ROBERT NEWTON ALLEN             GRAVESTONE PHOTO                      

Report of Necrologist of Old Settlers Association, Chanute, KS., Sept 20, 1914

Died:  Sept. 12, 1914

  Robert Newton Allen was born Nov. 26th 1846 in Putnam county Indiana.  Died at his home 301 N. Highland Ave. Sept. 12th 1914.  He received the early part of his education in the county school and later was a student at Asbury, now De Pauw university at Greencastle, Ind.  He graduated in 1869 and was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1870.

  The same year he came to Chanute then New Chicago and commenced to practice law with his brother Henry Clay Allen.  Mr. Allen was clerk and treasurer of New Chicago from 1870 to 1872.  He was county attorney in 1876 and a member of the upper house of the legislature from Neosho and Wilson counties in 1885 and 1889.  He was mayor of Chanute from 1882 to 1893 and was a member of the city council and board of education for a number of years.  He helped nominate McKinley, as a delegate to the convention in Philadelphia in 1900.  He was a charter member of the Methodist church and assisted in procuring a charter in 1871.  In 1887 Mr. Allen became president of the Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas Ry. Co. which built the Santa Fee cutoff from Chanute to Longton.  In 1887 he ingauzed the first National Bank of Chanute and was president of the institution until 1902.  In 1888 he was a delegate to the General Conference to the M. E. church at New York.  At the time of his death he was president of the Chanute Wholesale Grocery Co.  For three years he served as president of the board of trustees of Baker University.  He was a charter member of the Chanute Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, and fought for the union in Company F in the 136th Indiana Infantry.