REV. HEMAN H. ALLEN, D. D., Caldwell County, principal of Princeton Collegiate Institute, was born in Canton, St. Lawrence County, N. Y., October 16, 1828. His parents, Marcus and Lucia (Fabrigue) Allen, were Vermont people. His grandfather Allen was a cousin of Col. Ethan Allen, of Revolutionary fame; the father's side was of Scotch-Irish stock, tbe mother's, French-Huguenot. His maternal ancestor was one of those who escaped from Lyons during the awful scenes of the St. Bartholomew massacre. Sturdy Protestantism and love of civil liberty run in the blood on both sides. The parents of young Heman removed West in 1832, and finally settled in Breckinridge County, Ky., in 1838. Here he grew to manhood, engaged in the severe labors of clearing and cultivating a farm in the woods. After he reached maturity, he decided to enter the ministry in the Presbyterian Church, and entered upon a course of education necessary to that end. He graduated in 1855, at Centre College, Danville, Ky., under the presidency of that eloquent preacher and distinguished educator, Dr. John C. Young. He received the highest honors for scholarship in a class which had in it such men as Col. W. C. P. Breckinridge, Gov. T. T. Crittenden, Hon. John Y. Brown, and others who have become widely known in various professions. He pursued his theological course in Danville Theological Seminary, under Drs. R. J. Breckinridge and E. P. Humphrey, and was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Louisville, in April, 1858. His work in the ministry has been in Kentucky, with the exception of two years, in which he was pastor of a church in St. Charles, Mo. He was four years editor of the Western Presbyterian, at Louisville, Ky. He has been engaged from time to time in teaching, always having a deep interest in the cause of education. His success as a teacher, especially in the government and training of youth, is favorably recognized among the best educators of the State. When the Princeton Collegiate Institute was reorganized in 1881, he was elected principal by the board of trustees, a position which he still holds (1884). Under his administration, assisted by a corps of able and experienced teachers, the institution has entered upon a career which promises to be one of eminent efficiency and usefulness in the cause of the higher Christian education. Mr. Allen has been twice married: the first wife, Annie Thayer, to whom he was married in July, 1858, was a granddaughter of Judge Bridges, and great-granddaughter of Gen. John Adair, so well known in the early history of Kentucky. His second wife, Mary Washington Marshall, to whom he was married in November, 1861, was the granddaughter of Rev. Robert Marshall, one of the noted pioneer preachers of the Presbyterian Church of Kentucky. He has four children: one by the first, and three by the second marriage, all living.

 

Source:  J. H. Battle, W. H. Perrin, & G. C. Kniffin. Kentucky. A History of the State. Louisville, KY, Chicago, IL: Battey, 1885. Page 688.