William B. Allen

William B. Allen, a member of the firm of Allen & Ensor, and one of the prominent citizens of Savannah, Andrew County, Missouri, was born May 9, 1822, in Callaway County, Missouri, and was given a limited education at the subscription schools of the neighborhood.

He removed to Andrew County in 1843, and engaged in farming. In 1846 he erected a mill in this county, and for three years followed that business. He next moved to the farm.

He filled the office of county assessor for two years, being elected in 1864, and in 1872 was favored with that office again. In 1874 he was elected county collector of Andrew County, which office he filled with marked ability. In 1875 he moved to Savannah, where he has since resided.

During the late war he was a Union man, and at times held the positions of enrolling officer and provost-marshal of the county.

He was married, March 27, 1845, to Isabella C. Beattie, who was born in Virginia February 15, 1818, and is the daughter of David Beattie, who was an early settler of Andrew County.

Bethell Allen, the father of William B., was born in North Carolina April 29, 1780. He immigrated to Smith County, Tennessee, soon after his marriage, and in 1816 removed to Callaway County, Missouri. From that county he removed to Pettis County, Missouri, in 1833, thence to Platte County in 1837, and to Andrew County in 1844. In about 1849 he went to Atchison County, Missouri, and about 1853 settled in Nebraska. He died September 15, 1856.

Elizabeth Reed, the mother, was born in North Carolina in 1783. and died in Atchison County, Missouri, in 1858.

Mr. Allen never had any children of his own, but has raised fifteen, all of whom now reside in the county, and are among its most frugal and highly respected citizens, one only, Miss Belle Strock, still living with him.

Squire Allen, as he is familiarly called, is looked upon as the father of orphans of the county, having been guardian and curator of more than a hundred minors.

He is at present public administrator of the county, which position he has held for seven years. during which time, and at the present, some of the most important estates of the county have passed through his hands.

He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.

He should be proud of the esteem in which he is held by all his neighbors. No man ever more fully enjoyed the full confidence of those among whom he lived than Squire Allen.