They had four sons, John, David, Joseph and Jonathan, all of them long-lived men. A great-grandson named John Alden, died at Middleborough, Mass., in 1821, aged 102.

THOMAS ALLEN.

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS, 1880.*

SAMUEL ALLEN, early ancestor of Thomas, came to Northampton, Mass., in 1557. A public meeting of the settlers assigned him a home lot on King Street. The house soon reared upon it, having received additions and improvements, stands on the left hand corner of Edwards Street. He married the daughter of his next neighbor Hannah Woodford, by whom he had ten children.

Samuel, son of the preceding, settled on the homestead; at the age of fifty was appointed deacon of the church of which Jonathan Edwards was pastor.

Joseph Allen, son of the preceding and great-grandfather of Thomas, next occupied the homestead, married in 1733 Elizabeth Parsons, by whom he had fourteen children. The husband and wife were both eminent for piety and were the steady friends of Mr. Edwards during the popular commotion which caused his removal from Northampton.

Thomas Allen, grandfather of Thomas, was born in 1743, graduated at Harvard College in 1762, taking high rank as a classical scholar, studied Theology with Rev. John Hooker, of Northampton, and was ordained April 18, 1764, the first minister (Congregational) of Pittsfield, continuing his pastorate forty-six years. During the War of the Revolution, a company was raised in his parish, in anticipation of the conflict at Bennington, and left for the place of action. Being delayed on their way, Mr. Allen started out, quickened their march, and soon presented them to

Clark's "Northampton Antiquities," "Allen's Biographical Dictionary," "Berkshire County Eagle," "Berkshire Jubilee."

General Stark. Going near to the enemy, he exhorted them to submit, and was answered by musketry which lodged their contents in the log on which he stood. "Give me a gun," said he, and he continued to bear his part till the battle was decided in favor of the American arms.

Jonathan, son of Rev. Thomas Allen, was a Senator in the Massachusetts Legislature, and promoted the interests of agriculture, by introducing into Berkshire a flock of Spanish Merino sheep, which he crossed the ocean to obtain. He was twice married, and had eight children.

Thomas Allen, son of the preceding, was born in Pittsfield, August 29, 1813, died at Washington, April 8, 1882.

He graduated at Union College under Dr. Nott in 1832, began legal studies at Albany, and continued them with a lawyer in New York, after a time receiving a clerkship yielding $300 salary, and was admitted to the bar in 1835. He edited for awhile the "Family Magazine," and subsequently started in Washington a paper called The Madisonian. In 1842 he removed to St. Louis, Mo. Here he became largely interested in the projecting and building of new lines of railroad.

He was a member of the Missouri Senate from 1850 to 1854, and in 1880 was elected to the Forty-seventh Congress.

At the time of his election to Congress, he was president of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway; but soon after sold his railway interests and devoted his leisure to farming.

In the appendix of "Berkshire Jubilee " is given "A Recollection of the Stockbridge Indians," by "Thomas Allen, Esq., of St. Louis." He writes: "Mr. Sergeant translated the whole of the New Testament, except the book of Revelation, into the Indian language. He baptized one hundred and twenty-nine Indians, and contributed to the conversion of fifty or sixty to Christianity; and forty-two were communicants with the church when he closed his labors by death in 1749. Jonathan Edwards became the teacher of the Indians in 1751, was followed by Dr. Stephen West, in 1759, who was at that time chaplain at Fort Massachusetts, in Adams. Dr. West and President Edwards addressed the Indians through an interpreter. Dr. West relinquished the labor of instruction in 1775, to Mr. John Sergeant,

son of the first missionary, who, as did his father, taught the Indians in their native tongue.

"Many of the Indian youth received a good common school education from the missionary teachers, and one of them was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1780. As a tribe they were peaceable and intelligent, capable of transacting ordinary business, and of discharging the duties of town officers. They were friendly to the white race, and an act of hostility committed by them against the white population cannot be found. They took part with the English in the two French wars of 1744 and 1754. Some of them served as Massachusetts soldiers, and in 1775, one of the chiefs formally tendered his services in the Revolutionary War, in a speech made to the Massachusetts Congress."

Mr. Allen endowed a chair in Washington University, St. Louis, at an expense of about $40,000, and in 1847 presented the town. of Pittsfield with a free library.

In 1858, he built a dwelling in Pittsfield of the Great Barrington blue stone, for his summer residence.

Union College conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. in 1874.

Said Mr. Allen to his pastor, "I know not how it is with other men, but I have been a man of prayer all my life; I have always, before an important decision, asked the guidance of God." The opinion of the Trustees of the Atheneum, Pittsfield, concerning Mr. Allen was this: "He proved himself in all respects a worthy descendant of the first minister of Pittsfield."

He married Annie C., daughter of William C. Russell, of St. Louis.