Spouse(s) Sarah Hooton Roberts Name Samuel Allen | Role Inventor Education Westtown School | |
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Occupation FarmerInventorManufacturer Children Elizabeth Roberts AllenHenry Gibbons AllenAnna W. Roberts AllenSusan Janney AllenCharles Jackson AllenEmily Hooton Allen Died March 28, 1918, Miami, Florida, United States Parents Rebecca Smith Leeds, John Casdorp Allen | ||
Samuel Leeds Allen (May 5, 1841 – March 28, 1918) was the inventor and manufacturer of the Flexible Flyer sled and Planet Jr farm and garden equipment, for over one hundred years the best selling and most famous American sled.
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Biography
Allen was born on May 5, 1841 in Philadelphia to Quaker parents: John Casdorp Allen, a prominent druggist, and Rebecca Smith Leeds, his wife.
In 1861, Allen moved to Ivystone, his father's farm near the community of Westfield in Cinnaminson Township, New Jersey.
On November 22, 1866, Samuel Leeds Allen and Sarah Hooton Roberts, the daughter of Elisha Roberts and Elizabeth West Hooton, were married in the Friends Meeting House, Moorestown, New Jersey.
Allen's revolutionary sled was developed and tested at Westtown School and Ivystone. Stokes Hill, a popular sledding area located next to Breidenhart, Allen's Moorestown home, has been mistakenly identified as the birthplace of the Flexible Flyer sled. However, Allen built Breidenhart in 1894, five years after the Flexible Flyer was introduced.
Legacy
Allen was awarded almost 300 patents for a wide range of farming machinery, including the fertilizer drill, seed drill, potato digger, cultivator, furrower, pulverizer, grass edger and numerous other farm implements. In order to provide year-round employment for his workers producing farm equipment, Mr. Allen sought to create a product that could be sold during the winter. His passion for sledding led him to develop a series of sleds and sled improvements. Allen was issued U.S. Patent number 408,681 on August 13, 1889 for the Flexible Flyer.