Wayne County Biographies



Part of the Indiana Biographies Project



James B. Allen, M.D.

Numbered among the leading professional men of Cambridge City, Wayne county, is Dr. J. B. Allen, whose residence here dates back to October, 1897. The eldest of the four children of Jacob and Martha (Brown) Allen, he was born on the old family homestead, in Jefferson township, Wayne county, in 1844. His father is living, making his home in Hagerstown, with his daughter Carrie. He is now well advanced in years; the mother of the Doctor died in 1891, when in her seventy-third year. The only sister of the Doctor is Carrie, wife of George Fulkerson, and the two brothers are Lewis C. and Thomas B., and all are residents of this county.

Dr. Allen supplemented his common-school education by a course of study in the Hagerstown Academy, and later he attended Delaware University. Then for some time he engaged in teaching, being employed in the schools of Williamsburg, Milton, Centerville and Decatur, Indiana, as superintendent. He has been agent of the Adams Express Company at Hagerstown since 1886, and since 1878 he has been connected with the firm of Allen & Company, druggists, of the same town. Having pursued the study of medicine, and graduating in the Ohio Medical College, at Cincinnati, in 1881, he established himself in practice in Hagerstown, where he continued actively engaged in professional work until his removal to Cambridge City, a year and a half ago. He served as a township trustee for five years in succession, and was a member of the pension board during Cleveland's last administration. Though exercising the right of franchise, as every citizen should, he has never devoted much time to politics.

On Christmas day, 1872, Dr. Allen and Miss Ellen Starr were united in marriage, and one child, Harry S., blesses their union. Mrs. Allen is a lady of excellent education and culture, and is a daughter of John and Mary (Jamison) Starr, of Centerville.

Source:
Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana. Chicago. The Lewis Publishing Company. 1899. Page 650.