George C. Van Allen

As printed in 1906

GEORGE C. VAN ALLEN.

George C. Van Allen, deceased, who in the face of opposing circumstances and unfavoring environment that would have utterly discouraged a man of less resolute spirit, advanced to a position of prominence in the business world and was for many years recognized as a leading and representative citizen of Mount Pleasant, was born July 6, 1830, on the north shore of Pillar Point, in Jefferson county, New York. He was descended from Holland ancestry connected with the history of the Empire state from colonial days, and he claimed descent from three Revolutionary soldiers, Increase Child, Robert Ackerman and Cornelius Van Allen. His parents were Cornelius and Lory Ann (Ackerman) Van Allen, who in 1831 removed from the birth place of our subject to a farm overlooking the Black River bay, across the waters of which could be seen Madison barracks, where General Grant was once quartered and the village of Sacket Harbor, famous in connection with one of the early battles of the second war with England, occurring there in May, 18 13. The father purchased this farm and upon the homestead there George C. Van Allen was reared to manhood. He was one of a family of eleven children, nine of whom reached adult life: Martin, who is now deceased; Sarah H., widow of General D. B. White, also now deceased; Lory Ann, the widow of George Hoover, and a resident of Chicago, Illinois; Catherine Grinnell. who married G. G. Grinnell. now deceased, and lives at Mayfair, Cook county, Illinois; Mrs. C. M. Beckford, of Hampton, Virginia, the widow of Selwyn E. Beckford; Cornelius A., formerly a real-estate dealer of Effingham, Illinois, now deceased Ailliam a surveyor of Ukiah, California; and Florence O., the wife of J. J. Baulch. of St. Louis, Missouri.

Reared upon his father's farm George C. Van Allen attended the country schools and at different times worked at the village and in the ship yards. He was also engaged at intervals at hauling heavy timbers from the forests to the place of ship building. He formed a strong attachment for the water for it afforded him pleasure as a boy and gave him opportunity to earn a living as a man in the early days before transportation by means of the water ways was supplanted by the railroads. While still quite a young man, Mr. Van Allen engaged in teaching in the public schools of his home locality, and then, anxious to promote his own education, became a student in Falley Seminary, in Fulton, New York. He afterward matriculated in the old Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where he was a member of a secret society organized by a few congenial spirits, including William and Andrew Roe, O. W. Powers, Mr. Bailey and David J. Brewer, the names of whom have since become known throughout the country in connection with successful accomplishment in different lines. The last mentioned, then a most modest young man. obtained elevation to the bench of the United States supreme court.

After having spent a little less than two years as a student in Connecticut, Mr. Van Allen was obliged to return home. He had made a creditable record in his classes, and moreover he was a close and discriminating student forming his own opinions as based upon the subject matter before him. and his own intellectual discrimination. A few weeks were passed in recuperating at his old home at Pillar Point and then, with the little capital at his command. Mr. Van Allen started westward by way of the Great Ikes. He found the trip a delightful one. which gave him broader ideas of the ways of the world and its people than he had ever obtained from books. Detroit and Milwaukee were beautiful cities even at that time, but Chicago was a dirty little village with i6 broken sidewalks and muddy streets, yet with a citizenship even then characterized for remarkable enterprise and achievement. Mr. Van Allen continued on his way to Dubuque, Iowa, with the expectation of securing employment as a surveyor there, but failing in this he accepted the aid of an old friend, George Rogers, who was instrumental in obtaining for him a position as bookkeeper in the office of the Dubuque Herald, at that time published by J. B. Dorr, afterward colonel of the Eighth Iowa Cavalry. In the following spring Mr. Van Allen obtained employment with the firm of Webb & Higby, surveyors, and later was with Charles Smith, local engineer of the Dubuque & Pacific Railway, while in July following, through the influence of his brother, Martin, he secured a still better position in the land department of the Illinois Central Railroad, which he represented in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. On the ist of January, 1857, he was promoted and sent to Effingham, Illinois, two hundred miles south of Chicago on the Illinois Central road to sell the company's lands, and by the I St of October had disposed of realty to the amount of thirteen thousand acres. The unsettled condition of the state at that time is indicated by the fact that in an hour's ride on the cars one could hardly see a dozen houses, save for the few at the scattered stations.

It was while thus engaged that Mr. Van Allen was married on the 6th of August, 1857, in Scriba, New York, to Miss Jennie M. Wright, who had been his classmate at Fulton, New York. A lady of superior culture and innate refinement as well as of intelligence, she made his home a happy one and their married life was most congenial. In October following their marriage there came the great financial crash memorable in the history of the country. Business was largely suspended in all lines, land sales were discontinued and payments were stopped, and many who had attempted to establish new homes in the west were obliged to seek their old places of location. In this financial disaster Mr. Van Allen's loss amounted to about six thousand dollars and he found it again necessary to take up the practice of surveying in order to provide for. his family), but he was ambitious and devoted his leisure hours to reading law. Removing to Watertown New York, in the fall of 1859, he there spent two years in the office of Judge E. W. Hubbard, who had recently retired from the supreme bench of the Empire state. Through the succeeding two years Mr. Van Allen was for a part of the time a student in the Albany Law School, and was admitted to the degree of counsellor at law before the supreme court of New York at the regular term in April, 1861.

Attracted by the west and its possibilities, having become imbued with a strong attachment for this section of the country, Mr, Van Allen soon afterward returned to Chicago and thence went to Kenosha but the progress of the Civil war was detrimental to the establishment of a new business, and after spending a few months in the office of Judge Pettitt ]\Mr. Van Allen accepted the superintendency of the high school in Plover, Wisconsin, where he remained until July, 1862. At that date he went to Burlington, and was engaged on the survey of the Burlington

& Missouri River Railway, from Ottumwa to Chariton. At the close of the season he located in Mount Pleasant, where he began compiling records for the examination of title, and from that time until his death he maintained his residence in this city, and was a factor in its business life, giving his attention largely to the abstract business, which is one of the important branches of the law. In 1883 he suffered a loss of two thousand dollars through a disastrous fire, but every obstacle and difficulty in his path seemed but to serve him as an impetus for renewed labor, and he at once began the arduous task of re-writing his books.

In 1 89 1 ]Mr. Van Allen was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife, who died on the 27th of Januaiw. leaving a son, Alfred M. Van Allen, represented elsewhere in this work. On the 26th of October, 1893, the father was married to Aliss Anna L. Watters. In the social life of the city he has occupied a position of prominence that is always accorded in recognition of true worth, intelligence and culture, winning his friends from among the best citizens of Mount Pleasant. His political allegiance was given to the republican party from the time of its organization and although without aspiration for office himself, he labored quietly but untiringly and efficiently for the interests of others and for the party's success. Although reared in the faith of the Methodist church, he became a member of the Presbyterian church on his removal to Mount Pleasant, his wife being a communicant of the latter denomination Associated with various lines of public interest and activity he gave tangible support to every movement which he believed would contribute to the general good up to the time of his death, which occurred on the 4th of September, 1902. He was a man of action rather than of theory-, and yet he took no important step in life without due consideration. He held friendship inviolable, the duties of the home sacred and with a sense of conscientious obligation performed every task which devolved upon him in connection with citizenship or public trust.

As printed in Biographical review of Henry County, Iowa, containing biographical and genealogical sketches of many of the prominent citizens of to-day and also of the past .. (1906). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.