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Ethan Allen

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For other uses, see Ethan Allen (disambiguation).
Ethan Allen
An engraving depicting Ethan Allen demanding the surrender of Fort Ticonderoga
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
United Colonies
Republic of Vermont
Service/branchContinental Army
Years of service1757–1781
RankMajor General (Militia)
Colonel (Continental Army)
CommandsGreen Mountain Boys
Fort Ticonderoga
Battles/warsAmerican Revolutionary War
Other workfarmer, politician

Ethan Allen (January 21, 1738 [O.S. January 10, 1737][1] – February 12, 1789) was a farmer, businessman, land speculator, philosopher, writer, and American Revolutionary War patriot, hero, and politician.

He was an early American revolutionary and guerrilla leader who fought against the Province of New York's attempts to take control of the New Hampshire Grants. He is probably most widely known for his participation in the May 10, 1775 Capture of Fort Ticonderoga, and for later political and military activities leading first to the formation of the Republic of Vermont and then to Vermont's statehood.

In addition to his military and political activities, he wrote accounts of his exploits in the war that were widely read in the 19th century, as well as philosophical treatises. His business dealings included successful farming operations and one of Connecticut's early iron works. He was twice married, fathering eight children.

Early life

Birthplace, Litchfield, Connecticut

Ethan Allen was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, the first-born child of Joseph and Mary Baker Allen. The family moved to Cornwall shortly after his birth. Seven siblings, all of whom survived to adulthood, joined the family between Allen's birth and 1751. His brothers Ira and Heman were also prominent figures in the early history of Vermont.[2]

While not very much is known about Allen's childhood, the town of Cornwall was frontier territory in the 1740s, but, by the time Allen reached his teens, the area, while still a difficult area in which to make a living, began to resemble a town, with wood-frame houses beginning to replace the rough cabins of the early settlers. When Allen's father Joseph died in 1755, he was one of the largest landowners in the area, ran a successful farm, and had served as town selectman.[3] Allen had, before his father's death, begun studies under a minister in the nearby town of Salisbury with the goal of gaining admission to Yale College. Allen's brother Ira recalled that, even at a young age, Ethan was curious and interested in learning.[4]

Marriage and early adulthood

Unfortunately for Allen, his father's death put an end to his studies. While he volunteered for militia service in 1757 in response to French movements resulting in the Battle of Fort William Henry, his unit received word while en route that the fort had fallen, and turned back.[5] Even though the French and Indian War continued to be fought over the next several years, Allen did not apparently participate in any further military activities, and is presumed to have tended the farm, at least until 1762. In that year, he became part owner of an iron furnace in Salisbury.[6] He also married Mary Brownson, a woman five years his senior, from the nearby town of Roxbury in July 1762. They first settled in Cornwall, but moved the next year to Salisbury with their infant daughter Loraine, where he bought a small farm, and proceeded to develop the iron works.[7] The expansion of the iron works was apparently costly to Allen; he was forced to sell off portions of the Cornwall property to raise funds, and eventually sold half of his interest in the works to his brother Heman.[8] In October 1765, the Allen brothers sold their interest in the iron works.

By most accounts, Allen's marriage was an unhappy one. His wife was rigidly religious and prone to criticism, and was barely able to read and write, in contrast to Allen's interest in learning, and sometimes flamboyant behavior.[9] In spite of this, the marriage, which produced five children (of which only two reached adulthood), survived until Mary's death in 1783.

Exploits in those years also introduced Allen to the wrong side of the justice system, which became a recurring feature of his life. In one incident, he and his brother Heman went to the farm of a neighbor, some of whose pigs had escaped onto their land, and seized the pigs. The neighbor sued to have the animals returned to him; Allen argued the case in their defense, but lost the case. Ethan and Heman were fined ten shillings, and the neighbor received another five shillings in damages.[10] He was also called to court in Salisbury for inoculating himself against smallpox, a process that at the time required the sanction of the town selectmen.[11]

Reason

When he moved to Salisbury, Allen met Thomas Young, a doctor living and practicing just across the provincial boundary in New York. The learned doctor, only five years older than Allen, taught the young Allen a great deal about philosophy and political theory, while Allen was able to bring to Young his appreciation of nature and life on the frontier. Young and Allen eventually decided to collaborate on a book that was to be an attack on organized religion, as Young had convinced Allen to become a Deist. They worked on the manuscript until 1764, when Young moved away from the area, taking the manuscript with him.[12]

It was not until many years later, after Young's death, that Allen was able to recover the manuscript. He expanded and reworked the material, and eventually published it as Reason: the Only Oracle of Man.[13]

Moving around

While Heman remained in Salisbury, where he ran a general store until is death in 1778, Ethan's movements over the next few years are poorly documented.[14] He is known to have been living in Northampton, Massachusetts in the spring of 1766, where his son Joseph was born, and where apparently investigated opportunities offered by a lead mine. He was asked to leave Northampton in July 1767 by the authorities; no obvious reason is known.[14] He then briefly returned to Salisbury before settling in nearby Sheffield, Massachusetts, with his younger brother Zimri. It is likely that his first visits to the New Hampshire Grants occurred during these years. While Sheffield would be the family home for ten years, Allen was often absent for extended periods.[15]

The New Hampshire Grants

See also: New Hampshire Grants

As early as 1749, Benning Wentworth, New Hampshire's governor, had begun selling land grants in the area west of the Connecticut River, to which New Hampshire had always laid somewhat dubious claims. Many of these grants were sold at relatively low prices to land speculators. In 1764, King George issued an order resolving the competing claims of New York and New Hampshire in favor of New York. New York, which had also issued land grants that overlapped some of those sold by Wentworth, insisted that holders of the Wentworth grants pay a fee to New York to have their grants validated. As this fee approached the original purchase price, and many of the holders were land-rich and cash-poor, there was a great deal of resistance to this demand. By 1769 the situation in the Grants and deteriorated to the point where surveyors and other figures of New York authority were being physically threatened and driven from the area.[16]

A number of the holders of Wentworth grants were originally from northwestern Connecticut, and some of them, including Remember Baker and Seth Warner, were relatives of Allen. In 1770, a group of Wentworth grant holders asked Allen to defend their case before New York's Supreme Court, a move that presented Allen with his first big stage.[15] This move to leadership was not unusual; he was known among his contemporaries to be willing to step forward and take control.[17] The trial, which pitted politically powerful New York grant-holders, including New York's Lieutenant Governor Colden, Attorney General James Duane (who was prosecuting the case), and also Robert Livingston, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (who was presiding over the case), against Allen's small group, began in July 1770. The trial was brief, and the outcome unsurprising, as the court refused to accept the introduction of Wentworth's grants as evidence, citing their fraudulently-issued nature.[18] Before departing for Bennington with the news, Allen was visited by Duane, who offered Allen payments which Duane described in his diary as payment "for going among the people to quiet them".[19] Allen denied taking any money; even if he did, he was unlikely to honor Duane's request.[19] According to Allen's account, he was outraged, and left his visitors with veiled threats, indicating that attempts to enforce the judgment would be met with resistance.[20]

The Catamount Tavern, late in the 19th century

While many historians have believed that Allen took these actions because he already held Wentworth grants of his own, there is no evidence that he was issued any such grants until after he had been asked to take up the defense of grants held by others. In between May 1770, when he first began working on the defense, and the trial in July, he acquired, for the price of $50, grants from Wentworth to about 1,000 acres of land in Poultney and Castleton.[21]

Green Mountain Boys

On Allen's return to Bennington, settlers met at the Catamount Tavern to discuss their options. These discussions resulted in the formation of the Green Mountain Boys, with local militia companies in each of the surrounding towns. Allen was named their Colonel Commandant, and cousins Seth Warner and Remember Baker were captains of two of the companies.[22] Further meetings resulted in the creation of committees of safety, and laid down rules by which to resist attempts by the New York provincial government to establish its authority. These included denying surveyors sent by the province the ability to survey any land in the Grants, not just land owned through the Wentworth grants.

The flag of the Green Mountain Boys

While Allen participated in some of the defensive actions to drive surveyors away, he also spent much time exploring the entire territory, probably ranging as far north as the site of Burlington in his wanderings. After selling off some of his Connecticut properties, he began buying wild lands further north in the territory, which, as the southern settlements grew and people began to move further north, he sold at a profit.

Friction with the provincial government rose notably when, in October 1771, Allen and a company of Boys drove off a group of Scottish settlers near Rupert. Allen detained two of the settlers and forced them to watch the torching of their newly-constructed cabins. He then ordered them to leave, saying "Go your way now, and complain to that damned scoundrel your Governor, God damn your Governor, Laws, King, Council, and Assembly".[23] When the settlers protested his language, Allen continued the tirade, threatening to send any troops from New York to Hell. In response, New York's governer, William Tryon, issued warrants for the arrests of those responsible, and eventually put a price of £20 on the heads of six participants, including Allen.[24]

Capture of Fort Ticonderoga

See also: Capture of Fort Ticonderoga

In the spring of 1775, following the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, Allen and Benedict Arnold led a raid to capture Fort Ticonderoga. The relative roles of Allen and Arnold are not entirely clear, nor is it clear to what extent the campaign was formulated by the Patriot factions in Connecticut, or to what extent it was the idea of the Green Mountain Boys headquartered at the Catamount Tavern in Bennington. What is clear is that the rebels moved north, managed to get only 83 men across Lake Champlain, since they had considerable trouble finding boats.

In a dawn attack on May 10, the small force marched on the fort, surprising the lone sentry. Ethan Allen went directly to the fort commander's quarters, seeking to force his surrender. Lieutenant Jocelyn Feltham, the assistant to the fort's commander, Captain William Delaplace, was awoken by the noise, and called to wake the captain.[25] Stalling for time, he demanded to know by what authority the fort was being entered. Allen, who later claimed that he said it to Captain Delaplace, said, "In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!"[26] Delaplace finally emerge from his chambers, fully dressed, and surrendered his sword.[26] The rest of the fort's garrison surrendered without firing a shot.

A detachment of Allen's men went to nearby Fort Crown Point and captured the small garrison there. Fort Ann, and old French fort on Isle La Motte near the present Canadian border, was also captured. Allen and some of his men also temporarily occupied the town of St. Johns, now Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, before retreating on the news of approaching British regulars. The many cannon and other armaments seized at Ticonderoga allowed the Continental Army to break the stalemate at the siege of Boston, which caused the British to evacuate the city in March 1776.

Prisoner of war

Engraving depicting Allen before his captors in Montreal
See also: Battle of Longue-Pointe

In 1775, Allen commanded a small militia in the American rebels' campaign in Quebec, during which The Green Mountain Boys elected Allen's cousin, Seth Warner, as leader in his absence. On September 25, Allen and a force of about 100 men crossed the Saint Lawrence River in a poorly-planned scheme to capture Montreal. In the Battle of Longue-Pointe, Allen's force was surrounded and captured, ending his involvement in the revolution. Allen was shipped to England and imprisoned in Pendennis Castle, Cornwall, where he suffered considerable mistreatment. Not wishing to hang Allen because of political repercussions, the British returned him to North America. Arriving at Halifax in June 1776, Allen was paroled in New York City in October where, with the financial assistance of a brother, he lived comfortably, if out of action, until the spring of 1778.[27]

That spring, Allen was jailed for a parole violation that he admitted was "partly true".[27] On May 3, 1778 Ethan Allen was marched to New York Harbor and compelled to board a sloop to Staten Island. He was there admitted to General Campbell’s quarters and invited to eat and drink with the general and several other British field officers. Allen stayed there for two days and was treated politely. On the third day Allen was exchanged for Colonel Archibald Campbell, who was conducted to the exchange by Colonel Elias Boudinot, the American commissary general of prisoners appointed by General George Washington. Following the exchange, Allen reported to Washington at Valley Forge. On May 14, he was breveted a colonel in the Continental Army in "reward of his fortitude, firmness and zeal in the cause of his country, manifested during his long and cruel captivity, as well as on former occasions."[27]

Charges of treason

Allen then moved back to Vermont, which had become a hotbed of malcontent, harboring little affection for either the British or for the nascent United States. Vermont was also harboring a significant number of deserters from the armies of both. Allen settled a homestead in the delta of the Winooski River in what became the modern city of Burlington. Allen became active in Vermont politics and was appointed a major general of the Vermont militia in 1779, using the position to harass New York settlers as part of the New Hampshire Grants controversy between New York, New Hampshire and the Continental Congress.[27]

In 1778, Allen appeared before the Continental Congress on behalf of a claim by Vermont for recognition as an independent state. Due to the New York (and New Hampshire) claim on Vermont, Congress was reluctant to grant independent statehood to Vermont. Allen then negotiated with the governor of Canada between 1780 and 1783 in order to establish Vermont as a British province and to gain military protection for its residents. Because of this, the US charged him with treason; however, because the negotiations were demonstrably intended to force action on the Vermont case by the Continental Congress, the charge was never substantiated.

Second marriage

Ethan met his second wife, a widow, Frances Montresor Brush Buchanan, in 1784. They married within a few months on February 16, 1784. They had three children:

  • Fanny (1784–1819)
  • Hannibal Allen (1786–1813)
  • Ethan Allen Jr. (1787–1855)

Death

Allen died 22 days after his birthday on February 12, 1789, at the age of 51, in Burlington, Vermont. He was buried in Green Mount Cemetery, Burlington, Vermont.[28]

Memorials

Sculpture of Ethan Allen at the Vermont State House after Larkin Goldsmith Mead.

Two ships of the United States Navy have been named Ethan Allen in his honor, as well as Fort Ethan Allen, a cavalry outpost in Colchester and Essex, Vermont. The Spirit of Ethan Allen III is a tour boat line in Lake Champlain.[29] The Ethan Allen Express, an Amtrak train line running from New York City to Rutland, Vermont, is also named after him.

A statue of Allen represents Vermont in National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol.[30]

Corporate use of Ethan Allen's name

Allen's name is the trademark of the furniture and housewares manufacturer, Ethan Allen Inc., which was founded in 1932 in Beecher Falls, Vermont.

Publications

Allen is known to have written the following publications:

  • Ethan Allen's Narrative of the Capture of Ticonderoga: And of His Captivity and Treatment by the British. C. Goodrich and S.B. Nichols. 1849. OCLC 17008777.
  • A Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen's Captivity. C. Goodrich. 1779. OCLC 3505817.
  • Reason, the Only Oracle of Man: Or, A Compendious System of Natural Religion. J.P. Mendum. 1854. OCLC 84441828.
  • Vindication of the Opposition of Vermont to the Government of New York. Spooner. 1779. OCLC 78281878.
  • A brief narrative of the proceedings of the government of New-York. Ebenezer Watson. 1774. OCLC 166868772.

Notes

  1. ^ Allen's date of birth is made confusing by two calendrical differences. The first is the conversion between the Julian and Gregorian calendars, which offsets the date by 11 days. The second is that, at that time, the New Year began on March 25. As a result, his birth record is listed as January 10, 1737. Adjusting for the movement of the New Year to January changes the year to 1738; adjusting for the conversion between Julian and Gregorian calendars changes the date from January 10 to 21. See Jellison, p. 2 and Hall, p. 5.
  2. ^ Jellison, p. 3
  3. ^ Jellison, p. 4
  4. ^ Jellison, p. 5
  5. ^ Jellison, p. 7
  6. ^ Hall, pp. 12–13
  7. ^ Jellison, pp. 8–9
  8. ^ Jellison, p. 9
  9. ^ Jellison, p. 8
  10. ^ Jellison, pp. 10–11
  11. ^ Jellison, p. 12
  12. ^ Jellison, pp. 15–17
  13. ^ Jellison, p. 17
  14. ^ a b Jellison, p. 30
  15. ^ a b Jellison, p. 31
  16. ^ Jellison, pp. 20–26
  17. ^ Jellison, p. 32
  18. ^ Jellison, pp. 32–36
  19. ^ a b Jellison, p. 37
  20. ^ Jellison, p. 38
  21. ^ Jellison, p. 33
  22. ^ Jellison, pp. 39–40
  23. ^ Jellison, p. 58
  24. ^ Jellison, pp. 59–60
  25. ^ Randall, p. 95
  26. ^ a b Randall, p. 96
  27. ^ a b c d Boatner, Mark M. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. pp. 17–18.
  28. ^ I467: Ethan B. ALLEN (1738–1789)
  29. ^ "Spirit of Ethan Allen III". VermontVacation.com. Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing. Retrieved 2008-01-23.
  30. ^ Ethan Allen

References

Further reading

Wikiquote has quotations related to Ethan Allen.
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