124 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



months in the western part of New York. Returning to Massachu- 

 setts, he succeeded the Rev. Dr. Channing as Regent in Harvard Col- 

 lege. While in that office, besides performing the duties which 

 pertain to it, he prepared the first edition of his " American Bio- 

 graphical and Historical Dictionary," which was published in 1809 by 

 William Hilliard, in Cambridge, containing notices of about seven 

 hundred Americans. It comprised six hundred and thirty-two pages 

 in octavo. It is claimed that this was the first book of general 

 biography published in this country. It certainly reflects great credit 

 on the industry and research of the compiler. Two years before the 

 publication of this work, Dr. Allen had prepared notices of a number 

 of American divines for the Rev. David Bogue's " History of the Dis- 

 senters," which was first published in London in 1809. The second 

 edition of Dr. Allen's Biographical Dictionary was published in 1832 

 by William Hyde of Boston, in a large octavo of eight hun- 

 dred pages. This volume is said to contain over eighteen hundred 

 names. The third edition, in a still enlarged form, was published in 

 1857 by John B. Jewett & Co. of Boston. This contained notices of 

 over seven thousand Americans. In 1810, when Dr. Allen's connec- 

 tion with the College was dissolved, he delivered the Phi Beta Kappa 

 oration. In October of that year he was ordained pastor of the church 

 in Pittsfield, as. his father's successor. The Legislature of New 

 Hampshire, in 1816, altered the charter of Dartmouth College, mak- 

 ing it a University, and Dr. Allen, in the following year, was chosen 

 its President. This action of the Legislature originated the famous 

 Dartmouth College case, which, on an appeal to the Supreme Court 

 at Washington, resulted, in 1819, in the maintenance of the rights of 

 the College against the State. In 1820, Dr. Allen was appointed Pres- 

 ident of Bowdoin College, in Maine, and he retained this office till his 

 resignation in 1839. Since this time he lived at Northampton, Massa- 

 chusetts, engaging in various literary labors. He made a large collec- 

 tion of words not found in any dictionary of the English language ; 

 nearly fifteen hundred being contributed to Worcester's Dictionary pub- 

 lished in 1846, more than four thousand to Webster's, 1854, and 

 about six thousand for the new edition of Webster's. * To what ex- 

 tent these large collections of words, thus contributed, were incor- 

 porated in the works above named, we are not informed, as no 



* These memoranda are taken from the New American Cyclopaedia, included 

 in a notice of Dr. Allen, from which, indeed, this sketch is mainly compiled. 



