Ethan Allen had five brothers, Heman, Heber, Levi, Zimri, and Ira,
and two sisters, Lydia and Lucy. Of all our early heroes, few glide
before us with a statelier step or more beneficent mien than Heman
Allen, the oldest brother of Ethan. Born in Cornwall, Connecticut,
October 15, 1740, dying in Salisbury, Connecticut, May 18, 1778, his
life of thirty-seven and a half years was like that of the Chevalier
Bayard, without fear and without reproach. A man of affairs, a
merchant and a soldier, a politician and a land-owner, a diplomat and
a statesman, he was capable, intelligent, honest, earnest, and true.
But fifteen years old when his father died, he was early engaged in
trade at Salisbury. His home became the home of his widowed mother
and her large family. Salisbury was his home and probably his legal
residence, although he represented Rutland and Colchester in the
Vermont Conventions, and was sent to Congress by Dorset.
Heber was the first town clerk of Poultney.
Ira was able, shrewd, and gentlemanly; a land surveyor and
speculator, a lieutenant in Warner's regiment, a member of all the
conventions of 1776 and 1777, of the Councils of Safety and of
the State Council; state treasurer, surveyor-general, author of a
"History of Vermont", and of various official papers and political
pamphlets. In 1796 he bought, in France, twenty-four brass cannon
and twenty thousand muskets, ostensibly for the Vermont militia,
which were seized by the English. After a lawsuit of seven or eight
years he regained them, but the expense beggared him. He died in
Philadelphia, January 7, 1814, aged sixty-three years.
Levi Allen joined in the expedition to capture Ticonderoga, became
Tory, and was complained of by his brother Ethan as follows:
BENNINGTON COUNTY, _ss._:
ARLINGTON, 9 January, 1779.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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