View source for William A. Allen

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William Alonzo Allen, D. D. S. One of the founders of Billings, a student
of natural history and a writer on the flora and fauna of the state. He
was a veteran hunter and such journals as the Turf,
Field and Farm esteem him as a valuable correspondent.
Born in Summerfield, Noble county, Ohio,
on Sept. 2, 1848, he is a son of Robert T. and
Rachel (Guiler) Allen, the former of whom was a
son of John and Mary (Blundle) Allen. This John
Allen was a son of Sir John Allen, of England, and
a cousin of Ethan Allen, of Ticonderoga fame.
He was early a seafaring man, but later engaged
in farming. The mother of the Doctor was a
daughter of William and Mary (Franklin) Guiler,
the former of whom was born in Ireland, while the
latter was a cousin of Benjamin Franklin, the
printer, philosopher and diplomat.

William A. Allen has for many years been a
loading dentist of Montana, with home office in
[[Billings, Montana]]. When he was twelve years of age, in
1866, he entered the normal school in his native town, where he continued his studies for a time,
after which he gave attention to the blacl<smith
trade until 1877, also working as a gunsmith, and
showing marked mechanical talent. Early in 1877
he set forth for Dakota and the [[Black Hills]]. At
[[Spearfish]] he joined a party of 250 persons and on
the way they were attacked by Indians, and seven
men and one woman were killed in the attack.
The party eventually was diminished to 154 persons
and fifty wagons, over which Dr. Allen was
placed as captain, and it proceeded on its way to
[[Bozeman, Montana]]. The Doctor had selected a party
and gone in pursuit of the attacking Indians and
overtook them in the night, and the next morning
gave evidence of the death of eleven savages. While
he was thus absent from the train, eight wagons
had left it and started for [[Red Water]] crossing,
where they were surrounded by the Indians and
held in a perilous position until after the Doctor's
party had returned to the train. With twenty
men the Doctor hastened to relieve them, arriving
about four o'clock in the morning. Quietly waiting
until the savages charged on the train at daybreak,
they successfully repelled the attack and
killed about a dozen Indians, the loss to the emigrants
being only one man killed and three wounded,
one of the wounded being Dr. Allen. He later
was wounded several times in Indian conflicts.
On the return to the camp at Spearfish, Dr. Allen
was made commander and he divided the train into
four companies, headed by [[John Wustun]], [[Hiram
Bishoff]], [[Capt. Patent]] and [[Capt. Houston], of Texas,
the last having charge of the bull outfit. They
went up [[Belle Fourche]] river, passing old [[Fort
Reno]], thence through Wyoming by the site of
[[Buffalo, Wyoming]] and old [[Fort Kearney]], thence up [[Goose
creek]], where one man was killed and two wounded
by Indians. The party remained three days on
the [[Custer battlefield]] for a needed rest, and to
give opportunity to examine the historic scene of
the massacre, which occurred eleven months previously.
Some of the party remained in that locality,
while the others proceeded toward [[Wind
river]] by [[Prior's pass]] and [[Sage creek]] to [[Stinking
Water] crossing, when another division occurred,
some going to the [[Crow agency]], while the others
went on to [[Camp Brown]] and to [[Bozeman]]. Dr.
Allen engaged in the blacksmith business in Bozeman,
with [[Frank Harper]], and later was
blacksmith for the [[Bozeman & Miles City
stage line]], also acting as express messenger
in the winter of 1877. He next was government
blacksmith at [[Fort Custer]], and in 1879
he, in a skiff, went down [[Big Horn river]] to [[Fort
Buford]] to meet his family, who came back with
him. He located on [[Canyon creek]], engaged in
stock raising and at his trade. In 1S82 he removed
to [[Coulson]], where he continued blacksmithing
for some months, when he removed to
[[Billings, Montana]], then a crude cluster of a few primitive
cabins, and he there erected the first house in the
Yellowstone valley having a shingle roof.

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In order to perfect himself in dentistry, at which
he had worked to some extent, Dr. Allen went
to Chicago in 1884, where he took the full course
at the Chicago College of Dentistry, from which
he was graduated. In 1896 he took a course in
Haskell's Post-Graduate School of Dentistry, and
he has since acquired a reputation as an expert
dentist in both surgical and mechanical branches.
In company with [[John L. Guiler]] Dr. Allen owns
700 acres of valuable land on [[Clark's Fork]], where
they founded the town of [[Allendale]], named in
honor of Dr. Allen, and this they maintain by stipulation
in the conveyances as a prohibition town.
Here they have erected a roller process flouring
mill operated by water power at a cost of fully
$15,000. The Doctor is also largely interested in
stock raising. Dr. Allen is an "old-timer," a man of
honesty of purpose, who is charitable in his judgment
of his fellow men and ever ready to aid those
worthy of succor. In politics he supports the
[[Prohibition party]], in which he has been an active
worker for years. In religion both he and his
wife are Methodists. [[Robert T. Allen]], a brother
of the Doctor, has been engaged in the practice of
law in Billings since 1882. In 1874, in Ohio, Dr.
Allen was united in marriage to Miss [[Josephine
Houston]], daughter of [[John Houston]], who died
from disease contracted in the Union army of the
Civil war. In 1887 Dr. Allen was married to Miss
[[Mollie Finkelnburg], a daughter of Hon. A. Finkelnburg,
of Fountain City, Wis. Her father represented
his county in both bodies of the Wisconsin
legislature. Of the first marriage two children
were born, [[William O. Allen]] and [[Robert T. Allen]], both of
whom are associated with their father in the practice
of dentistry, and the only child of the second
marriage is a daughter, [[Lelah Allen]]. Dr. Allen is a
typical westerner, enjoying the wild, free life of
the early days and has had many thrilling adventures
in his numerous hunting excursions, and has
a record as an Indian fighter of distinction. He
has in preparation a volume that will be of intense
interest to every Montanian and of value to all
other Americans,, from the light it throws upon the
early life of the plains and its minute descriptions
of the various animals then roaming over the vast
expanse of mountain and plain. He is still in the
dental practice in Billings and visits professionally
the principal places of the state.