Allen Family Papers

During the state's formative period, no family's played a more prominent role in Vermont's political and economic affairs than the Allens. Land speculators, soldiers, propagandists, statesmen and would-be empire-builders, the Allens and their associates exerted a powerful influence over the course of events on the New Hampshire Grants. For twenty-five years, from the 1760's into the 1790's, the Allen brothers: Ethan, Heman, Heber, Levi, Zimri and Ira, often directed and occasionally dominated Vermont history. Like many frontier leaders, the Allens watched their power fade as Vermont's sociopolitical networks stabilized in the late eighteenth century, but without their considerable talents and efforts in the earlier era it is unlikely that Vermont would have survived the protracted struggles for control of the territory between the upper Connecticut and Hudson rivers.

While there were nearly a dozen notable Allens from two generations in early Vermont, the five best represented in this collection are:

Ethan Allen: Born on January 21, 1738 (n.s. January 10, 1737 o.s) in Litchfield, Connecticut, Ethan was the eldest of the Allen brothers and the first to emigrate northward to the New Hampshire Grants. A leader of the settlers claiming title under grants issued by New Hampshire, Allen helped organize the Green Mountain Boys in 1770 to oppose New York authority and invested heavily with his brothers in New Hampshire titles to lands in the Champlain Valley. In May of 1775 Allen teamed with Benedict Arnold in the famous capture of Fort Ticonderoga, but became a prisoner of war four months later when the American attack on Montreal failed. A British prisoner for over two years, Allen returned to Vermont in May 1778, resuming his campaigns against the Yorkers and attempting to convince the Continental Congress to recognize Vermont's claim to independence. Content for the most part to leave practical politics to his brother Ira and others, Ethan did participate to some extent in the secret Haldimand Negotiations of 1780-1783 but had little effect on Vermont's course after the Revolution. The publication in 1784 of Reason the Only Oracle of Man, a "radical" deistic combination of religion and philosophy, brought renewed notoriety, but Allen devoted most of his attention in the 1780's to managing his tangled financial affairs. He settled in Burlington in 1787 and died there on February 12, 1789.

Heman Allen: Born at Cornwall, Connecticut on October 14, 1740, Heman Allen was reportedly the most capable and dependable of the six Allen brothers. A merchant at Salisbury from the mid-1760's until the end of his life, Allen also played a major role in his family's New Hampshire Grants land speculations and in the formation of the new state of Vermont. He served as a delegate to most of the early Vermont conventions of 1775-1777 and represented the settlers holding New Hampshire titles before Congress in 1776. Active in the Canadian campaign of 1775-1776, Allen also fought at the Battle of Bennington in August of 1777; there he either was wounded or suffered from heatstroke, according thereafter and Heman Allen died in Salisbury on May 18, 1778, at the age of thirty-seven.

Levi Allen: Merchant, land speculator, Indian trader, patriot, Loyalist and sometime philosopher, Levi Allen was born on January 16, 1746 at Cornwall, Connecticut. A Merchant in Salisbury in partnership with his brother Heman from 1766 to 1772, Allen expanded his financial operations in the 1770;s to included heavy speculation in Susquehannah and northwestern Vermont lands. Levi fought for the American cause in the early years of the Revolution, but by 1779 he had switched sides and become an ardent loyalist. After the Revolution he speculated unsuccessfully in East Florida and Carolina lands and in 1783 returned to Vermont to resume operations there and in Lower Canada. In conjunction with his brother Ira, Allen sought to establish a trade route between Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River in the 1780's, and worked actively to keep Vermont from entering the Union in order to capitalize on hoped-for trade concessions from Great Britain. Levi increased his speculation in Canadian lands in the 1790's, but proved unable to keep his vast and potentially valuable holdings there and in Vermont free from debts and ruinous lawsuits. With the collapse of his grandiose schemes in the late 1790's, Levi found himself beset on all sides by creditors, and he dies in debtors prison in Burlington on December 16, 1801.

Ira Allen: Ira Allen, the youngest of the six Allen brothers, was born at Cornwall, Connecticut on May 1, 1751. Allen made his first visit to the New Hampshire Grants at nineteen and in the winter of 1772-1773 formed the Onion River Company with his brothers Ethan, Zimri and Heman and his cousin Remember Baker to buy New Hampshire titles to land along the eastern shore of Lake Champlain. Active in the opposition to New York authority over the Grants, Ira helped direct the drive for Vermont's independence and served as both State Treasurer and Surveyor General from 1778 to 1787. He also proved to be Vermont's most effective propagandist, behind-the-scenes negotiator and at-large representative in the 1770's and 1780's. A leader in the Haldimand Negotiations, Allen worked throughout the 1780's and 1790's to secure trade concessions from the British authorities in Canada that would ensure the value of his enormous land holdings in northwestern Vermont. A trip to England in 1795 to obtain backing for a Lake Champlain-Richelieu River ship canal was unsuccessful, and Allen proceeded to France, where he bought 20,000 muskets and other munitions, ostensibly for the Vermont Militia. However, the British seized the guns from the ship Olive Branch in November of 1796, claiming they were intended to arm an insurrection in Canada, and Allen spent the next four years in British courts and French prisons in an attempt to regain possession. When he finally returned to Vermont early in 1801 Allen found his guns rusted beyond repair and his Vermont affairs in total disarray. Unable to satisfy his creditors, Allen fled to Philadelphia in 1803; there he spent the remainder of his life in unavailing efforts to rebuild his financial empire and obtain damages from Great Britain in the Olive Branch matter. Ira Allen died in Philadelphia of "retrocedent gout" on January 15,1814 at the age of sixty-two.

Ira Hayden Allen: The eldest child of Ira and Jerusha Enos Allen, Ira Hayden Allen was born at Colchester, Vermont on February 16, 1790. He attended the University of Vermont for two years, dropping out because of deteriorating eyesight, and in 1814 moved from Colchester to Irasburg, Vermont. Ira Allen had given the entire town to his wife as a wedding present in 1790, and the son's careful management of his mother's previously neglected property there ensured the prosperity of both town and family after 1814. In addition to holding many Irasburg town offices, Allen also pursuaded an unspectacular but respectable career as a leader in Orleans County politics and legal circles; clerk of the county court, 1816-1835; five time member of the Governor's Council; member of the Vermont Council of Censores in 1848; and founder and longtime president of the Orleans County Bank. Less brilliant than his famous father and uncles, Allen none the less acquired the wealth that eluded them, as well as a reputation as an "eminently trustworthy and scrupulously just" individual. Ira Hayden Allen died in Irasburg on April 22, 1866