Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Allen MD, J. Wesley August 12, 1838 - ????
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Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Philadelphia, 1892.
Author: Samuel T. Wiley

J. WESLEY ALLEN, M.D.,
who served as assistant surgeon of the 148th Pennsylvania infantry during the
late civil war, is one of the oldest and most efficient physicians and
surgeons in active practice in the city of Altoona and in Blair county. He is
a son of Dr. James McCormick and Elizabeth (Butler) Allen, and was born in the
town of Carlisle, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, August 12, 1838. His
paternal grandparents, Jacob and Jane (Spottsford) Allen, were natives of the
far-famed highlands of Scotland, which they left shortly after their marriage
to seek a home in the distant America, of which they had heard so much. They
settled, prior to 1808, in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, where they
resided until death called them out of this world. Jacob Allen (whose family
name in Scotland was formerly written Allan) was a man of good taste and fine
talent as an artist. He was a scenic painter by profession, and a choice
specimen of his work is to be seen in the beautiful frescoing of the Catholic
cathedral of the Monumental City. His son, Dr. James McCormick Allen, was born
in Baltimore in 1808, and studied dentistry, which he afterwards practiced in
St. Louis, Missouri, and other cities beyond the Mississippi river. He
returned, after a few years sojourn in the far west, and settled in Carlisle,
in Cumberland county, where he has resided ever since. He was way master and
general freight agent for several years of one of the railroads at Carlisle.
He was an old-line whig and a know-nothing, and in 1852 helped to organize
the Republican party, which he has supported ever since. While never asking
for any office, he has always been active in politics, and a few months ago
his party elected him an alderman of Carlisle, which office he is still
holding. Dr. Allen is a member of the Presbyterian church, and married
Elizabeth Butler, who is a member of the same Butler family of which one
branch furnished so many brave and able officers to the American army during
the revolutionary war. They reared a family of four sons and two daughters,
of whom three sons are dead.
      J. Wesley Allen grew to manhood in the town of Carlisle, and at the
completion of his academic studies, entered Dickinson college, of Carlisle,
from which he was graduated in the class of 1858, with the degree of A.B.,
and afterward received the degree of A.M. After graduation, having made the
choice of medicine as his life vocation, he entered, in August, 1858, the
office of Drs. J.J. Ziegler and A.F. Harmon. When he had completed with them
the required course of reading he entered the Medical university of
Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in 1861. After graduation he
practiced for three or four months, and then entered the Federal army as
assistant surgeon of the 148th Pennsylvania infantry, and saw active and
severe service under Gen. W.T. Sherman in the West and in the Army of the
Potomac, before the defenses of Richmond and Petersburg, in the latter part
of 1864 and the early spring of 1865. The 148th was commanded during 1863 and
1864 by ex-Governor James A. Beaver, whose leg Dr. Allen helped to amputate in
the last named year. Dr. Allen had his horse shot from under him and received
two slight wounds in one of the battles before Petersburg, and after Lee's
surrender was honorably mustered out of the United States service. He then
came to Altoona, where he opened an office and where he has remained ever
since, in active, continuous and successful practice. He is a well read and
progressive physician and a skillful and successful surgeon, and ranks among
the best physicians of central Pennsylvania. Dr. Allen was married to Anna
J., a daughter of Rev. William R. Mills. To this union have been born two
children; Oakes, who is a pattern-maker at Altoona, and Walter.
      Dr. Allen is a member of White Cross Lodge, No. 354, Knights of
Pythias, which was organized in Altoona on March 28, 1872. He is also
prominent and active in the Masonic fraternity. He is a member of St. John's
Lodge, No. 260, Free and Accepted Masons, St. John's Chapter No. 171, Royal
Arch Masons, St. John's Commandery, No. 8, Knights Templar, and Syria Temple
of the Mystic Shrine, of Pittsburgh. He is a democrat in politics, and served
three years as a member of the board of health of Altoona. Dr. Allen has
always given whole-hearted and vigorous support to his party and its
principles. A few years ago he was put forward by the democrats of Blair
county as one of their candidates for the house of representatives of
Pennsylvania, and although the republican majority was nearly twenty-five
hundred at that time, yet Dr. Allen cut it down to one thousand, and was
highly complimented on the remarkable strength which, as a candidate, he had
developed.

Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2001. Transcribed by Linda Shillinger  LindasTree@AOL.COM.

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