My Genealogy Hound

Mark Allen, physician and surgeon, of Grand Lake, Ark., is the subject of the present sketch, and was born in Raleigh, N. C, in 1838. He is the son of Solomon and Helen (Warren) Allen, natives of Petersburg, Va., and North Carolina, respectively. The father was a farmer by occupation, and moved with his parents to North Carolina when quite young, and emigrated to Mississippi in 1845, where he resided with his wife and six children: Mark, John, Henry, Sophronia, Ella and Solomon, for many years. He lived to be sixty-three years old, dying at McKinley, Ala. The children are all dead except the subject of this sketch and Henry, who resides in Santo Tomas, Central America. Mark Allen passed his youth in LaFayette County, Miss., and had excellent advantages in every way, attending school until he completed the course. Afterward he entered the University of Michigan, attending the medical lectures of that famous college. He then went to the Jefferson Medical College, at Philadelphia, where he graduated with honor. Having thus perfected himself in his chosen profession, he returned home and commenced to practice medicine in Morehouse Parish, La., where he prospered until the breaking out of the war. Dr. Allen enlisted in the Confederate army in the month of September, 1861, and remained three years, taking part in the battle of Shiloh and others equally famous. His health failed so seriously from the exposure in the army, that at the expiration of three years he was compelled to leave and return to his practice in Morehouse, where he remained until 1868. In 1865 he married Miss Virginia Lewis, daughter of Frank and Elisebeth Lowry, both of whom were natives of Virginia. To this union were born six children: Mark, Lula, Willie, Grace, Frank and Daisy. Of these children only two daughters are living at the present time. In 1868 Dr. Allen moved to British Honduras, where he engaged in sugar raising and general merchandising. Bad health compelled him to sell out his business and move away, after remaining there only one year. He then moved to McKinley, Ala., where he devoted a great deal of attention to farming and mercantile business. In 1874 he moved with his family to Chicot County, Ark., and resumed the practice of medicine, having from the first a large and lucrative practice, and is today one of the most successful physicians in that county. He also farms some, and owns his residence and office in the village of Grand Lake. In politics he is an ardent Democrat, a member of the L. of H. and K. of P., and is deservedly a popular and successful man.