Capt. George D. Allen, a Biographical Sketch

From Memoirs of Georgia, Volume II by The Southern Historical Association, 1895.
Transcribed by S. Lincecum about 2006.

Capt. George D. Allen comes of "Old Dominion" stock. His father, Maj. W. A. Allen, was born in Amelia county, Va., in 1815, and reared on a plantation. He, with his father, Capt. Alexander Allen, removed to Bedford county, Tenn., in 1834, where he married Martha E. Davidson, daughter of George Davidson, who was a native North Carolinian. Maj. Allen, while a resident of Tennessee, was a man of distinction and influence, having served a term in the senate of that state. After the war he came south and located at Forsyth, Ga., where he now resides, enjoying, by choice, the life of a quiet citizen, much loved and respected by the people of his community.

Capt. George D. Allen was born in Shelbyville, Tenn., Dec. 30, 1843, and passed his boyhood days on the home plantation, and was being educated at the Shelbyville university when war became the cry. He at once enlisted in Company B, Forty-first Tennessee regiment of the C. S. A., and served through the entire four years. His service, for the most part, was in the Army of the West, where he was in all the important battles. At the fall of Fort Donelson, in 1862, he was captured and spent seven months in prison at Indianapolis. He was exchanged in time to take part in the siege of Vicksburg. From this time he served as aide-de-camp to Gen. H. B. Davidson, and at the close of the war was on the right flank of Lee's immortal band at Appomattox.

Capt. Allen returned to his father's country home in June, 1865. The following October he married Miss M. Eufaula Scandrett, an accomplished lady of Griffin, Ga. They are the parents of eight children, four of whom are living: Lawson D., George D., Jr.; Harry S., and Stewart W., all of whom are now having the best educational advantages.

Capt. Allen came to Georgia in 1866, engaged in cotton planting two years, and in 1868 embarked in the mercantile business at Forsyth, Ga. He was chairman of board county commissioners and mayor of the city. It was during his administration and largely owing to his energy and influence that the Monroe Female college, the oldest female college in the south, was rebuilt.

The year 1884 marks the date of Capt. Allen's coming to Macon, since which he has been one of her most energestic and successful business men. He engaged in the wholesale grocery trade, and in 1890 organized the firm of Allen & Dumas Co., of which he was president and general manager. In December, 1894, he became sole owner of the business, which includes the Juliette water mills, located at Juliette, Ga., twenty-two miles north of Macon, on the Southern railway, and one of the largest and best-equipped grist mills in the south.

Capt. Allen is, in religion, a Methodist, is a Knight Templar Mason, and a citizen of whom Macon may well feel proud for his enterprise and ability.