My Genealogy Hound

FRANCIS OLCOTT ALLEN was born in Hartford, Connecticut, March 14, 1840, son of Olcoltt and Lucy A. (Parsons) Allen, of Enfield, Connecticut. In a long line of distinguished ancestors appear many distinguished names, including Samuel Allen, 1640, founder of Windsor, Connecticut; Governor William Bradford (the descent is traced to him on both sides); William Vassall, patentee of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; Deacon Edward Collins of Cambridge; Captain John Pease of Salem; Lawrence Leach of Salem; Samuel Terry of Springfield, and Thomas Welles, governor of Connecticut.

After early education in the public schools of Hartford, Mr. Allen went to the Williston Seminary in Easthampton, Massachusetts, where he was prepared for College. In 1858 he entered Yale as a student of the academic department in the class of 1862, but before graduating was seized with a serious illness and obliged to leave college. Upon his recovery he entered his father’s bank in Hartford, where he continued for two years, after which he became associated with the firm of E. Flower & Company, wholesale coal dealers of Hartford. Settling in Philadelphia in 1866, Mr. Allen became engaged in the fire insurance business and followed it with great success as agent, manager and president for twenty-six years. During that period he held power of attorney for forty-two fire insurance companies, and transacted a large amount of business. In 1892 he retired from active business, and soon after commenced his present genealogical work at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, of which he is a member. He is the author of the history of the Connecticut town of “Enfield,” where his ancestors have lived since 1690. This work, in three volumes, involved a considerable amount of original research in the collection of historical and genealogical material.

Mr. Allen is a member of the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Pennsylvania, the Society of the Sons of the Revolution, the Historic Genealogical Society of New England, the New Hampshire Society of the Cincinnati and the New Hampshire Historical Society. In the past years he has also held the following positions: Elder of Trinity Presbyterian church of Chestnut Hill, 1889; director and chairman of the finance committee of the Presbyterian Ministers’ Fund, 1885; corresponding secretary of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, 1895; attorney of the Society of the Cincinnati in New Hampshire, 1896; governor of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1896; and director of the Board of Relief for Disabled Ministers of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, 1897.

He has been twice married, first, to Isabella C. Jones, October 7, 1862, by whom he had two children: Clarence J. and Bessie C. Allen, and second, November 10, 1870, to Elizabeth Dulles, by whom he had three children: Margaret D., Francis Olcott, Jr., and J. H. Dulles Allen.

Mr. Allen is now living a life of retirement at his beautiful home in Springfield township, near the line of the city of Philadelphia. He still writes on genealogical subjects. His son, J. H. Dulles Allen, conducts a stock farm on the home-stead, which is adorned with many costly buildings. He makes a specialty of raising polo ponies, and has a dog hospital. He is a prominent member of the Whitemarsh Polo Club, which has its grounds on his land.