Frank Gates Allen (February 14, 1858 – August 30, 1940) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

player and businessman. He played for the first college football team at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and was a forward on the 1879 and

1880 Michigan Wolverines football team The 1880 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1880 college football season. The team was the second intercollegiate football team to represent the University of Michigan. They played one game, defeating ...

After graduating from Michigan, Allen moved to

Moline, Illinois Moline ( ) is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 42,985 in 2020, it is the largest city in Rock Island County. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline and Rock Island ...

, in 1881. In June of the following year, he married Minnie Florence Stephens, a daughter of Moline Plow Company president, George W. Stephens. He organized the Moline-Milburn & Stoddard Co. in 1886 with brother-in-law George Arthur Stephens, but he left the company two years later to study law. In 1893, he became the secretary for the

Moline Plow Company The Moline Plow Company was an American manufacturer of plows and other farm implements, headquartered in Moline, Illinois, USA. Moline Plow was formed in the 1870s when the firm of Candee & Swan, a competitor of Deere and Company (also of M ...

, and after the death of George W. Stephens in 1902 he was elected vice-president of the company. He was also president of the Moline State Trust and Savings Bank. After retiring as the bank president, he remained chairman of the board. He was also a 33rd degree Mason. In 1918, the Willys-Overland Co. purchased a majority interest in the Moline Plow Company, but Allen remained the vice-president of the company. His daughter,

Marjorie Allen Seiffert Marjorie Allen Seiffert (February 15, 1885 – January 1, 1970) was an American poet and winner of the 1919 Levinson Prize for Poetry. She used several pseudonyms over the course of her career, including Angela Cypher for some of her lighter verse ...

, was a nationally-known poet. In the 1930s, Allen donated his home in Moline, valued at $200,000, to the Moline Board of Education. Allen died of heart disease at his daughter's home in Moline in August 1940.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Frank Gates 1858 births 1940 deaths 19th-century players of American football Michigan Wolverines football players Players of American football from Illinois People from Moline, Illinois

See also

References