The Biographical Dictionary of America/Allen, William (philanthropist)

ALLEN, William, philanthropist, was born at Windham, Conn., May 23, 1810. His early years were passed in Rhode Island, whither his parents had removed soon after his birth. The straightened circumstances of the family prevented his receiving anything more than a rudimentary education, but by private study he acquired sufficient knowledge to enable him to assume the editorial management of the Rhode Islander. At the age of nineteen he removed to Ohio, and edited first the Ohio State Journal and later the Cincinnati Gazette. After leaving that paper, he engaged in agriculture, and became active in advocating the establishment of a law by which western settlers could obtain a homestead from the government. After travelling throughout the country delivering lectures and spending more than $60,000, he had the satisfaction of seeing the homestead law adopted by Congress, allowing one hundred acres of land to each actual settler. This expenditure of time and money crippled him financially, so that he never rallied, his last years being spent in abject poverty. Under the homestead law more than 122,000,000 acres of land were given away in the first twenty-five years. Mr. Allen died in the Franklin county infirmary at Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 29, 1891.