F. S. Allen, owner and proprietor of the Boyden Abstract Company of El Dorado, Kans., has been identified with the abstract business practically all of his life, and the Boyden Abstract Company is one of the best known institutions of its kind in southern Kansas, and its history, and that of its predecessors, is the history of the abstract business in Butler county.

The first abstract business in El Dorado was started in 1868 by J. W. Cameron. David Boyden bought Cameron out in 1879, and Boyden conducted the business about twenty years. Some time in the seventies David Bronson wrote a set of books and also S. L. Shattell, and after some changes the business was consolidated. This consolidation was brought about by the purchase of all interests concerned by R. H. Hazlett, W. B. Crough and F. S. Allen. Later the Butler County Abstract Company made a set of books, which Hazlett, Crouch and Allen bought. This was in 1895, and in 1899 Mr. Allen became the sole owner of the institution.

Mr. Allen began in the abstract business in 1882. The Boyden abstract business has gradually developed until it has become one of the important institutions of El Dorado. During the recent industrial development in the oil and gas business, the abstract business has increased beyond any reasonable expectation. During the first six months of 1916 Mr. Allen gave employment to eighteen clerks in his office, and during normal conditions he employed eight assistants. He owns his own building at No. 125 West Central avenue, and the abstract business occupies the first floor with a floor space of 1,320 feet.

Mr. Allen was born near Boston, Mass., a son of Louis E. and Susan (Boyden) Allen, natives of Massachusetts. The father was a seafaring man and was lost at sea when F. S. was a child, and the mother now resides in El Dorado. Mr. Allen came to Kansas in 1882, and since that time has been located in El Dorado, and is one of the substantial business men of Butler county. He was elected registrar of deeds of Butler county in 1897, and at the expiration of his first term he was re-elected to that office, and served five years in all, serving one additional year, on account of a change in the law. Politically, Mr. Allen has always been identified with the Democratic party.

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