Heman Allen (of Milton)

Biography

Allen was born in Ashfield (now Deerfield, Massachusetts) to Enoch Allen and Mercy Belding Allen. He attended an academy in Chesterfield, New Hampshire for two years before moving to Grand Isle, Vermont.

He read law with Elnathan Keyes of Burlington and the Honorable Judge Parker of St. Albans. Allen was admitted to the bar in 1803. He began the practice of law in Milton, and was the first resident lawyer in Milton.

Allen served as a member of the Vermont House of Representatives from 1810 until 1814, 1816, 1817, 1822 and from 1824 until 1826. He moved to Burlington in 1828 and continued the practice of law.

He was elected as an Anti-Jacksonian candidate to the Twenty-second, Twenty-third and the Twenty-fourth Congresses. He was elected as a Whig candidate to the Twenty-fifth Congress, serving from March 4, 1831 until March 3, 1839.

While in Congress, Allen served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Treasury during the Twenty-third through Twenty-fifth Congresses. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1838 to the Twenty-sixth Congress. After leaving Congress, Allen resumed the practice of law. He was a director of the Lake Champlain Steamboat Company.

Personal life

Allen married Sarah Ann "Sally" Prentis Allen on December 4, 1804. They had eight children; Heman Jr. Allen, Lucius Alle, George Allen, Sarah Allen, Charles Prentis Allen, Joseph William Allen, Julia Allen and James Heman Allen.

Allen was the distant cousin of Heman Allen (of Colchester), United States Representative from Colchester, Vermont and America's first United States Minister Plenipotentiary to Chile.

Death

Allen died in Burlington on December 11, 1844, and is interred at the Elmwood Avenue Cemetery in Burlington.