by Roger Allen Berg, great great grandson of Principal Allen
CHARLES HERMAN ALLEN was a teacher and President of San Jose State Normal School from 1873 until he retired in 1889. He achieved a doctorate and taught in New York, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Wisconsin before finally settling in San Jose, California. In 1863, after much experience in New York and Massachusetts normal schools and holding teachers' institutes, he came to Wisconsin to assist Dr. Henry Barnard in teachers' institute work, and succeeded him as agent of the board of normal regents. He taught a private normal and high school in Madison, coming to the University faculty in 1863, and serving two years as normal instructor. In October 1866, he went to take charge of the State normal school at Platteville, Wisconsin; but in 1870 he resigned, because of ill health, and went to Oregon, there becoming institute agent of the normal schools. It was largely due to his influence that the University of Wisconsin was opened to women students. A former Wisconsin student described Charles Allen as someone who "made dry subjects interesting and had a masterful way of leveling down the mountains of perplexity that appear in the student's pathway." Allen Hall on the San Jose State University campus is named for him.
Charles was born February 11, 1828 in Mansfield, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Almon Allen and Polly Bates. In 1835, the Allen family moved from Mansfield to Canajoharie, NY, and returned to Mansfield around 1860. He married Abigail "Abbie" Ann Phelps, daughter of Judge Henry Jones Phelps and Elizabeth Way in Cortland, New York on June 29, 1854. Charles and Abbie had 4 children: Jessica, Carl, Harriet, and Dora.
The Allen Family was long involved with education in Mansfield, Pennsylvania. Charles' older brother Fordyce Almon Allen conducted teacher institutes, was a State Normal School Principal in Mansfield, Pennsylvania from 1864 to 1880, and was a great influence on Charles' career. Following the Civil War, where so many young men of parenting age died, schools were set up for their children. Fordyce established the Soldiers' Orphan School of Mansfield in 1867, the management of which he retained until his death in 1880. Elizabeth Allen retired from a long career as an English Professor at Mansfield State College. Miranda, Susanna, and Philena Allen, aunts of Charles, taught in Mansfield schools in the early 1800's. Charles' ancestors included Samuel Allen, a founder of Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts in 1630, and father/son Revolutionary War officer grandfathers, both named Jacob Allen.
Charles was assistant postmaster in San Jose, at 110 Market Street, from 1875 to 1900. Charles' sister, Philena, lived with him and Abbie in San Jose, and prior to his death in San Jose on September 11, 1904, Charles lived with his son Carl, wife Abbie, and their children Ray and Dorothy in Wrights, California.
Additional school information for Allen's tenure:
-
Parting Song and Chorus - Class of 1880
