Joseph Allen

JOSEPH ALLEN, an old and highly respected citizen of Altamont, Labette county, Kansas, was engaged in farming in this county for many years, but is now living in retirement, in the enjoyment of a well earned rest after years of hard and diligent work. Mr. Allen was born in Maysville, Kentucky, in 1827, and is a soil of Charles and Sally (Lesher) Allen.

Charles Allen was born in 1791, and died in 1831. He married Sally Lesher, who died at the age of thirty-five years. They were the parents of three children, as follows: Charles, who was drowned when a boy; Joseph, the gentleman whose name heads these lines; and William, of Maysville, Kentucky.

Joseph Allen served an apprenticeship as a stone-mason, and followed the trade for six years. He helped to build the county jail and court-house of Mason county, Kentucky, and also many of the residences in the town of Maysville. He farmed in Mason and Bracken counties until 1880, in which year he moved to Kansas, and bought a farm in section 10, Labette township, Labette county. There he successfully followed farming and stock raising until 1894, when he retired to Altamont, where he has since resided. He is a man of high character and is greatly esteemed by his friends and acquaintances throughout the county.

In 1851 Mr. Allen was united in marriage with Margaret Galbraith, who died in 1878, leaving the following children: Lettie, wife of S. B. Lynd, of Parsons, Kansas, by whom she has three children, - Maude, Claude, and Audra; William F. and Joseph G., who are farmers in Labette township; Charles, who is with Company C, 20th Reg., U. S. Army, now stationed at Manila; and Maggie, who is living with her brothers. Mr. Allen contracted a second marriage in 1892, by wedding Martha Galbraith. Fraternally, the subject of this sketch is a member of the A. F. & A. M. In religious attachments, he is a member of the Church of Christ.