Montgomery County PA Archives Biographies.....Allen, Francis Olcott March 14, 1840 - 
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Source: Biographical Annals of Montgomery County Pennsylvania, T. S. Benham & Company and the Lewis Publishing Company, 1904
Author: Ellwood Roberts, Editor

FRANCIS OLCOTT ALLEN was born in Hartford, Connecticut, 
March 14, 1840, son of Olcott 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 homestead, 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.

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