Biographical Sketch of John Wells Allen


Text from Haynes, Nathaniel S. History of the Disciples of Christ in Illinois 1819-1914, Cincinnati: Standard Publishing Company, 1915. Pages 461 - 462. This online edition © 1997, James L. McMillan.

Born: Fleming County, Kentucky, 1843.
Died: 1925.

Mr. Allen was a native of Fleming County, Kentucky He was well born and has always been a fine type of a Christian gentleman. After three years' service in the Federal Army, during which time he "did duty" at Donaldson, Shiloh and Vicksburg, he graduated at Eureka in 1867. He ministered to the church at Grayville, Illinois; served as State evangelist for one and one-half years; was pastor at Shelbyville and Jacksonville, and the following sixteen years in Chicago, two years with the South Side Christian Church, two years with the First, now a part of the Memorial, and twelve years with the Westside, now the Jackson Boulevard Church.

That was the period in which the Disciples in the commercial metropolis were coming out of religious contention, chaos and confusion into sympathetic activities and orderly co-operation. It was a time of stress and storm, and Mr. Allen put into it virile years of his splendid life. To no one man is our cause in Chicago more indebted for a saner spirit and better vision than to him. His ministry has always been Scriptural, unselfish, forceful, sympathetic and constructive. Since 1895 his work has been in Spokane, Washington.


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