Allen, Charles Herbert, son of Otis and Louisa (Bixby) Allen, was born in Lowell, Middlesex County, April 15, 1848.
He was educated in the public schools of his native city; prepared for college, entered Amherst, from which he was graduated in the class of 1869, receiving his A. M. in course in 1872.
His first connection with commercial life was in the lumber business, in which he has ever since been engaged, under the firm name of Otis Allen & Son.
Mr. Allen was married in Manchester, N. H., Nov. 10, 1870, to Harriet C., daughter of James and Sarah B. (Chase) Dean. Of this union were two children; Bertha and Louise Allen.
Mr. Allen is a member of the Masonic order; has been a member of the Lowell school board; was a member of the House of Representatives in 1881 and ‘ 82, serving in the two years on the committee on railroads, rules and orders, and bills in the third reading (chairman); he was a member of the state senate in 1883, serving on the committee on prisons (chairman) and street railways; he was elected to the national Congress in 1884, and re-elected in 1886. In 1888 he declined a re-nomination.
In the forty-ninth Congress Mr. Allen served on the committee on Indian affairs; In the fiftieth Congress served on committee on post-office and post roads—an important committee having at its disposal sixty millions of money. He was the only member from New England on this committee.
It is unfortunate that the demands of private business should deprive the Commonwealth of the public services of Mr. Allen. Gifted by nature with an address and disposition calculated to engender and retain friendship, qualified by training in college and social life to perform intelligent public service, blessed with an instinct to seek and pursue only honorable methods, he is a loss to the State when he refused to accept the honors which his fellow-citizens would be only too glad to continue to bestow upon their popular representative.