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Charles Herbert Allen (April 15, 1848 – April 20, 1934) was an American politician and businessman. After serving in state and federal elected positions, he was appointed as the first United States-appointed civilian governor of Puerto Rico when the U.S. acquired it after the Spanish–American War. He previously had served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President
William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...
. After returning to the U.S. from Puerto Rico, Allen headed for Wall Street and became a vice president of Morton Trust Company and its successor, the Guaranty Trust Company of New York. He formed the
American Sugar Refining Company American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
—a sugar syndicate which, by 1907, was the largest in the world. It owned or controlled 98% of the sugar processing capacity in the U.S. and was known as the Sugar Trust.Cesar J. Ayala, ''American Sugar Kingdom;'' University of North Carolina Press, 1999; pp. 45–47."Sold Beet Sugar Stock: President Allen Says Sugar Trust Tried to Conform to the Law," ''New York Times''; April 1, 1914. Allen was treasurer of American Sugar Refining in 1910, its president in 1913, and in 1915 he joined its board of directors. In the early 21st century, the company is known as
Domino Sugar Domino Foods, Inc. (also known as DFI and formerly known as W. & F.C. Havemeyer Company, Havemeyer, Townsend & Co. Refinery, and Domino Sugar) is a privately held sugar marketing and sales company based in Yonkers, New York, United States, that ...
.


Early life

Allen was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on April 15, 1848, to Otis and Louisa (Bixby) Allen. He attended public and private schools. He did his undergraduate work at
Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...
, where he graduated in 1869.Charles Herbert Allen Congressional Bio.
/ref> He worked with his father in their company, Otis Allen and Son, a lumber business that manufactured wooden boxes and sold railroad ties, housing frames, and road building materials.


Political career

Allen joined the Republican Party and was elected to two terms in the
Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...
in 1881 and 1882; and one term in the
Massachusetts Senate The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member senatorial districts in the ...
in 1883. He was elected as a Republican to the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Congresses, serving March 4, 1885 to March 3, 1889. In 1890, Allen was nominated for governor of Massachusetts by the Republicans, but was defeated by William E. Russell. In 1884, he received the title "Colonel," when Governor
George Dexter Robinson George Dexter Robinson (born George Washington Robinson; January 20, 1834 – February 22, 1896) was an American lawyer and Republican politician from Chicopee, Massachusetts. After serving in the Massachusetts General Court and United State ...
appointed him to his personal staff. He also was appointed as the Massachusetts Prison Commissioner from 1897 to 1898. In 1898 President
William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...
named Allen as Assistant Secretary of the Navy when Theodore Roosevelt resigned the post to enter the Spanish–American War. He held this position from 1898 to 1900.


Governor of Puerto Rico

When the war ended, President McKinley appointed Allen as the first civilian governor of Puerto Rico, and he served from 1900 to 1901. Though Allen had a business background, his financial administration of Puerto Rico has been criticized by historians Thomas Aitken, Jr. and Manuel Maldonado-Denis. The revenue for the island's government was raised internally, mostly from tariffs,
sales taxes A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...
and property taxes. During Allen's tenure this annual
budget A budget is a calculation play, usually but not always financial, for a defined period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including time, costs and expenses, environment ...
equaled the 4.4 million
peso The peso is the monetary unit of several countries in the Americas, and the Philippines. Originating in the Spanish Empire, the word translates to "weight". In most countries the peso uses the same sign, "$", as many currencies named " doll ...
s the Spanish had spent in 1897, but without expenses for a five-thousand man garrison or the former contributions to the
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
church.Thomas Aitken, Jr.; ''Luis Munoz Marin: Poet in the Fortress,'' pp. 60–61; Signet Books/New American Library, 1965 Due to this reduced overhead, the island should have had a substantial
budget surplus A balanced budget (particularly that of a government) is a budget in which revenues are equal to expenditures. Thus, neither a budget deficit nor a budget surplus exists (the accounts "balance"). More generally, it is a budget that has no budget ...
, but Allen's administration did not provide many benefits for the people. He ignored the appropriation requests of the Puerto Rican House of Delegates, and refused to make any municipal, agricultural or small business loans. He built roads at double the old costs. 85% of the school-age population did not have schools. Instead of making needed infrastructure and education investments, Allen re-directed the insular budget to
no-bid contracts Multisourcing is the concept of working with multiple suppliers who are also competitors. Large-scale buyers, such as the U.S. federal government, may want to feel assured that there is more than one supplier for an item. It has been described as t ...
for U.S. businessmen,
railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...
subsidies for U.S.-owned sugar plantations, and high
salaries A salary is a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee, which may be specified in an employment contract. It is contrasted with piece wages, where each job, hour or other unit is paid separately, rather than on a periodic basis. F ...
for U.S.
bureaucrats A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can compose the administration of any organization of any size, although the term usually connotes someone within an institution of government. The term ''bureaucrat'' derives from "bureaucracy", w ...
in the island government.Manuel Maldonado-Denis; ''Puerto Rico: A Socio-Historic Interpretation'', pp. 70–76; Random House, 1972 Allen was also listed as one of the "Politicians in the Lumber and Timber Business in Puerto Rico." By the time Allen left in 1901, nearly all of the governor's 11-member Executive Council were U.S. expatriates. Half the appointive offices in the government of Puerto Rico had been given to visiting Americans, 626 of them at top salaries.


Life after politics

After resigning as governor in 1901, Allen headed to Wall Street and joined the House of Morgan as vice-president of both the Morgan Trust Company and the Guaranty Trust Company of New York. Through these connections, he built a sugar syndicate in Puerto Rico. By 1907 this syndicate, the
American Sugar Refining Company American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
, owned or controlled 98% of the sugar processing capacity in the United States and was known as the Sugar Trust. By 1910 Allen was treasurer of the American Sugar Refining Company, by 1913 he was its president, and by 1915 he sat on its board of directors. While Allen built the largest sugar syndicate in the world, his political appointees in Puerto Rico provided him with land grants, tax subsidies, water rights, railroad easements, foreclosure sales and favorable tariffs.Federico Ribes Tovar; ''Albizu Campos: Puerto Rican Revolutionary,'' pp. 122–144, 197–204; Plus Ultra Publishers, 1971 Today, the Allen sugar syndicate is known as
Domino Sugar Domino Foods, Inc. (also known as DFI and formerly known as W. & F.C. Havemeyer Company, Havemeyer, Townsend & Co. Refinery, and Domino Sugar) is a privately held sugar marketing and sales company based in Yonkers, New York, United States, that ...
.


Private life

Allen had married Harriet C. Dean of Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1870, and they lived in Lowell on Rolfe Street, at their home called " The Terraces", today part of UMass Lowell. They raised two daughters, Bertha and Louise. While Allen and his family were living in Puerto Rico when he was governor, his daughter Bertha Allen married naval officer George W. Logan in 1900. Their wedding was at the Palace, the governor's residence. The second daughter, Louise Allen (1875–1953), became a sculptor and a member of many artistic societies. Her son, Allen Hobbs, was a hydrographer in the US Navy. He was appointed as the 32nd
Governor of American Samoa This is a list of governors, etc. of the part of the Samoan Islands (now comprising American Samoa) under United States administration since 1900. From 1900 to 1978 governors were appointed by the Federal government of the United States. Since ...
when it was a military position. Allen pursued a variety of leisure interests. He was an avid
painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
, and completed twenty-seven landscape and marine paintings. These are held in the Allen Collection of the Whistler House Museum of Art in Lowell. Interested in gardens, he ensured that the grounds of his home, "The Terraces," were planted with gardens, fountains, a pergola, and a large gazebo. The latter can be seen in photographs of the Allen House Collection, University of Massachusetts Center for Lowell History.Allen House Collection
University of Massachusetts, Center for Lowell History
It was donated by Walter E. Hayes, his groundskeeper. Charles Herbert Allen died in Lowell and is buried in
Lowell Cemetery Lowell Cemetery is a cemetery located in Lowell, Massachusetts. Founded in 1841 and located on the banks of the Concord River, the cemetery is one of the oldest garden cemeteries in the nation, inspired by Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, M ...
. A memorial was created to honor his name.


Legacy and honors

* The Terraces, is now called Allen House and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is within the boundaries of the South Campus of the University of Massachusetts Lowell.


References


General sources

* ''Davenport's Art Reference'' 2001–2002, page 73 * ''Courier Citizen,'' April 21, 1934 * Whistler House Museum of Art files


External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Charles Herbert 1848 births 1934 deaths Amherst College alumni Governors of Puerto Rico Republican Party Massachusetts state senators Republican Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Politicians from Lowell, Massachusetts Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts Republican Party (Puerto Rico) politicians United States Assistant Secretaries of the Navy