Francis, Allen

Born: 1815-04-12 Wethersfield, Connecticut

Died: 1886-06-27 Canada

Flourished: 1834-1861 Springfield, Illinois

In 1829, Allen moved west from Connecticut with his seven siblings. He initially settled in St. Louis, but in 1834 he joined his brothers Josiah and Simeon Francis in Springfield, Illinois, where he worked at and later became a partner in the Whig Sangamon County Journal. He was also a long-time member of the Springfield City Council. In 1838, Francis married Cecilia B. Duncan, with whom he had six children. In 1860, he was working as a grocer in Springfield and had a personal estate valued at $100. In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Francis to the consulate in at Victoria, Vancouver Island, a position he held throughout the Civil War.

John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 316; Charles E. Francis, Francis: Descendants of Robert Francis of Wethersfield, Conn. (New Haven, CT: Tuttle, Morehouse and Taylor, 1906), 21-22; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Springfield, Sangamon County, IL, 193; Abraham Lincoln to William H. Seward; Frederick W. Seward to Abraham Lincoln; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1863 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1864), 3; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1865 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1866), 4.