Allen, Wilson

Born: 1806 New York

Died: 1886-10-01 Georgia

Flourished: 1843 to 1865 DeWitt County, Illinois

Wilson Allen arrived in Illinois in 1831, first settling in Jacksonville. He eventually moved to Bloomington, then Decatur before settling near Clinton in 1843. Allen owned and operated mills along Salt Creek and farmed. Allen married Martha Ann Hale from Tennessee in 1834. In 1850, he was a miller in DeWitt County, Illinois, with real estate valued at $4,000. By 1860, Allen was a DeWitt County farmer with real estate valued at $7,000 and personal property valued at $1,800. He served as a member, and on four occasions chairman, of the DeWitt County Board of Supervisors. His obituary noted that "he was always an honest and fairminded man, not averse to litigation, when he thought he was right."

History of DeWitt County Illinois (Chicago: Pioneer, 1910), 1:126-28, 139; The Clinton Public (IL), 15 October 1886, 3:5; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), DeWitt County, IL, 432; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Texas, DeWitt County, IL, 24; Milo Custer, comp., McLean County, Illinois, Marriages, 1831-1841 (Bloomington: n.p., 1925), 3; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, McLean County, 28 December 1834, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL