Frank T. Allen.—A physician and surgeon of established reputation, Dr. Allen is one of the most prominent men of Wilson county, a standing gained both through the useful and kind offices of his calling and through more than thirty years of worthy and public spirited citizenship. He was born at Hillsboro, Ill., Aug. 22, 1849. His father was William Allen and his mother was a Miss Mary Killingsworth prior to her marriage. William Allen was a native of Knoxville, Tenn., and was a farmer by occupation. Removing to Illinois in an early day he there bought a farm on which he resided until his death, in 1861. In politics he was a Democrat and at one time served as sheriff of Montgomery county, Illinois. During the great struggle of 1861 to 1865 he loyally espoused the Union cause.

Dr. Allen was reared in Hillsboro and completed his literary education in the academy there. He began the study of medicine in 1869 and was graduated in the medical department of Northwestern University, Chicago, Ill., in 1873. Locating for practice in Bond county, Illinois, he continued there until 1879, when he removed to Kansas and settled in Neodesha. From the first he commanded a good practice and in the succeeding years has become recognized as one of the leading physicians of Wilson county. Though not a specialist in that line he has done a great deal of successful surgery and has been local and district surgeon for the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway Company since 1880. Upon his removal to Neodesha he at once built a home, besides which Dr. Allen owns a fine farm of 189 acres, to which he gives more and more of his attention, as he is gradually retiring from his medical practice, ably assumed by his partner, Dr. John L. Moorhead. Dr. Allen has been successful both from a professional and business standpoint and ranks as one of the well-to-do citizens of his county. However, it is but a reward for years of hard, faithful, and conscientious effort, for Dr. Allen began his independent career wholly dependent upon his own resources.

In 1875 he wedded Ollie White, who was born at Vandalia, Ill., daughter of J. B. White, who was a native of Illinois and a miller by occupation. Dr. and Mrs. Allen have one child living, Georgia M., the wife of Dr. John L. Moorhead, partner of Dr. Allen. (See sketch.) Dr. Allen has always been a Democrat in politics but has never taken decided interest in party work. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and fraternally he is a Royal Arch and a Knight Templar Mason. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the Kansas State Medical Society, and the Wilson County Medical Society.