field, but established a policy in the revision of the tax laws which has met the approval of the people of the state for twenty years, and reduced to a minimum amount the public debt. The present equitable method of taxing railroad property, on the basis of what it will sell for, by which the market value of its stock and bonds is made the measure of value of such property for purposes of taxation, was suggested by him.
On the 17th day of June, 1864, Mr. Allen introduced into the Connecticut legislature the first resolution in favor of the abolition of slavery by constitutional amendment. He was one of the delegates from Connecticut to meet a convention of loyal Southerners at Philadelphia, on the third day of September, 1866, called to give expression to the sentiments of the people in support of congress against the defection of Andrew Johnson. He was prominent in the movement that arrested the "peace flag" heresy at Saybrook, or the raising of any flag not representing all the states of the Union. He was one of the fellows of the corporation of Yale College while he was senator, in the years aforesaid, the old law being that the six senior senators were members ex officio of that corporation. In the Hayes presidential campaign of 1876, Mr. Allen was a republican presidential elector in this state. In 1867 he was elected president of the Peoria, Pekin & Jacksonville Railroad Company, of the state of Illinois, which position he held in the active administration of the property for twelve years.
In 1883 he was again elected to the state senate from the 21st district, formerly the 19th, and served during the sessions of 1884 and 1885 as chairman of the joint standing committee on railroads. He was chairman of the legislative committee in charge of the public services at the inauguration of Warner’s statue of William A. Buckingham in the battle-flag vestibule of the capitol. For many years he has been identified with the public library in Old Saybrook, and president of the organization.
In matters of church government he is a Congregationalist, in theology a Unitarian, but he attends the Episcopal church with his excellent wife. In politics he is a republican. He has two sons and four daughters. His second daughter is the wife of Hon. William Hamersley of Hartford.
Source: Illustrated Popular Biography of Connecticut - 1891, Compiled and Published by J. A. Spalding, Hartford Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood and Brainard Company, 1891
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