Charles H. Allen Biography


	This biography appears on pages  1288-1289in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	CHARLES H. ALLEN is a native of the state of Iowa, having been 
born in Osage, the official center of Mitchell county, on the 17th of 
March, 1857. His father, Joseph Allen, was born and reared in Ohio, and 
removed thence to Illinois in an early day, being a jeweler and 
watchmaker by vocation. He married Abigail Allen, and they remained for 
several years in Illinois and thence removed to Iowa, where they passed 
the remainder of their lives. They became the parents of sixteen 
children, of whom the subject of this review was the fifteenth in order 
of birth. The father served as surgeon during a portion of the Civil 
war, and two of his sons were also valiant soldiers in the Union army, 
while one of them, Jeremiah, sacrificed his life on the altar of his 
country. Our subject passed his boyhood days in his native town, where 
he secured his early educational training in the public schools, his 
elder brothers having received collegiate advantages. In 1870, when but 
thirteen years of age, he set forth to see somewhat of the world, making 
a tour of several of the western states and being absent from home for a 
period of nine years, within which time he learned the trade of stone 
cutting, to which he devoted his attention unti1 1879, when he returned 
to his old home, where he remained a few months, after which he located 
in Nebraska and engaged in farming, and was practically starved out 
during the memorable grasshopper plague. He returned home in 1881, was 
married in February of the following year and forthwith came to what is 
now the state of South Dakota, arriving in Aberdeen on the 1st of March, 
1882. He took up a claim in the county and finally perfected his title 
to the same, and he then engaged in the draying business in Aberdeen, 
continuing in the same for five years, during which interval he also 
dealt in horses, buying and selling upon an extensive scale and meeting 
with good success. In 1897 he sold out his transfer and draying business 
and established his present enterprise, in the handling of wood and 
coal. T]e has a well-equipped yard, two hundred and fifty by three 
hundred feet, in the business district of the city, while the line of 
the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad adjoins his yards on the 
north, so that his transportation facilities are unexcelled. In 1903 Mr. 
Allen handled twenty-two hundred cords of wood, secured principally from 
Minnesota, while each year he handles a large amount of coal of all 
grades, keeping a large supply on hand and handling from three to five 
thousand tons annually, while the extensive ramifications of his 
business necessitate the employment of a considerable number of men and 
teams. He is the owner of eleven quarter-sections of land, the greater 
portion being located in Brown county, to the west of Aberdeen, while 
nearly all the property is under cultivation and well improved. He also 
owns an attractive modern residence in the city which has been his home 
for many years. He is progressive and public-spirited, is a staunch 
Republican in his political proclivities, and for four years represented 
the fourth ward in the city board of aldermen. Fraternally Mr. Allen is 
affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he was 
for four years an officer in the grand lodge of the state; and also with 
the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Modern Woodmen of America and 
the Knights of the Maccabees. 

	On the 4th of February, 1882, at Osage, Iowa, was solemnized the 
marriage of Mr. Allen to Miss Ida M. Owen, who was born in Belchertown, 
Massachusetts, being a daughter of C. M. Owen, who became an extensive 
farmer in Iowa, owning a large tract of land in Mitchell county. Mrs. 
Allen is a woman of gracious presence and was graduated in Wheaton 
College, Illinois, while she is prominent in the social life of 
Aberdeen. Mr. and Mrs. Allen have two children, C. Lewis, who is deputy 
clerk of the supreme court of the state, at Pierre, and M. Estelle, who 
is a student in the Aberdeen high school at the time of this writing. 
The son completed the curriculum of the public schools and thereafter 
continued his studies in the college at Brookings, where he was 
graduated. He then went to Sioux Falls, and he has practically served as 
deputy clerk of the supreme court since that time, his preferment coming 
as the result of his ability and sterling characteristics, while he is 
one of the popular, well-known and distinctively talented young men of 
the state.