Madison C. Allen

#38 Madison Clay Allen (1843-1931) 1906

Madison Clay Allen, son of Vincent Allen and Eleanor Chappell, was born June 22, 1843 at Midway, Madison County, Ohio. He attended the common schools of his native town and read law at Midway and London, Ohio.

In 1861 he enlisted as a private in Company D, 40^th Ohio Volunteers and served for eight and a half months. He was mustered out in June of 1862 due to physical disability. He returned to Delaware County, Ohio and took up the study of law with ex-Congressman R. A. Harrison of London, Ohio and was admitted to the practice of law at Delaware on June 21, 1864. During the fall and winter of 1864 to 1865, he taught a five months term school in the first district of Midway and in the spring and summer of 1865 he taught a four month term at Midway.

Madison Allen married Sarah Ann Beers, daughter of James Gordy Beers and Hannah Dyer Littleton, on April 6, 1865. The couple made their home at Midway until October 14, 1865 when they removed to Nevada, Story County, Iowa arriving on October 21, 1865.

M. C. Allen filled the position of deputy surveyor for two years under his uncle, W. G. Allen, who was elected County Surveyor. For the next two terms Madison Allen was elected County Surveyor and later appointed to the position. He filed that position several times for nearly forty years.

In 1868, he engaged in the real estate, loan and abstract business. He was admitted to the bar in Story County on April 24, 1869. In 1883, Major E. Hix joined him in the real estate and abstracting business and they established a partnership they enjoyed for twenty-two years until Mr. Hix’s death in 1905.

In a tragic turn, Madison C. Allen received a severe injury to his right arm from a kicking horse in 1887. He managed the injury for about eighteen months to two years but at last the arm was amputated at the shoulder on June 12, 1889. The loss, however, did not slow or hinder Mr. Allen.

He most always held a position of public trust serving as Justice of the Peace for more than sixteen years, filling the office of County Recorder, and serving on city council for two terms from 1873 to 1875, He was elected mayor of Nevada and served one term in 1906. In later years, his son, Arthur Clay Allen, joined him in the abstracting business. He supported progressive measures and in 1911 he was president of the Story County Independent Telephone Company,

Sarah Ann (Beers) Allen died suddenly on June 6, 1918 in Nevada, Iowa. Madison C. Allen remained active in business until November 2, 1929 when his health suddenly declined and he was forced to submit to a surgical procedure.

Mr, Allen and his son, Arthur C. Allen, kept up his home in Nevada until illness forced Mr. Allen to the sanitarium and then to the home of his daughter, Mamie L. (Allen) Ambrose in Nevada where he spent his last year. Madison Allen died on January 23, 1931 in Nevada, Iowa leaving two daughters and a son to survive him.