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Charles P. Allen

Charles Parsons Allen was born February 16, 1844, at Irasburg, Vermont. He began his classical education at Norwich, Vermont, and entered college at the beginning of Freshman year, August 24, 1860. He left us at the end of the first term. He was the son of the late Hon. Ira H. Allen, a man of wide repute and large wealth, who was a nephew of Ethan Allen.

After leaving college, he studied law in the office of Hon. Heman S. Royce, of St. Albans, Vermont, and was for two years at Albany Law School, graduating from that school, and was admitted to the bar in Albany, New York, and also in Franklin and Orleans Counties, Vermont. He never entered upon the practice of his profession, as the large estate of his father early fell to his charge, and occupied his attention from early manhood.

He was a Republican in politics, and represented the town of Irasburg in the Vermont Legislature in 1867-8.

In all the walks of life, he displayed much ability, conscientious honesty, and something of the independent, dauntless strength of character for which the hero of Ticonderoga was so famous.

About the first of January, 1872, he purchased a large estate in South Side, Virginia, where he expected to make his Winter home. Very soon after, while upon a hunting campaign, an amusement of which he was very fond, he contracted a severe cold from great exposure, which induced a lung trouble. He paid little attention to it at first, his theory of recovery being to toughen himself by exposure; but soon feeling that his symptoms were assuming more seriousness, he spent the Winter and Spring of 1872 in Florida, and the Winter of 1873 in Florida and Cuba. Continuing in poor health for several years, he at length left Virginia the last of April, 1877, and went to Dr. Jackson's "Cure,'' in Dansville, New York. At the same time, his wife, who was in very feeble health, went with her mother to her former home in Peoria, Illinois. While at Dansville, he would allow no letters to be written to his wife, except of an encouraging character.  By accident, a patient there from St. Albans, Vermont, heard his name and condition mentioned, and wrote to their St. Albans friends about him. The facts coming to the knowledge of his aunt, Mrs. H. S. Royce, she went immediately to Dansville, and, with the aid of two male nurses, took him to her home in St. Albans, where he died on May 30, 1877, of consumption, in about one week after his arrival. His disease was complicated with Bright's disease of the kidneys. He was buried at Irasburg, his native town. His wife died at Peoria, Illinois, on August 4, 1877, and her remains were taken to Irasburg, and laid beside those of her husband.

He was married February 1, 1876, to Miss Lizzie P. Pulsifer, of Peoria, Illinois. They have one child, Lizzie Pulsifer, who was born January 31, 1877, at Randolph, Virginia, and who still lives as the ward of Sidney Pulsifer, her mother's father.

In religion, Allen was an Episcopalian. Mr. Pulsifer writes me that "he was possessed of great nobility of character, and a more unselfish man I never knew."
   

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