BIOGRAPHY: Gorton W. Allen; Auburn, Cayuga co., New York transcribed and submitted by: Ann Anderson (ann.g.anderson at gmail.com) ========================================================= Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ny/nyfiles.htm ========================================================= BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW THIS VOLUME CONTAINS BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE LEADING CITIZENS OF CAYUGA COUNTY NEW YORK BOSTON BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW PUBLISHING COMPANY 1894 HON. GORTON W. ALLEN. This gentleman, who is among the most distinguished in the city of Auburn, where he has been a resident since 1861, is especially known as one of the United States Commissioners for the great Columbian Exposition of 1893. He was born at Lawrenceville, Chester County, Pa., December 20, 1840, the son of Daniel Dudley and Mary (Wair) Allen. The Aliens came from old New England stock. Mr. Daniel Allen was a mechanic, who removed from New York to Pennsylvania in 1830. Gorton began self-support very early. Leaving school at thirteen, he was employed in a store for three years, and then taught school for as many years more. When he reached the age of nineteen, in the year 1859, he came to Union Springs in Cayuga County, and passed two years on a farm. Then he came to Auburn, for the purpose of reading law with Allen & Beardsley, the senior member of the firm being his uncle, William Allen. At the end of a year he tried his hand for a twelvemonth at book-keeping in the Cayuga National Bank. When he was twenty, the shot at Fort Sumter roused the North to the peril in which the Union stood; and two years later, in October, 1862, at the expiration of his banking year, the young man forsook his financial ledgers in order to enlist in the One Hundred and Sixtieth New York Volunteer Infantry as Adjutant. The regiment was forthwith sent to the Department of the Gulf of Mexico, and did valiant duty in the campaign, which resulted in the fall of Port Hudson, young Allen being that whole year on the staff of Brigadier Godfrey Weitzel. Next Adjutant Allen was detailed by the late General N. P. Banks to be clerk of the Provost Court at New Orleans, where he spent another year. Then in 1865, the war being over, he came home, and went into the business of manufacturing ploughs for three years, being the first in this vicinity to weld this indispensable agricultural implement of steel instead of iron. In 1868 he became connected with D. M. Osborne & Co., and was gradually promoted, till in 1880 he was elected Treasurer of the company. He held this office for ten years, during which time he was constantly brought into contact with the thirteen hundred men employed by the concern in all branches of its extensive plant. On November 1, 1890, he severed his business relations with Mr. Osborne, having five months before been appointed by President Harrison one of the Chicago World's Fair Commissioners, and finding that his position would require at least half his time before the fair opened and the whole of it afterward. This Columbian Commission was composed of two men from each State, nominated by its Governor and appointed by the President, whose privilege it was to name eight additional Commissioners-at-large, of whom Mr. Allen was one. It is well known how much the members all did to expedite the gigantic enterprise. When the Commission organized, Mr. Allen was chosen one of its four Vice-Presidents; and one of the earliest duties devolving upon him was to assist Chauncey M. Depew and John Boyd Thatcher in arranging a dinner at Delmonico's Hotel in New York City on the eve of Forefathers' Day, December 21, 1891, for a full consideration of the duties of the State in reference to the approaching fair. When the hundred rich and honored guests were seated, Mr. Allen occupied a place at the right-hand corner of the official table. Mr. Depew was even more felicitous than usual in discharging his duties as chairman. Among the last, but not least, of the speakers, he humorously called upon Mr. Allen, as representing the hayseed districts, not previously heard from; and Mr. Allen replied in a judiciously brief speech, coming at once to the point. He predicted absolute success for the fair, because it was an expression of the wishes of the American people, who find the word "failure" nowhere except in the dictionary. Though New York was sorry not to have the Columbian Exposition within her borders, her citizens would heartily aid in crowning Chicago with victory; and he proposed that Governor Flower be urged to have official inquiries immediately made, so that the whole matter should be thoroughly understood by every inhabitant of the Empire State. In reference to the money required by Chicago for the exposition, the speaker was decidedly of the opinion that it should come from the national government, not as a gift — for the exhibition would never have been accorded to the West, had anv such demand been anticipated but as a loan, to be repaid out of the receipts of the fair, inasmuch as Chicago should do at least as much as the metropolis had promised when the project was under Congressional consideration. A full record of this excellent speech was published next day in the Chicago Tribune, with a picture of the banquet, a diagram of the tables, and a portrait of Mr. Allen, with other noted participants. In connection with the approaching fair a very important meeting of the National Commissioners was held in Chicago, where Mr. Allen won great and deserved credit for the broad views he maintained. As Chicago had assumed the responsibility of the exposition, he argued that details, especially as to location, should be willingly left to that city; while at the same time he strongly advocated the claims of the Lake Front as the site of the fine buildings proposed and the electric plant. At last the preparatory work was over, and the fair ready. Besides his general duties at Chicago, Mr. Allen was a member of the Committees on Electricity and Ceremonies ; and he was also constantly at work, both as Vice-President and as one of the six General Managers of the New York State Board, taking personal charge of the interests of his State and the erection of its admired building. The city of Brooklyn did a great deal for the exposition; and, while it was in progress, in the latter part of June, 1893, many Brooklynites were present at a reception banquet given largely in their honor. In the absence of the chief executive officer, it fortunately fell to Commissioner Allen's lot to be chairman. He not only spoke cordially and genially, but gave an extensive statement of facts, which were recorded by the public prints on account of their intrinsic value as well as their cogent courtesy. He referred to the dozen departments containing extensive New York exhibits, from all forms of agriculture to arts and ethnology, and showed how the figures proved the leadership of the Empire State in electricity and the culture of hops, and nearly made her the equal of Virginia in tobacco. In bee culture, wool-shearing, transportation, floriculture, forestry, wheat-growing, mining, in stone, clay, and all sorts of metallic work, in machinery and dynamite in fact, in almost every mentionable line of work New York was on the alert and in the thick of honorable emulation. In conclusion he called especial attention to the working model of the Elmira prison, sent from the Rochester Industrial School, and to the huge bas-relief map of the State; and then he pointed proudly to woman's share in the great fair. It would be difficult to find a better compendium of New York enterprise than this speech affords, though here only its barest outline can be cited. The fair over, in the fall of 1893 Mr. Allen returned to Auburn, and once more turned his attention to mercantile and manufacturing pursuits; but he could not long remain in this quiet life, his talents being too widely known to allow their concealment under the trade bushel, however commodious and useful. Since his previous retirement from business Mr. Allen had been rapidly fulfilling the predictions of confident friends by renewed flights of oratory. He received the sobriquet of the Western Tornado; and his name was coupled with that of the gentleman who first bestowed that title upon him, one of the most popular publicists of the day, Chauncey M. Depew. When the latter was made President and the former Vice-President of the New York State World's Fair Commission, an Auburn paper paid them so felicitous a compliment that it will bear repeating here: "One can do all the talking, if necessary, and some of the work; while the other can do all the work, if necessary, and some of the talking. No man surpasses Depew in the magic of his eloquence and oratorical gifts. No man can outdo G. W. Allen when it comes to executive capability." As his Commissioner's appointment indicates, he has long been an active Republican, high in local councils. Even before the fair, when the National Republican Convention assembled in Minneapolis, Mr. Allen was one of the two delegates from his Congressional district. Already, in 1880, 1884, and 1888, he had served the Republican cause magnificently, and in nearly every campaign, local and general, his unselfish, generous, impulsive presence was felt, not only in declarations, but in deeds and dollars; and that he should now be delegated to that great gathering of his party was no more than his due. Albeit General Harrison was not elected for the second Presidential term, this was no fault of Mr. Allen in aiding and abetting the nomination. Though in this narration the chronological sequence of Mr. Allen's career has been partially reversed, for the sake of unity in setting forth his Fair fame, it should be remembered that the Minneapolis Convention had preceded the great Chicago display of 1893. Later, however, he might truly say, in the language of Othello, "I have done the State some service"; and it was inevitable that he should be thought of for higher political preferment. In September of 1894 his name came prominently before the Republican Convention as a candidate for the position of Lieutenant Governor of the State, as the name of his friend and former colleague, Mr. Depew, had been spoken of for the Governorship. The party choice fell elsewhere; but this effort was a harbinger of political advancement, sure to be his fate in the near future. Well has Longfellow said, "The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, and doing well whatever you do, without a thought of fame"; while with equal force the practical Samuel Smiles declares: "It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success. They much oftener succeed through failure." A concomitant of his relations to David M. Osborne was a tenderer union in 1866 with Mr. Osborne's youngest sister, Caroline Bulkley Osborne, from whom he was parted by death in 1888. Mrs. Allen left one son, Munson Osborne Allen, who died in April, 1891, just as he reached his majority. In November, 1891, when he decided to devote his time to the Chicago Fair, Mr. Allen married his second wife, Ada R. Myers, of Auburn. They continue to occupy their beautiful home, a brick dwelling at No. 85 South Street, which Mr. Allen built in 1882. Such a career as his lends point to the lines of Pope: "It is not strength, but art, obtains the prize, And to be swift is less than to be wise 'Tis more by art than force of numerous strokes."