Bios: THOMAS ALLEN.: Lawrence County, Pennsylvania

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  Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Lawrence Co transcribers.
  Coordinated by Ed McClelland

  Copyright 2004.  All rights reserved.
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  Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
  Lawrence County Pennsylvania
  Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
  
  An html version with search engine may be found at 
  
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/lawrence/1897/
  
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    THOMAS ALLEN.
    
    [p. 203] Among the many contractors and builders of New Castle, our subject
  stands pre-eminent because of his large acquaintance with the work, and also
  because of the many large and elegant structures he has erected which rank
  among the first buildings of the city and are the pride of its citizens. Mr.
  Allen was born in Robinson township, now Stow, Allegheny Co., Pa., March 13,
  1829, and is a son of William and Rebecca (Day) Allen, both natives of the
  Keystone State. John Allen, our subject's grandfather, was a native of County
  Down, Ireland; when he crossed the Atlantic with his family, he came to the
  State of Pennsylvania, like many others of his countrymen, and settled in the
  vicinity of Pittsburg, where he purchased a farm, and remained a few years
  engaged in agricultural pursuits. The latter part of his life was spent in
  the same pursuits in St. Clair township, and for those days he was considered
  a very well-to-do man. He married Jennie McGee, also a native of Ireland, and
  to them were born the following children, seven in number: John; Thomas,
  William, our subject's father; Alexander, Mary; Margaret; and Jane. They were
  Presbyterians.
    
    William Allen was educated in the schools of St. Clair township, and, like
  his father, followed agricultural pursuits to very good advantage, becoming a
  prosperous citizen of the community in which he lived and very highly
  respected for his many sterling qualities. In his political views, he adhered
  to the doctrines of the Democratic party, but never cared to enter the field
  of politics, and contest for public office. He married Rebecca Day, a
  daughter of Jacob Day of St. Clair township, and gathered about him the
  following family: Jacob, who married Adaline McIntire of Lancaster Co., Pa.;
  John; Jane; Rebecca, who married Bernard Ingles; Margaret, who married George
  Blazier of Stow township; Thomas, our subject; and Susan, who married Thomas
  Hughes of Allegheny, Pa. They favored the Presbyterian Church. Our subject's
  father died about 1837, aged forty years; his wife survived him many years,
  finally departing this life to join those gathered on the other shore in
  1873, when aged eighty years. Our subject was educated in the schools of his
  native town, and then learned the carpenter's and joiner's trade, serving an
  apprenticeship of three years under Charles Campbell of Allegheny City, Pa.
  He then accepted a position on one of the Mississippi River steamers, plying
  between St. Louis and New Orleans and continued in that connection eight
  years. He then went to Allegheny City, where he built several coal barges,
  which during the war were sold to the United States Government to use as
  transports. In 1867, he came to Lawrence County, settling at first in
  Mahoningtown, Taylor township, but two years later moving to New Castle,
  where he has been very extensively engaged since in contracting and building.
  He is known as an honest and conscientious workman, and he has the reputation
  of allowing none but the best labor and materials to enter into the
  construction of the various buildings which he contracts to build; he has
  built some of the finest structures now standing in the city of New Castle,
  among which are the residences of William Patterson, president of the
  Lawrence County Bank, and J. A. Crawford, Allen's Opera House, the Y. M. C.
  A. Building, and the First Presbyterian Church of New Castle, which is the
  largest and finest structure of its kind in Western Pennsylvania. The edifice
  is constructed of sandstone and fire-flashed buffed brick. Throughout his
  connection with the building industry of New Castle, Mr. Allen has always
  received the hearty patronage of those who want good jobs by one who will not
  allow his reputation in that line to diminish in the least.
    
    In 1862 Mr. Allen was joined in marriage with Elizabeth Simpson, daughter
  of John Simpson of Mahoningtown, Pa., and to our subject and his wife eight
  children have been born: John W.; Eliza, who married William J. Rudesill, of
  Los Angeles, Cal., and has one daughter, Elizabeth; Jane, who married Howard
  D. Leslie of Mahoningtown, Pa., and has presented him with two childrenAllen
  L. and Mary; Charles; Rufus; George; Ethel; and Mary, who died in her infancy.
  Politically, Mr. Allen is a stanch Republican, and was elected to the office
  of city councilman, a position he held for six consecutive years. The family
  are attendants of the Presbyterian Church.