Alfred G. Allen, M. D. Biography This biography appears on pages 1086-1089 in "History of Dakota Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://usgwarchives.org/sd/sdfiles.htm ALFRED G. ALLEN, M. D. Dr. Alfred G. Allen is engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery in Deadwood but specializes along the latter line and is very proficient therein. He was born in Ontario, Canada, April 10, 1866, a son of William B. and Mary (Conley) Allen. The father was born in Montreal, March 27, 1829, and the mother's birth occurred in Kingston, December 23, 1835. In early life William B. Allen engaged in the boot and shoe business and later turned his attention to activity in the real-estate field, winning substantial success through his judicious investments. He died in Kingston, August 22, 1909, and is still survived by his wife, who makes her home in Kingston. Mr. Allen was a member of the Canadian Militia at the time of the Fenian raid. Dr. Allen was born at the time when the soldiers were quartered in his father's house, his father acting as one of the military escort when Von Schultz, the leader of the raiders, was hanged at Kingston. For twenty-five years he was a member of the board of education and for many years served as its chairman. He was greatly interested in educational matters and did everything in his power to further the interests of the schools. Dr. Allen was the fifth in order of birth in a family of ten children. He attended the public schools of Kingston and the Collegiate Institute and in 1883 he entered Queen's University, from which he was graduated with the class of 1887, having therein pursued a course in medicine. He has since taken post-graduate work in Philadelphia and in Chicago and in the early part of his professional career he put his theoretical knowledge to practical test by serving as interne in the Kingston General Hospital, thereby gaining that broad experience and knowledge which only hospital experience can bring. He was twenty-one years of age at the time of his graduation from Queen's University and soon afterward he entered upon active practice at Deseronto, Ontario, Canada. After a brief period, however, he removed to Gananoque, where he formed a partnership with Dr. Thomas H. Dumble, with whom he remained for three years. He next went to Deadwood, South Dakota, in 1892 and opened an office and has since continued in the practice of medicine and surgery at that place. His financial resources were very limited at the time of his arrival there but his ability along professional lines soon gained him wide recognition and his patronage steadily increased year by year. He is now one of the foremost physicians of his part of the state and he is also interested in some local mining prospects. He is surgeon for the Golden Reward Mining Company and also for the Consolidated Power & Light Company and the Chicago, Burlington &Quincy Railroad. He withdrew from a large practice in obstetrics and has for a number of years specialized largely in surgery. He has kept in touch with modern scientific methods and is today accounted one of the ablest physicians and surgeons of his part of the state. On the 24th of October, 1892, Dr. Allen was united in marriage to Miss Gertrude M. Taylor, of Gananoque, Ontario, a daughter of Wesley and Sarah (Abbott) Taylor, who were natives of the same province. The father was president and manager of the Canada Carriage Company, one of the largest concerns of the kind in eastern Ontario. He died there in 1899, while his wife passed away in 1876. He was a very active business man but never aspired to public office. His brother was for many years a member of the house of commons and was a recognized leader of the conservative party, afterward being appointed senator for life. Mrs. Allen was born in 1871 and by her marriage became the mother of two children, but the elder, born in 1893, died in infancy. The surviving one, Herbert Stanley, born October 9, 1895, is now attending high school. In politics Dr. Allen has always been a stalwart republican since becoming a naturalized American citizen. He served on the school board of Deadwood for a number of years, was county coroner, and was appointed by Governor Elrod a member of the state board of medical examiners. He has long been a most active and influential worker in his party and was chairman of the republican central committee in 1903 and 1904. Fraternally he is a prominent Mason and has attained the thirty- second degree in the Scottish Rite. He is now first sub-preceptor of the Council of Kadosh, No. 3, at Deadwood. He likewise holds membership with the Elks, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen and he is well known in connection with different medical societies. He served as president of the Black Hills Medical Society in 1908, belongs to the South Dakota Medical Society, the American Medical Association and the American Association of Railway Surgeons. He has interested himself largely in the upbuilding of St. Joseph's Hospital at Deadwood, where he performs most of his operations, which are increasing all the time. Efficiency has always been the keynote of his practice and he has ever striven to reach the high ideals of the profession, his constantly increasing ability gaining for him exalted rank as a member of the profession in his part of the state.