From History of Walworth County Wisconsin by Albert Clayton Beckwith, Vol. II, 
Publ. 1912 - Page 1046-1049
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON ALLYN.  The most elaborate history is perforce a merciless 
abridgment, the historian being obliged to select his facts and materials from 
manifold details and to marshal them in concise and logical order.  This 
applies to specific as well as generic history, and in the former category is 
included the interesting and important department of biography.  In every life 
of honor and usefulness there is no dearth of interesting situations and 
incidents, and yet in summing up such a career as that of Mr. ALLYN the writer 
must needs touch only on the more salient facts, giving the keynote of the 
character and eliminating all that is superfluous to the continuity of the 
narrative.  The gentleman whose name appears above has led an active and 
useful life, not entirely void of the exciting, but the more prominent have 
been so identified with the useful and practical that it is to them almost 
entirely that the writer refers in the following paragraphs.
 
Alexander Hamilton ALLYN, of Delavan, and long one of the most substantial and 
representative citizens of Walworth county, was born September 1, 1835, in 
Hartford, Connecticut.  He is the scion of a sterling old New England family, 
being the son of Timothy Mather ALLYN and Susan Ann (PRATT) ALLYN.  The father 
was descended from one of the oldest families of New England, members of which 
were prominent in colonial times.  Records show that in 1638 Mather ALLYN 
purchased one-sixteenth of the town of Windsor, Connecticut, where the family, 
which had come from Brauton, England, lived for many years.  Col. John ALLYN 
was a son of Mather ALLYN.  Susan Ann PRATT was the daughter of Joseph and 
Fanny (WADSWORTH) PRATT, the latter being the daughter of Rodger WADSWORTH, 
son of William WADSWORTH, son of Joseph WADSWORTH, and the latter the son of 
Capt. Joseph WADSWORTH.  The last named hid the charter of Connecticut in the 
hollow of the famous "Charter Oak" tree, October 31, 1687 (where it remained 
until May 9, 1689), to protect the rights of the colony from British 
usurpation.  The original charter is still in  the office of the secretary of 
state of Connecticut.
 
Joseph PRATT, maternal grandfather of the subject, was born June 6, 1779, and 
he served as postmaster of Hartford.  His father was Joseph PRATT, son of 
William PRATT, the latter having been constable of Hartford in 1729.  The 
PRATT family goes back from William to John, son of John, son of John, the 
last named born in Stevenange, Hertfordshire, England, where he was baptized 
November 9, 1620.  He was the son of Rev. William PRATT and probably came to 
America with Rev. Thomas HOOKER's party in 1632, and in 1633 was living in 
Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He accompanied a party of several people to 
Hartford, Connecticut, in 1636, where he became a proprietor of land, and he 
was elected a representative in 1839.  His ancestry traces back to Thomas 
PRATT of Boldock, Hertfordshire, England, who had a coat-of-arms, a fesse 
dancett in chief, two lions rampant.
 
Various other lines of Mr. ALLYN's ancestors have been traced back to the very 
early days in New England's history, and many members of the various branches 
have distinguished themselves in various walks of life wherever they have 
dispersed.
 
The subject remained in his native city until 1852, then came to Chicago, most 
of the way by boat, and by stage from Ann Arbor to St. Joseph, Michigan.  Only 
one railroad ran out of Chicago at that time.  While in Chicago he worked a 
year in a dry goods store of Cooley Wadsworth & Company, being then but 
sixteen years old.  John V. Arwell, Marshall Field and Joseph Leiter, famous 
captains of industry later in life, all worked at the same store the year 
after he left.  In 1854 Mr. ALLYN went to Milwaukee where he worked for Bell, 
Courtney & Company, a large grain warehouse concern, remaining with this firm 
eighteen months.  He was then in a transpiration business for some time, later 
spent two years with the New York Central Transpiration Company.  He came to 
Walworth county in the fall of 1859 and located on a farm in Delavan township 
and devoted his energies to farming, purchasing an excellent place between 
Elkhorn and Delavan, consisting of one hundred and eighty-four acres.  He 
moved to the city of Delavan in 1883.  Here he was supervisor for fourteen 
years, and he was township supervisor while living on the farm.  In 1885 he 
completed a handsome and commodious dwelling in Delavan, in the midst of 
spacious, beautiful lawns, in which he had a large fountain erected, making 
this one of the most desirable residences in the county, and it has long been 
known to his wide circle of friends as a place of old time hospitality and 
good cheer.
 
Mr. ALLYN was married on January 3, 1861, in Hartford, Connecticut, to 
Elizabeth Humphrey MARTIN, daughter of Charles L. and Lydia Dean (POTTER) 
MARTIN, a prominent family of that city.  Mrs. ALLYN's death occurred on 
January 5, 1870, leaving two children.  Mr. ALLYN was subsequently married to 
Mary Elizabeth DOOLITTLE, daughter of James Austin DOOLITTLE and Frances Eliza 
(THORP) DOOLITTLE, a fine old New York family.  She was born on January 18, 
1850, in Oswego, New York, and she came to Delavan, Wisconsin with her parents 
during her childhood.
 
The following are Mr. ALLYN's children, three having been born of his first 
marriage and four by his second: Leonora, born December 27, 1861, died May 11, 
1869; Charles Thompson, born February 7, 1863, married Katherine C. ELERY, and 
lives in Seattle, Washington; Mary Esther, born December 27, 1869, married 
Edward R. KELLOGG, formerly lived in the isle of Pines, is now a resident of 
Delavan; she has one daughter Ruth Hilah KELLOGG; Susan Frances ALLYN was born 
January 16, 1874, married Harry MOORE, May 4, 1904, and died January 18, 1905; 
Timothy Robert, born January 16, 1874, died November 15, 1879; Gertrude 
Leonora, born February 7, 1877, died November 4, 1879; Joseph Pratt ALLYN was 
born July 15, 1883, married Louise LANDIS, November 17, 1903, and lives on a 
farm in Delavan, and they have one daughter Josephine Landis ALLYN.
 
Mr. ALLYN endeavored to enlist for service during the Civil war, but was 
refused on the grounds of disability, he having broken his leg.  He has been a 
member of the Episcopal church all his life.  Personally, he is a man of 
genial and obliging address, of keen business discernment, sound judgment and 
of charitable impulses, and he wins friends easily.
 
Submitted by Carol