Charles H. Allen was born on March 17, 1857, in Osage, Iowa, to Joseph and Abigail Allen. He was the fifteenth of sixteen children, and his father served as a Civil War surgeon. Charles left home at age 13, traveling and learning stone cutting before returning to Iowa in 1881. He moved to Aberdeen, South Dakota, in 1882, establishing a successful draying business and later transitioning to wood and coal distribution. In 1882, he married Ida M. Owen, with whom he had two children: C. Lewis and M. Estelle. Allen was also active in local politics and several fraternal organizations.
Charles H. Allen is a native of the state of Iowa, having been born in Osage, the official center of Mitchell County, on the 17th of March, 1857. His father, Joseph Allen, was born and reared in Ohio and removed thence to Illinois in an early day, being a jeweler and watchmaker by vocation. He married Abigail Allen, and they remained for several years in Illinois and thence removed to Iowa, where they passed the remainder of their lives. They became the parents of sixteen children, of whom the subject of this review was the fifteenth in order of birth. The father served as a surgeon during a portion of the Civil War, and two of his sons were also valiant soldiers in the Union army, while one of them, Jeremiah, sacrificed his life on the altar of his country.
Our subject passed his boyhood days in his native town, where he secured his early educational training in the public schools, his elder brothers having received collegiate advantages. In 1870, when but thirteen years of age, he set forth to see somewhat of the world, making a tour of several of the western states and being absent from home for a period of nine years, within which time he learned the trade of stone cutting, to which he devoted his attention until 1879, when he returned to his old home, where he remained a few months. He then located in Nebraska and engaged in farming but was practically starved out during the memorable grasshopper plague. He returned home in 1881, was married in February of the following year, and forthwith came to what is now the state of South Dakota, arriving in Aberdeen on the 1st of March 1882. He took up a claim in the county and finally perfected his title to the same, after which he engaged in the draying business in Aberdeen, continuing in the same for five years, during which interval he also dealt in horses, buying and selling upon an extensive scale and meeting with good success. In 1897, he sold out his transfer and draying business and established his present enterprise, in the handling of wood and coal. He has a well-equipped yard, two hundred and fifty by three hundred feet, in the business district of the city, while the line of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad adjoins his yards on the north, so that his transportation facilities are unexcelled. In 1903, Mr. Allen handled twenty-two hundred cords of wood, secured principally from Minnesota, while each year he handles a large amount of coal of all grades, keeping a large supply on hand and handling from three to five thousand tons annually. The extensive scale of his business necessitates the employment of a considerable number of men and teams. He is the owner of eleven quarter-sections of land, the greater portion being located in Brown County, to the west of Aberdeen, while nearly all the property is under cultivation and well improved. He also owns an attractive modern residence in the city, which has been his home for many years. He is progressive and public-spirited, is a staunch Republican in his political proclivities, and for four years represented the fourth ward in the city board of aldermen. Fraternally, Mr. Allen is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he was for four years an officer in the grand lodge of the state, and also with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Knights of the Maccabees.
On the 4th of February, 1882, at Osage, Iowa, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Allen to Miss Ida M. Owen, who was born in Belchertown, Massachusetts, being a daughter of C. M. Owen, who became an extensive farmer in Iowa, owning a large tract of land in Mitchell County. Mrs. Allen is a woman of gracious presence and was graduated from Wheaton College, Illinois, while she is prominent in the social life of Aberdeen. Mr. and Mrs. Allen have two children, C. Lewis, who is deputy clerk of the supreme court of the state, at Pierre, and M. Estelle, who is a student in the Aberdeen high school at the time of this writing. The son completed the curriculum of the public schools and thereafter continued his studies in the college at Brookings, where he was graduated. He then went to Sioux Falls, and he has practically served as deputy clerk of the supreme court since that time, his preferment coming as the result of his ability and sterling characteristics, while he is one of the popular, well-known, and distinctively talented young men of the state.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.