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- PROF. BENJAMIN DWIGHT ALLEN, Choirmaster and
- Professor of Music in Beloit College, is the personal friend
of many bright and capable people who have gone out of that institution
to make their way in every walk and calling of life. He is one
of the venerable figures upon the streets and in the homes of
which the city of Beloit is justly proud, and the uplifting and
inspiring power of his long and useful career has been beyond
computation. He has a pleasing and attractive personality, a
warm and genial manner.
- Prof. ALLEN was born in Sturbridge, Mass., Feb. 16, 1831,
a son
- of Alvan and Lucy (SALISBURY) ALLEN, both natives of that
State. They had two sons, Albert Salisbury and Benjamin Dwight,
the former of whom died in Worcester, Mass., in 1895, and Prof.
ALLEN is the only representative of the family now living. The
father was a merchant when a young man, and later became city
marshal of Worcester. He developed
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- an extensive business as a contractor in the state business
between Boston, Harford, Norwich and other points, and in middle
life took to the business of selling pianos and other musical
instruments. He died at Worcester in 1859, at the age of sixty-two
years. His widow survived until 1888, when she passed away at
the age of eighty-eight. They were both Congregationalists.
Alvan ALLEN was a colonel in the State militia. His father,
Elisha ALLEN, was born in Massachusetts, and was a farmer all
his life, dying in middle age. He had a large family. The family
belongs to the MEDFORD branch of the ALLENs, and its history
in America runs back to the early part of the seventeenth century.
The maternal grandfather of Prof. ALLEN, Benjamin SALISBURY,
born in either Massachusetts or Rhode Island, is supposed to
have been a tailor, and lived to be over eighty years of age.
He belonged to the Rhode Island family of this name.
- Prof. ALLEN spent the first four years of his life at Sturbridge,
and was then taken by his parents
- to Worcester, where he grew to manhood under exceptionally
fine opportunities for the acquisition of a solid and substantial
education. He passed through the public school, had private
tutors, and was thoroughly grounded and broadly trained, as much
so as he would have been at college. Prof. FISHER, then a young
man, and now of Yale, was his instructor in literary themes,
as wall also H. G. O. BLAKE, who became widely known at a later
period as the editor of THOREAU's writings. While studying general
themes, Prof. ALLEN was also engaged in teaching instrumental
music. He early foreshadowed his career in life, and made preparation
for it under such competent instructors as TIMM, of New York,
and SATTER and DRESEL, of Boston. He began his career as a teacher
of high-class music in Worcester. He was a member of the staff
of the New England Conservatory of Music, in Boston, one of the
professors of the Boston University, and member of the Harvard
Musical Association, and for thirty-seven years was organist
of the Union Church and one of the directors of the musical festivals
of Worcester. Prof. ALLEN was intimately associated with Carl
ZERRAHN for more than a quarter of a century, and his memories
of the scenes and incidents of the music world of New England
fifty years ago are interesting in the extreme.
- Prof. ALLEN and Miss Eliza WHITE were married Aug. 18, 1857.
Mrs. ALLEN was a
- daughter of James and Eliza (HEALY) WHITE, and a descendant
of Peregrine WHITE, of Pilgrim fame. Five children were born
of this union, Mabel, James, Eliza Salisbury, Charlotte Joy,
and Benjamin Lincoln Wayland. Mabel married Rev. W. W. SLEEPER,
and after their marriage they spent five years in Bulgaria.
Mr. SLEEPER is now pastor of the Second Congregational Church
in Beloit. They have had six children, four of whom are now
living, James Taylor, William Allen, Helen Joy and Frank McDonald.
James Allen had a varied career. He was graduated from the
high school, was a student at Amherst College, and then became
connected with the Worcester Evening Gazette, remaining
in the office of that paper some ten or twelve years. He was
sent to Zanzibar, Africa, as agent for the great New York trading
house of Arnold, Cheney & Co., and came back from the other
side of the world to go into the banking business at Worcester,
under the firm name of WINSLOW & ALLEN. He died in 1898.
Eliza S. died in early childhood. Charlotte Joy married Charles
H. FARNSWORTH, who is now instructor in music at Columbia College,
New York. Benjamin died in infancy. On Aug. 18, 1894, on the
anniversary of her marriage, Mrs. ALLEN died in Beloit, while
on a visit to her daughter, and was buried in Worcester, Mass.
She had reached the age of fifty-nine years, and belonged to
the Congregational Church, as also does her husband. After her
death Prof. ALLEN removed to Beloit, in order to make his home
with his daughter, coming here in the fall of 1894, and took
the professorship of music in the college. He is still active
in the performance of its duties, and is a member of the guild
of organists of the United States. He is a Republican in political
sentiment. Prof. ALLEN has had some students of music who afterward
became very prominent, among them being Eugene THAYER; Henshaw
DANA, the composer; Marie STONE McDONALD, of the Bostonian Opera
Company; her sister, Bessie BARTON, who has won recognition as
a singer abroad; and another sister, Agnes, who is famous as
a singer. Howard PARKHURST, organist of the Madison Square Church,
New York City, and George C. GOW, director of music in Vassar
College, were also pupils of the Professor. Many others might
be mentioned. He has been a hard-working and enthusiastic teacher
of music, and the fire of art in his soul has kindled in many
another soul the divine passion of music.
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-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c)1901, pp. 256-257; lithograph from same book.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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