Charles Allyn

HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF STONINGTON, county of New London, Connecticut, from its first settlement in 1649 to 1900, by Richard Anson Wheeler, New London, CT, 1900, p. 585

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Charles Allyn, father of Calvin, was born September 28, 1781, twenty-two days after the massacre of Fort Griswold, New London, headed by Arnold, the traitor, September 6, 1781. He became a well-to-do man and influential citizen, and served acceptably as Selectman of Montville. He married in Groton, February 9, 1814, Miss Lois Gallup, a daughter of Jacob Gallup, who was a son of Colonel Nathan Gallup, one of the Committee of Safety that advised with Governor Trumbull. The children born of this union were: Louisa; Robert; Amanda; James; Calvin; and Harriet. Louisa married Robert A. Williams, of Preston, and died March 22, 1896, at eighty years of age, leaving five children. Robert was educated at the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn., graduating in 1841. In 1857 he was elected Professor of Greek in Wesleyan University at Athens, Ohio; was afterward president of the Female College in Cincinnati, president of McKendree College at Lebanon, Ill., and the first principal of Southern Illinois State Normal School at Carbondale, Ill. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by his Alma Mater, also that of Doctor of Laws; and he was ranked with the leading educators of the West. He died in Carbondale, Ill., January 7, 1894. Amanda, who was the wife of the Rev. Nathaniel Clark Lewis, a Methodist preacher, died September 19, 1891, in Onarga, Ill., leaving no children, and bequeathing her large property to the Northwestern University, at Evanston, near Chicago. Her husband was in the itinerancy in New England and Illinois, and was also engaged in university work. James Allyn, third, died in Waterford, Conn., March 18, 1893, aged seventy. Harriet lived to be but sixteen, and Calvin is now the sole survivor. At a family reunion held here August 15, 1889, all the sons and daughters except Harriet were present. Their mother died April 28, 1860, at sixty-nine years of age; their father, May 13, 1868, at eighty-six.