Ira Allen (April 21, 1751 in Cornwall, Connecticut - January 7, 1814) was one of the founders of Vermont, and leaders of the Green Mountain Boys; and was the brother of Ethan Allen.
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Biography
He was a member of the Vermont Legislature, in 1776-1777. Allen designed the Great Seal of Vermont and the seal of the University of Vermont.
In 1780 he presented to the Legislature a memorial for the establishment of the University of Vermont.[1] He contributed money and a fifty-acre (20 ha) site at Burlington. He was called the "Metternich of Vermont" and the "Father of the University of Vermont."[2]
Ira Allen pledged 4000 British pounds sterling to the University of Vermont, but never donated that money. 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 4000 pound pledge.[3]
He served as Surveyor General of Vermont from 1779 to 1787.[4][5]
He went to France in 1795, and sought French army intervention for seizing Canada, to create an independent republic called United Columbia.[6] He bought 20,000 muskets and 24 cannon, but was captured at sea, taken to England, placed on trial, charged with furnishing arms for Irish rebels,[7] but was acquitted after a lawsuit which lasted eight years.[8]
He owned undeveloped land including a stake in Barton, Vermont and was a major stakeholder in Irasburg, Vermont which was named after him.
Works
He published books:
- The Natural and Political History of Vermont. London: J.W. Myers. 1798. http://books.google.com/books?id=67YMAAAAYAAJ&q=The+Natural+and+Political+History+of+Vermont&dq=The+Natural+and+Political+History+of+Vermont&pgis=1.
- Statements Appended to the Olive Branch, (1807)
References
- ^ A.J.H Dyer (1896). "General Ira Allan". The American Monthly Magazine, Daughters of the American Revolution (R.R. Bowker Co.): 61. http://books.google.com/books?id=PZ_iKWr8dCoC&pg=PA61&dq=Statements+Appended+to+the+Olive+Branch.
- ^ John Howard Brown (1900). Lamb's biographical dictionary of the United States. James H. Lamb Co.. pp. 66–67. http://books.google.com/books?id=XGBkAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA67&dq=ira+allen+irish+rebels+1795#PPA66,M1.
- ^ Graffagino, J. Kevin (1991). "A Hard Founding Father to Love". in Daniels. The University of Vermont, The First Two Hundred Years. Hanover NH: University of Vermont, distributed by University Press of New England. ISBN 0-087451-549-1.
- ^ William W. Stickney (1901). "Farewell address of William W. Stickney". Vermont Journal of the Joint Assembly (Montpelier, VT: Vermont State Archives and Records Administration): 14. http://www.vermont-archives.org/govhistory/gov/govinaug/farewells/pdf/Stickney1902.pdf.
- ^ Vermont Historical Society Collections. Montpelier: Vermont Historical Society. 1871. p. 427. http://books.google.com/books?id=nlgSAAAAYAAJ&dq=Vermont+Historical+Society+Collections&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=BXdsTtjoBX&sig=HzzMKgOXXWNuHkl4VkLEf6xBvNA&hl=en&ei=BrvcSc_zNcPelQe0gvX8DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3.
- ^ Robert E. May (2002). Manifest Destiny's Underworld: Filibustering in Antebellum America. U. of North Carolina Press. http://www.ibiblio.org/uncpress/chapters/may_manifest.html. Retrieved 23 July 2008. Chapter 1
- ^ Benson John Lossing (1851). The pictorial field-book of the revolution. Harper & Bros.. p. 161. http://books.google.com/books?id=-dMmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA161&dq=ira+allen+irish+rebels+1795.
- ^ Ethan Allen Hitchcock, William Augustus Croffut (1909). Fifty years in camp and field: diary of Major-General Ethan Allen Hitchcock, U.S.A.. G.P. Putnam's Sons. p. 31. http://books.google.com/books?id=VhJ-4yKyrhoC&pg=PA31&dq=ira+allen+irish+rebels+1795.
External links
- Vermont Historical Society Collections. Montpelier: Vermont Historical Society. 1870. http://www.archive.org/details/collvermont01montrich.
- Vermont Historical Society Collections. II. Montpelier: Vermont Historical Society. 1871. http://books.google.com/books?id=nlgSAAAAYAAJ&dq=Vermont+Historical+Society+Collections&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=BXdsTtjoBX&sig=HzzMKgOXXWNuHkl4VkLEf6xBvNA&hl=en&ei=BrvcSc_zNcPelQe0gvX8DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3.
- Inventory of the Allen Family Papers, Special Collections, University of Vermont Library
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