Allen, John
lawyer, state senator, was born Aug. 17, 1796, in Augusta county, Va. In 1824, in company with E. W.
Rumsey, he located the site of Ann Arbor, Mich. He engaged in land speculation and at one time owned thousands of acres of land in the western part of the state, much of which was lost in the panic of 1837. In company with Samuel W. Dexter, he published for a time the Western Emigrant, the first paper in Washtenaw county. He studied law with James Kingsley, and was admitted to the bar in 1832, but gave little time to the profession. He was state senator of Michigan in 1845-48. He went to California in 1850 and died there March 11, 1851.