Joel A. Allen
One of the pioneer farmers of this county is Joel A. Allen, whose career of seventy-five years has all been spent within the limits of Fayette county. He is now living in retirement after a strenuous life of activity which covered considerably more than half a century. His well directed efforts in the practical affairs of life, his capable management of his interests and his sound judgment have brought to him a very satisfactory competence for his declining years. He served with distinction during the dark days of the Civil War and was probably at the front longer than any man who enlisted from Fayette county. Too much honor can not be accorded the men who faced every danger and death itself upon the battlefields of the Civil War and bore suffering and made sacrifices for their country's sake.
Joel A. Allen, the son of Adam and Rosanna (Hidy) Allen, was born August 7, 1839, in the township where he has lived most of his life, having spent nineteen years in Greene and Clinton counties. Ohio. His father was also born in this same township and was a prominent farmer and land owner. Adam Allen lived all of his life in this county with the exception of a few years when he lived in Madison and Clinton counties, this state. His declining years were spent with his son, Joel. Thirteen children were born to Adam and Rosanna (Hidy) Allen: Mrs. Sarah J. Bryant, John, Mrs. Catherine Morris, Joel A., William, George, deceased, Elijah, Samuel, Etta, Mrs. Rossetta, deceased, Lucy Straley, Adam and one who died in infancy. Of these children the following are now deceased : Sarah J., Catherine, William, Etta and George.
Joel A. Allen was reared under the primitive pioneer conditions which prevailed during his boyhood days and attended the rude log school house with its greased-paper windows and slab seats, and there learned the rudiments of reading, writing and arithmetic. At the opening of the Civil War he enlisted in Company K, Forty-fourth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served for more than four years. The company was under the command of Colonel S. A. Gilbert and Colonel Moore and participated in engagements in West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. Mr. Allen had the honor of having served for a longer time in the Civil War than any other man from his county. After the close of the war Mr. Allen returned to Jeffersonville, Ohio, and worked on a farm in the immediate neighborhood. After his marriage he began renting land in Greene county, this state, and later located in Clinton county for a short time. He then returned to Fayette county and bought fifty acres of excellent land adjoining the village of Jeffersonville, where he is now living. He also is the owner of several town lots in Jeffersonville.
Mr. Allen was married to Mary C. Janes, the daughter of William and Mary (Mock) Janes, early pioneers of the county, and to this union have been born two children, Isophine and Ralph. Mr. and Mrs. Allen have also reared a boy, Howard Haynes, who is the son of George and Lucy (Horney) Haynes, who are both deceased, the father being buried in Chicago, Illinois, and the mother in Hidy cemetery, at Jeffersonville, Ohio.
Politically, Mr. Allen is a Republican and has always been actively interested in political matters. He has held various township offices, among them being that of township trustee and school director. Mr. Allen and his family are all loyal and consistent members of the Friends church, of Clinton county, and take an active interest in all the work of that denomination.
From History of Fayette County Ohio - Her People, Industries and Institutions by Frank M. Allen (1914, R. F. Bowen & Company, Inc.)