The earliest known ancestor of Samuel Percival Allen is Edward Allen, who, according to tradition in the family, was a soldier under Cromwell, and came to this country upon the Restoration. He was of Ipswich, Mass., 1670, and died Nov. 22, 1696. The subject of this notice is of the seventh generation, and is the grandson of Apollos Allen, who came from Gill, Mass., to Smyrna, N. Y., in 1797. His father, Marsena Allen, was then but eight years old, and died in Mt. Morris, June 18, 1861. His mother was Hannah G. Percival, sister of James Percival, a newspaper editor in Moscow and Geneseo, from 1821 until 1832. Her father served in the Revolutionary war from Lee, Massachusetts. Samuel P. Allen was born in Smyrna, October 21, 1814, and came to Geneseo in 1830, where he became an apprentice at the printing business in the office of the “Livingston Register.” Between 1832 and 1836 he went to school, worked upon a farm and in a printing office, and in September, 1837, commenced the publication of the “Livingston Republican.” Disposing of it in 1846, he purchased an interest in the “Rochester Daily Democrat” and as assistant and chief editor continued until 1864. In 1870 and for four years thereafter, he was half owner of the “Chenango Telegraph.” Returning to Geneseo in 1874, he repurchased the “Livingston Republican,” with which he is still (1881) connected. Mr. Allen was elected Clerk of Livingston county in 1840; Clerk of the State Senatein 1856, and reelected in 1858; was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for Monroe and Orleans counties in 1863, by President Lincoln, and continued in that office six years; was appointed Assistant Clerk of the Assembly for seven years, ending with the session of 1879, and many times served upon the Whig and Republican State Committees and as a delegate to State Conventions. Mr. Allen was manied in 1838 to Harriet C. Stanley, daughter of Luman Stanley, of Mt. Morris, an early pioneer of that town. Three of their six children are living; a daughter who was teaching in Detroit, died in 1872, and two others who were teaching in the Normal School at Geneseo, died in 1876. Mr. Allen and his wife visited California in 1878, passing several weeks at Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Big Trees, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, etc.

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