John Beard Allen

John Beard Allen

John Beard Allen (born May 18, 1845 in Crawfordsville , Indiana , †  January 28, 1903 in Seattle , Washington ) was an American politician ( Republican Party ) who represented the state of Washington in the US Senate .

Early life

John Allen was born in Crawfordsville, the son of Joseph S. Allen, a well-known doctor in the United States at the time, and his wife, Hannah Allen, the daughter of a judge. After attending elementary school, he graduated from Wabash College and showed his love for politics and mathematics at an early age. Barely of legal age, Allen was drafted into Civil War service and served in the 135th Indiana Infantry from 1863 until his honorable discharge in 1864  .

In 1865 the Allen family moved to Rochester , Minnesota . Here he joined the office of the judge C. C. Wilson Law to study. He later completed his training at the University of Michigan . Allen and fellow student JJ ​​Brown opened their own law firm in Goshen , Indiana in 1868, until the sudden death of his mother in December 1868 prompted him to close the firm after a few months and move back to Rochester to be close to his family. Allen initially stayed in Rochester, where he was appointed trial attorney for the city in 1869, at the young age of 24.

In the spring of 1870, Allen moved to the Washington Territory , where he settled in the capital, Olympia . He practiced as a lawyer in a small law firm for almost two years before moving into his office in a modern office building in the fall of 1871. At Olympia, Allen also met M. Cecelia Bateman, a woman from Lamont , Michigan , whom he married in September 1871. Olympia would be the home of the Allen family for the next ten years until they moved to Walla Walla in 1881 .

Political career

As early as 1875, Allen was appointed federal attorney for the Washington Territory, a position he held until 1885. At the same time he held the function of press spokesman at the Supreme Court of Washington from 1878 to 1885. In 1889, Allen was elected as a territory delegate to the United States House of Representatives and served from March 4, 1889 through November 11 of that year.

In the fall of 1889, Allen was elected one of the first two US Senators for the new state of Washington and served from November 20, 1889 to March 3, 1893.

Late life and death

Allen settled in Seattle in 1893, where he opened a private law firm. Here he died of angina pectoris in January 1903 .

Web links

• John Beard Allen in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• John B. Allen in the database of Find a Grave (English)