The Allen family papers contain personal correspondence of the family of John Allen, a preacher in Northborough, Massachusetts. He and his sons, Joseph Henry Allen, Thomas Prentiss Allen, and William Francis Allen, often discussed antebellum politics and other matters of intellectual concern, including slavery and abolition.
The Correspondence series (260 items) consists primarily of personal correspondence between family members. Thomas Prentiss Allen composed many of these letters, though his brothers and their sister Elizabeth also contributed. The well-educated Allens discussed a wide range of personal and political topics, and their letters provide a vivid picture of the politically charged antebellum era. They often shared opinions on local and national politics, emphasizing the conflicts over slavery that eventually erupted into secession and Civil War. Notably, Thomas Prentiss Allen expounded at length on Daniel Webster's famous speech urging support of the Compromise of 1850 and offered his own opinions on the political issues involved, including the Wilmot Proviso (March 24, 1850). Other letters of particular interest concern the Free Soil party and the Fugitive Slave Act (December 10, 1850 and January 9, 1851). Elizabeth Allen wrote a majority of the later items in the collection to Joseph Allen, her father, communicating a view of her life on the home front during the Civil War and occasionally mentioning the war and domestic politics.
The Pamphlets series (2 items) contains the following two items:
- Fathers and Children, containing manuscript essays based on Biblical verses (September 1842)
- A Discourse on Occasion of the Death of Hon. John Quincy Adams..., by Joseph Henry Allen (1848)
The Photographs series (2 items) contains two 19th-century portraits printed on thick cards.
The Miscellaneous series (5 items) contains a newspaper clipping regarding the death of William Francis Allen, as well as four manuscripts about various topics.
Joseph Allen was born on August 15, 1790, and graduated from Harvard Divinity school in 1811. In 1816, the newly ordained Allen became pastor of the Congregational Church at Northborough, Massachusetts, a position he retained until his death on February 23, 1873.
His first son, Joseph Henry Allen (b. August 21, 1820), followed his father into the clergy after his 1840 graduation from Harvard. Joseph served congregations in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts (1843-1847); Washington, D. C. (1847-1850); and Bangor, Maine (1850-1857). Notably, he oversaw the funeral of former president John Quincy Adams. Joseph then entered the publishing industry, and worked as an editor for the Christian Examiner (1857-1869) and the Unitarian Review (1887-1891). From 1878-1882, he returned to Harvard as a professor of history. Joseph Henry Allen died in 1898.
Joseph Allen's second son, Thomas Prentiss Allen, was born in 1822 and also attended Harvard Divinity School, graduating in 1846. He spent most of his career preaching and teaching in Sterling, Massachusetts, and became involved in various temperance and antislavery movements. Thomas Prentiss Allen died in 1868.
William Francis Allen, another of Joseph Allen's sons, was born on September 5, 1830, and became a professor and head of the Ancient Languages department at the University of Wisconsin. He died in 1889.
