Ira Allen
Ira Allen (Template:OldStyleDate – January 7, 1814) was an American revolutionary leader, founder of Vermont, and one of the Green Mountain Boys during the American colonial period. He was the younger brother of Ethan Allen.
Biography
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Ira Allen was born in Cornwall in the Connecticut Colony (in present-day Litchfield County, Connecticut), the youngest of eight children born to Joseph and Mary Baker Allen.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1771, Allen went to Vermont (then part of the British colonial Province of New York) with his brother Ethan as a surveyor for the Onion River Land Company.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The four Allen brothers established the company in 1772 (dissolved 1785)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> to purchase lands under the New Hampshire Grants. Ira Allen had an almost central role in the dispute with the Province of New York over conflicting land claims in the region<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> such as by gifting land to men who had committed acts for New Hampshire,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and by confiscating loyalist property to finance government.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
During the American Revolutionary War, Allen was a member of the Vermont Legislature in 1776–1777 and a leading figure in the declaration of the Vermont Republic in 1777, which was originally intended to be independent of both the British colonies and the newly-founded United States.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Late in the war, he and his brother Ethan, along with Thomas Chittenden and others, were involved in the Haldimand Affair by their discussions with Frederick Haldimand, the British Governor of the Province of Quebec, about the possibility of reinstating Vermont as a British province.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
An alternate explanation is that the Allen brothers were not actually interested in returning Vermont to the British but merely used the Haldimand negotiations to stave off a British invasion of Vermont from Canada and to prod the Continental Congress into recognizing Vermont as separate from New York and New Hampshire and admitting it to the United States.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Vermont was granted statehood in 1791.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Allen designed the Great Seal of Vermont.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1778, Allen drew the seal and Reuben Dean, a local silversmith, made it.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The two men were each paid ten shillings for their work.<ref>"Dean, Reuben" in The Vermont Encyclopedia (eds. John J. Duffy, Samuel B. Hand & Ralph H. Orth: University of Vermont Press, 2003), p. 103.</ref>
In 1780, Allen presented to the state legislature a memorial for the establishment of the University of Vermont.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He contributed money and a fifty-acre (20 ha) site at Burlington.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was called the "Father of the University of Vermont” and after his death he has been referred to as the "Metternich of Vermont" (though his actions predate those of Metternich himself).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Ira Allen pledged 4,000 British pounds sterling to the University of Vermont, but never donated the money.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In response, the Trustees of the University of Vermont secured a writ of attachment on his title to the town of Plainfield to try to extract payment of his original 4,000-pound pledge.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Allen was Vermont's first Treasurer and held office from 1778 to 1786, when he was succeeded by Samuel Mattocks.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He married Jerusha Enos (daughter of Roger Enos and Jerusha Hayden) in 1789.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Members of the Allen and Enos families were the original proprietors of Irasburg, Vermont, which was named after Ira Allen.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Allen subsequently acquired all the proprietary rights to Irasburg and deeded the town to Jerusha Enos as a wedding gift.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
On October 25, 1790, Ira Allen was commissioned Major General of the Third Division of the Vermont State Militia by Governor Thomas Chittenden.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He went to France in 1795 and sought French army intervention for seizing Canada in order to create an independent republic called United Columbia.<ref>Template:Cite book Chapter 1</ref> He bought 20,000 muskets and 24 cannons but was captured at sea, taken to England, placed on trial, and charged with furnishing arms for Irish rebels.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He was acquitted after a lawsuit which lasted eight years,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and which saw a first of an Admiralty judge being summoned before King's Bench.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Allen died in 1814 in Philadelphia, where he had gone to escape imprisonment for debt, caused by his long absence from Vermont.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He was originally buried in Philadelphia's Arch Street Presbyterian Cemetery, but his remains were lost when that cemetery was destroyed.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> There is a cenotaph in his memory at Greenmount Cemetery in Burlington, Vermont, and a memorial cenotaph at Wetherill’s (Free Quaker) Cemetery in Audubon, Pennsylvania.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Ira Allen Chapel on the University of Vermont's main campus was also named after him.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="UVMheritageStudySite4">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Vermont Sesquicentennial half dollar
The obverse of the 1927 Vermont Sesquicentennial half dollar, designed by Charles Keck, depicts Allen above the words "Founder of Vermont".
Works
Allen published several books, including:
- Template:Cite book
- Statements Appended to the Olive Branch (1807)