Allen Family of Middlebury and Rutland, Vt., Papers, 1804-1910 MSC 187, MSA 456 and MS-22 Introduction The collection is comprised of a variety of notebooks, account books, medical notes, letters and miscellaneous papers created by the Allen family of Middlebury and Rutland, Vermont, and spans most of the 19 th century. The collection reflects three generations of this family: Jonathan A. Allen (1787-1848), Charles L. Allen (1820-1890), and Edwin L. Allen (1867-1927). The collection is housed in one document storage box and two archival flip-top boxes and occupies 2 linear feet of shelf space. The collection was reprocessed in April 2007. At least a portion of the collection (the contents of MS- 22) was received from Elbert C. Cole of Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1956. Biographical Notes Jonathan A. Allen (1787-1848) was born November 17, 1787, in Holliston, Massachusetts, to Amos and Abigail Allen. He was named Jonathan Adams Allen after his maternal great-grandfather, Jonathan Adams, a distant relative of John, Samuel and John Quincy Adams. Amos and Abigail Allen moved their family to Newfane, Vermont, in 1788. Amos became town lister and, later, a town selectman. Educated at a common school, Jonathan worked his father s farm until age 21 when, in November 1808, he took a position as a schoolteacher in Townshend, Vermont. Between 1810 and 1812, Jonathan Allen studied medicine under Dr. Paul Wheeler of Wardsborough, Vermont. In the fall of 1812, he began attending lectures at Dartmouth, studying medicine under Dr. Nathan Smith. Jonathan Allen graduated with a medical degree from Dartmouth August 24, 1814. The new Dr. Allen married Betsey Cheney of Jamaica, Vermont, on January 1, 1815, and practiced medicine with his mentor, Dr. Wheeler, in Wardsborough from late 1814 to 1816. In 1816 he and Betsey moved to Brattleboro to set up practice and conduct summer school lectures for medical students. It was while in Brattleboro that the oldest of Jonathan Allen s children were born: Angelina Amelia on March 10, 1818, and Charles Linneaus on June 21, 1820. During his time in Brattleboro, Dr. Allen was invited to teach chemistry at Middlebury College during the 1820 term. He would continue to teach at Middlebury at the unofficial chemistry professor from 1820 to 1826. In 1822 Dr. Allen was appointed Professor of Materia Medica and Pharmacy at the Vermont Academy of Medicine, holding this office until 1829. He also became a member of the Castleton Medical College Corporation during this time. Due to his appointment for the medical school, Dr. Allen moved his family to Middlebury in the spring of 1822. Jonathan and Betsey s third and fourth children were born in Middlebury: William Cullen on February 10, 1823, and Jonathan Adams on January 16, 1825. Betsey Cheney Allen died in Middlebury on March 24, 1826.
Allen Family of Middlebury and Rutland, Vt., Papers 2 Dr. Allen had two sons follow him into the medical profession: Charles Linneaus Allen (see below) and Jonathan Adams Allen. William Cullen died in 1854 at age 31. Dr. Allen became a member of the newly formed Addison County Medical Society in 1822 and served as its president in 1835, from 1842 to 1844, and again from 1846 to 1847. Following the death of his first wife, Dr. Allen married Huldah Dygert on January 4, 1827, and moved his family to Herkimer, New York, to be closer to his wife s family. The couple was married less than two years before Huldah Dygert Allen died, following the birth of a son, Amos Dygert, on January 1, 1829. After her death, Dr. Allen took his four oldest children and returned to Vermont, leaving his youngest son, Amos, in the care of his wife s family. Dr. Allen resumed his practice and teaching in Middlebury, where he would remain for the rest of his life. In 1829, he married Philinda Ransom and they lived together in Middlebury until her death in 1847. The couple had no children. During the entirety of his career, Dr. Allen collected herbs and minerals, writing essays and delivering lectures on their properties and uses. His herbarium, originally 12 volumes, was divided between his sons, Drs. Charles L. and Jonathan A. Allen, on his death. The half belonging to Dr. Charles L. Allen was donated to Middlebury College. Dr. Allen was also heavily involved with the temperance movement, the Vermont Peace Society, and was the secretary for the Executive Committee of the Vermont Anti- Slavery Society. He died, after being thrown from a horse, on February 2, 1848, age 60. Charles L. Allen (1820-1890) was born to Dr. Jonathan A and Betsey Cheney Allen on June 21, 1820, in Brattleboro, Vermont. After a brief time in Herkimer, N.Y., Charles Allen and his siblings spent most of their childhood with their mother s family in Jamaica, Vermont, while their father, Dr. Jonathan Allen was practicing medicine in Middlebury. In 1837, at age 17, and after time spent as a powder-monkey in the U.S. Navy, Charles Allen joined his father in Middlebury and began attending classes at Middlebury College. Though suspended for a year (1841) for attending a Tippecanoe (John Tyler presidential-race) meeting in Massachusetts, Charles Allen graduated from Middlebury College in 1842. Following graduation he traveled to North Carolina, where he spent two years teaching school in Williamsboro, N.C. In 1844, he returned to Vermont and entered Castleton Medical College where he graduated with a M.D. in 1846. From 1846 to 1848 Dr. Charles Allen practiced medicine with his father, Dr. Jonathan Allen. In 1847, he was elected Treasurer and Librarian of the Addison County Medical Society, a position he held until 1859. Following his father s death in 1848, Charles Allen inherited his father s practice and patients, remaining in Middlebury as a physician until 1862. In 1854 Dr. Allen married Harriet Wood Warren Garfield, widow of Dr. F.A. Garfield, by whom he had two daughters: Francis Louisa (born May 21, 1855) and Harriet Warren (born April 9, 1858). Harriet Garfield Allen died April 25, 1858. For a time, following his father s death, Dr. Allen acted as Professor of Chemistry at Middlebury College, but was never formally appointed to the position. He also lectured at Castleton Medical College, where he was appointed Professor of Chemistry in 1855;
Allen Family of Middlebury and Rutland, Vt., Papers 3 and in 1860 he was appointed Professor of Medicine at Castleton. In 1861 Dr. Allen became the President of Castleton Medical College, serving the appointment for one year. In spring 1862 Dr. Allen lectured at the medical department of the University of Vermont, while at the same time serving as one of three doctors on the State Board of Medical Examiners. In June 1862 Lincoln appointed him surgeon of the volunteers of the U.S. Army with the rank of major and he was assigned to duty as one of three surgeons on the Board for Examining Candidates for Surgeons and Assistant Surgeons of Volunteer of the United States Army, at Washington D.C. He remained on this board until January 1864. Serving in Washington from 1862 to 1864, Dr. Allen attended sick and wounded officers in various hotels and boarding houses around the city. On January 15, 1864, Dr. Allen was ordered to the Department of the South, headquartered at Beaufort, South Carolina. There he took charge of General Hospital, No. 2, serving at the Department s second ranking medical surgeon. In April 1864 he was appointed Purveyor of the Department of the South and sent to Hilton Head, South Carolina, where he remained until his resignation in September 1864. After resigning his commission, Dr. Allen returned north, stopping briefly in Butler County Pennsylvania, where he renewed his acquaintance with Margaret Gertrude Lyon, whom he would marry in May 1865. The couple had three children: Edwin Lyon (born March 5, 1867), Charles William (born June 29, 1872) and Harris Campbell (born November 22, 1976). Of his sons, Charles William is the only one to become a doctor: earning his medical degree in 1903 from West Penn Medical College (now the University of Pittsburgh Medical School) and practicing in the Pittsburgh area. His youngest son, Harris Campbell, became an architect and lived in Berkley California with his older sister Louisa. Upon his return to Vermont, Dr. Allen set up his practice in Rutland Vermont and was appointed Examining Surgeon of Pensions in November 1864. In the spring of 1865, UVM requested he chair the Civil and Military Hygiene lectures for their medical department. From 1865 to his death in 1890, Dr. Allen conducted a robust medical practice in Rutland, amid various appointments, such as Consulting Physician of the Mary Fletcher Hospital (Burlington, 1873), Secretary of the Vermont State Board of Health (1886-1890) and President of the U.S. Board of Pension Surgeons (1880). Dr. Allen was also a member of the American Academy of Medicine and the American Public Health Association. According to a biographical sketch written for the Vermont State Medical Society, Dr. Allen had a considerable reputation for his treatment of Bright s Disease and other dropsical diseases. See Vermont Medical Society Transactions, 1876-1891 (610.6 v59t). Dr. Charles Allen died, age 70, July 2, 1890, of a cerebral hemorrhage. His wife, Gertrude Allen, had died the year before in St. Clair Springs, Michigan. Dr. Charles Allen and his wife are buried together at the Lyon family plot of the Middlesex Presbyterian Church in Butler County Pennsylvania. Edwin L. Allen (1867-1927), the oldest son of Dr. Charles and Gertrude Lyon Allen, was born in Rutland, Vermont, on March 5, 1867. He attended public schools in
Allen Family of Middlebury and Rutland, Vt., Papers 4 Rutland and entered Middlebury College in 1884. He was expelled in 1887 and returned to Rutland to read law in the offices of Peleg, Redfield Kendall and the Honorable John Prout. August 14, 1889, Edwin married Anne Elizabeth Hopkins in Blackinton, Massachusetts. The couple lived with his father, Dr. Charles Allen, in Rutland until his father s death in July 1890. Edwin and Anne had three children: Gertrude Lyon (born July 17, 1890 in Rutland), Edwin Lyon (born October 3, 1896 in Pittsburgh) and Jonathan Adams (born July 25, 1905 in Sewickley, Pennsylvania). After administering his father s estate, Edwin took a job with the Virginia Mining Company and moved his family to Pulaski, Virginia. In 1891 he resigned from the Virginia Mining Company and moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, taking a position as a stenographer with the law offices of Lyon, McKee and Sanderson. In 189, Edwin was appointed Court Stenographer of Common Pleas Court, No. 2 in Pittsburgh. In 1908 Edwin received an A.B. degree from Middlebury College and in 1912 he was the Vice-President of the Middlebury College Alumni Association Edwin Lyon Allen died on May 1, 1927, in Rochester, Pennsylvania. Scope and Content This collection is comprised of a variety of notebooks, accounting books, medical notes, letters and miscellaneous papers spanning most of the 19 th century. The bulk of the collection reflects the studies and work of two doctors, Jonathan A. Allen and Charles L. Allen, who lived in Middlebury and Rutland, Vermont, from 1804 to 1890. The collection is organized by generation. Jonathan A. Allen s papers consist mainly of lectures, essays and speeches reflecting the latest in 19 th century medical and scientific thought. There is early material from his schooldays and from when he was a teacher in Townshend, Vermont. Other items reflect Dr. Allen s commitment to social causes later in his life, including temperance and abolition. Of special significance is a journal used to keep minutes for the Executive Committee of the Vermont Anti-Slavery Society for the years 1836 to 1842. Charles L. Allen s papers include medical records relating to Civil War soldiers that he collected in his capacity as a surgeon during the Civil War, as well as many veterans medical records following the war. Dr. Charles Allen also kept detailed medical records of his patients in Middlebury and Rutland, Vermont, in the years preceding and following the Civil War. As well, the papers contain correspondence with various teachers at Mount Carroll Seminary in Mount Carroll, Illinois, regarding Dr. Allen s milk cure dating from 1885 to 1888. While most of the collection is from the first and second generations of this family, there are some business letters and personal items from the third generation as well. Though not as well represented, Edwin L. Allen did keep all the records, including telegrams, pertaining to his father s death. In his correspondence, he received several letters from his uncle, William B. Lyon (1842-1898) who was stationed at Fort McRae in New Mexico. The letters contain information about his experience there as assistant surgeon and his observations of Apache culture (MSC 187:32). As well, there is an interesting golf tournaments journal/record from 1902-1907.
Allen Family of Middlebury and Rutland, Vt., Papers 5 The collection also contains genealogical information relating to Charles Linnaeus Allen and his descendants. Related Collections At the Vermont Historical Society, there is a small amount of information about Charles Allen in Henry Hall s Biographical sketches, chiefly of Rutland County, Vermont (XMS 920.0743 H142). The Vermont Historical Society owns a CDV, photographic portrait of Dr. Allen in F-PO-Allen, Charles L. A few papers of Jonathan Adams Allen are located at the Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. The collection includes an 1859 letter and a 1847-1890 scrapbook. Charles Allen s third son, Harris Campbell Allen, was an architect in California. A copy of an August 11, 2006, article published in the Berkley Daily Planet about Allen s buildings in the East Bay section of Berkley has been placed in Folder 0. Inventory MSC 187:01 Jonathan A. Allen, Middlebury College Treasurer s Report, 1808 :02, Early Education Notes, 1804-1808 :03, Notebook on surveying, 1804-1810 :04, Notebook on mathematics, 1804-1810 :05, Lectures notes taken at Dartmouth, 1812-1813 :06, Notebook Chemical Essays, 1811 :07, Essays for classes at Dartmouth, 1812-1814 :08, Lectures to students, Middlebury College 1822-1829 :09, Lectures on Botany, Middlebury College, 1822-1829 :10, Lectures on Mineralogy, Middlebury College, 1822-1829 :11, Chemistry, Middlebury College, 1822-1829 :12, Students essays, Middlebury College, 1822-1829 :13, Various articles and lectures, 1820s-1840s :14, Autopsy and medical notes, 1840-1848 :15 Jonathan A. Allen & Charles L. Allen, Records of Executive Committee of the Vermont Anti-Slavery Society, 1836-1842, Urinalysis records, 1869-1873 :16 Jonathan A. Allen, Temperance Society and Alcohol-related cases, 1829-1840s :17, Miscellaneous papers, 1820s-1840s :18 Jonathan A. Allen & Charles L. Allen, cash records, 1847-1850 :19 Charles L. Allen, Civil War medical records, 1862-1864 :20, Receipts of Payment, 1848-1889 MS-22:01, Cashbook, 1852 September 1859 MSA 456:01, Cashbook, October1859 - May 1867 :02, Cashbook, June 1867 December 1874 :03, Cashbook, April 1881 December 1886
Allen Family of Middlebury and Rutland, Vt., Papers 6 :04, Index of U.S. Army veterans, 1882-1883 MSC 187:21, Memo pad, medical information, U.S. Army Veterans, December 1889 June 1890 :22, Miscellaneous Letters, 1887-1890 :23, Letters w/ Mt Carroll Seminary, IL members, 1885-1889 :24, Letters w/ Mrs. F.A.W. Shimmer re medical advice, 1885-1890 MSA 456:05, Medical records book, alphabetical listing of diseases/ailments, 1841-1862 :06, Medical records, patients, 1868-1871 :07, Medical records, patients, 1871-1879 :08, Medical records, patients, 1881-1890 MS-22:02, Visiting list, 1855 03,, 1856 04,, 1857 05,, 1858 06,, 1859 07,, 1860 08,, 1862 09,, 1864 10,, 1865 11,, 1866 12,, 1868 13,, 1871 14,, 1872 15,, 1873 16,, 1874 17,, 1875 18,, 1876 19,, 1877 20,, 1878 21,, 1881 22,, 1882 23,, 1883 MSC 187:25, Index Rerum, Book of medical terminology, n.d. :26, Death Certificates, Village of Rutland, 1887-1889 :27, Article/speech for American Medical, unknown date :28, Miscellaneous papers, 1860s-1880s :29 Edwin L Allen, Papers related to Charles L Allen s estate, 1890 :30, Telegrams rec d re: Chas L Allen s death, July 1890 :31, Sons of Veterans, USA certificates & VT. National Guard appointments, 1889 :32, Letters w/ family & friends, 1873-1890 :33, Business letters, 1890-1899 :34, Genealogical research, early 20 th century
Allen Family of Middlebury and Rutland, Vt., Papers 7 :35, Genealogy of the children of Charles Linneaus Allen, early 20 th century :36, Miscellaneous papers, 1875-1890s :37, Golf ledger, 1902-1907 Melissa Candy April 2007 Revised March 2008; January 2015, January 2016 AllenFamily.doc