Frank D. Allen

ALLEN, GILBERT

Posted By: Marthann Kohl-Fuhs (email)
Date: 3/22/2009 at 13:50:47

FRANK D. ALLEN is a member of the firm of Allen & Crane, proprietors of the Audubon County Advocate, the oldest paper in the county. This firm succeeded the firm of Crane & Crane, Mr. Allen purchasing an interest in the paper in October, 1888. Frank D. Allen was the former proprietor and founder of the Western Blizzard at Gray, Iowa, a semiweekly, successfully managed by Mr. Allen for a time, and then moved to Audubon and consolidated with the Advocate. Previous to his starting the Blizzard Mr. Allen had been traveling correspondent for several of the leading Omaha papers for a period of two years, visiting all the important towns and cities from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast. Mr. Allen a native of the State of Iowa, born in Jones County, in November, 1867. He received his earlier education in the common schools, and then entered the Western Normal College at Shenandoah, Iowa, where he pursued his studies for one year. On leaving school he began his career as an editor. Although the father, A. E. Allen, was a prominent farmer and stock raiser, the son preferred to wield the pen. A. E. Allen was an old settler of Jones County, Iowa, and owner of nearly 1,000 acres in Audubon County; he moved to the county in 1882, and is one of the substantial farmers of Viola Township. The mother of Mr. Allen was Miss Mary Gilbert, of Jones County, Iowa, a native of Ohio, and a daughter of Russell Gilbert, now a prominent merchant of Wyoming, Iowa. She died in 1872, leaving four sons, three of whom still survive. Frank D. Allen started his first paper at Dedham, but it was not a success, and he took Horace Greeley's advice, and turned up at the Black Hills in Dakota. After he had been there three months he secured a position with the county attorney, as secretary and correspondent, for two months; after that he secured a position on the Omaha Bee as local correspondent; he traveled in the interest of the paper and wrote up many important towns and cities in Nebraska and Southern Dakota. At one time he was correspondent for the Chicago papers, among which we mention the Chicago Sunday National, one of the leading humorous papers of the west.

1889 BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF
SHELBY AND AUDUBON COUNTIES, IOWA
W. S. DUNBAR & CO., PUBLISHERS
113 ADAMS STREET, CHICAGO

pages 714-715