Bio: Allen, Benjamin Col. (1807 - 1873)
Contact: Sandra Wright
Email: fool4him2@msn.com

Surnames: Allen, Fletcher, Fuller, Dike, Day, Darlington, Clapp, Gray

----Source: Historical and Biographical Album of the Chippewa Valley, Wisconsin (1891-1892) Page 404

Allen, Benjamin, Col. (28 Aug 1807 - 5 Jul 1873)

Col. Benjamin Allen (deceased) was born in Woodstock, Vermont, August 28, 1807, and died in Pepin, July 5, 1873. He was a son of Cyrus and Sally (Fletcher) Allen, the latter born in Chesterfield, N. H. Cyrus Allen, a carpenter by trade, was of Scotch descent, and died at Wabasha, Minn., in 1867. Mrs. Allen died in 1818. Col. Allen began to learn the cooper’s trade when a small boy, at the same time studying nights until qualified to enter a store kept by his uncle, Mr. Fletcher. When about twenty years old he engaged in buying horses for the Boston and Long Island markets, and made several trips to those places. Later he bought an iron furnace, and dealt in iron until 1844, living successively at Huntington, Bristol and Lincoln, Vt. In that year he removed to Alburg Springs, where he served as United States revenue officer, and studied law under Judge Bowditch. He was admitted to the bar about 1847 and practiced successively at Swanton, Vt., St. Paul, Minn., Hudson and Pepin, Wis., and Wabash, Minn. Mr. Allen came west in 1848 and settled in Pepin in 1855, and took an active part in building up the village, which he platted in company with Newcomb & Hoyt. In 1856, in company with H.S. Allen, of Chippewa Falls, he started a tri-weekly stage line between Pepin and that place, building most of the road over which they had to travel. Between 1855 and 1868 he opened and carried on three different stores at Pepin. Before coming west he was a colonel of militia in Vermont, and at the breaking out of the civil war he was commissioned colonel of the sixteenth Wisconsin regiment, and served until July 17, 1863, when he resigned.

He was wounded in the arm at Shiloh, but rejoined his regiment a week later. He was in command of his regiment until after the siege of Corinth, and shortly after was given command of the brigade, which he held until after the battle at the same place, when he came north on account of his health. He returned soon and took command of his regiment. His health was so poor, however, that after the siege of Vicksburg he resigned. His arm always bothered him, and he never regained his health. In politics Mr. Allen was a democrat, an admirer of Stephen A. Douglas. He served as district attorney in both Pepin and St. Croix Counties, and while living at Hudson represented the district in the Wisconsin senate in 1853-54; also served on the committee to appraise school lands in Eau Claire, Chippewa and Dunn counties. Col. Allen was an active, enterprising man and a prominent member of the Masonic order. He was married, March 2, 1834, to Miss Calista, daughter of Amos and Sabrina (Fuller) Dike, who bore him five children: L. Jeannette (Mrs. R. L. Day); Mary M. (Mrs. F. Darlington); Lavette (Mrs. N.S. Clapp); Calista (Mrs. A.D. Gray), and Cyrus A. (see sketch). Mrs. Allen died June 6, 1842, aged twenty-six years, two months and twenty-three days.