E.T.Allen Co. San Francisco, CA

[John E. Williams]

I'm doing some research that's led me down the rabbit hole that seems to be the E.T.Allen Co., formerly located at 416 Market Street in San Francisco. I'm sure some of you guys have heard of this outfit, as it was apparently one of the biggest sporting goods stores on the west coast back in the late 19th century and a lot of Parker guns passed through there over the years. I'm fairly certain I've identified the building in this eerie precursor to Google Street View, appearing on the left of the video at around the 9:10 mark. Look for the big white billboard near the top of the structure. If I've copied this correctly, that's where the video should start:

https://youtu.be/IKRbTF5afSE?t=550

This was filmed shortly before the earthquake that mostly flattened downtown SF in 1906. I've found no historical references to the company following that event, so for the moment I'm assuming that was the end of it. Can anyone offer additional info?

[Dean Romig]

Too blurry for these old eyes to read.




.

[John E. Williams]

Sure enough, Dean. I just pointed out the billboard for use as a reference point. If I've got all the mapping figured out correctly, 416 would be at the city-side corner of Market and Front streets, seen on the left in the linked video. Front is the third street up from the ferry terminal.

Here's what it looks like today, which really has no bearing on any of this but it's quite a shocking change:

http://binged.it/1W71iDD

[Dave Noreen]

Checking the 1905 San Francisco City Directory, I find --

Allen, E.T., Office 414 Market, R 2204 Jackson

In the commercial section under Arms & Ammunition I find

Baker & Hamilton

Bekeart, Phil. B. Co.

Claybrough, Golcher & Co.

Fischer & Bennett

Ladd, Edwin H.

Olympic Arms Co.

Reach, A.J. Co.

Shreve & Barber Co.

also the west coast offices of Marlin, Remington, Smith & Wesson, UMC and Winchester. I also checked under Gunsmiths, and Sporting Goods and no E.T. Allen listed.

In the 1900 San Francisco City Directory I found --

Allen, E.T. Co., E.T. Allen President, com. merchants, 416 Market

No mention in the Arms & Ammunition section.

Here is a link to on-line San Francisco City Directories --

http://sfpl.org/index.php?pg=2000540401

Knock yourself out!!

[John E. Williams]

Thanks, Dave. I was wagering you'd bring something to the party. Looks like I'll be spending the evening going over the SF City Directory!

I did find this undated scrap of info that specifically mentions the E.T. Allen Co. connection to Parker Bros. and several other gunmakers:

http://i433.photobucket.com/albums/qq51/ghostdncr/ET%20Allen_zpsmkmdu3tn.jpg

[Bill Murphy]

E.T. Allen seems to have been located at that address. What further information are we looking for. I'm game to search. I have searched for this dealer in the past and I don't remember finding much else to identify him.

[Ken Descovich]

Larry Sheltons fine book California Gunsmiths 1846 - 1900 has some additional information in it. Do you have that info?
Ken

[John E. Williams]

Larry Sheltons fine book California Gunsmiths 1846 - 1900 has some additional information in it. Do you have that info?
Ken

I sure don't, Ken. Even though I've lived in San Francisco twice over the years, I've not done any significant research on the area as relates to the firearms trade. This whole subject sprang up as a result of another project I'm working on where the Allen Co. has came up as a major player in that affair. Is the information you have something that could be relayed along by scanning, or a phone pic or something? Any help is of course, much appreciated!

E.T. Allen seems to have been located at that address. What further information are we looking for. I'm game to search. I have searched for this dealer in the past and I don't remember finding much else to identify him.

I'm basically looking for anything I can find at this point, Bill. I've learned the proprietor was apparently a colonel in some context, as he's addressed as such in several of the snippets I've found. Started doing business in SF along about 1875 and apparently did very well for himself. I've found no references to him or the business dated any later than just before the '06 earthquake so for now, I'm left to assume that was the end of it. Update: Allen appears to have sold out to H.E. Skinner sometime in 1900.

[Ken Descovich]

Send me your e-mail and I can send you a picture
maynard_rifles@att.net

[George M. Purtill]

John I commend you and wish you good luck on your research.
Someday MAYBE our Parker order records will be digitally available and we could find out every gun that was sold through that dealer and to whom, etc.

[Chuck Bishop]

Each Order Book has an alphabetical index at the beginning of the book. I went from Jan 1906 through Dec 1910 but didn't find any entries for E.T. Allan.

[Bill Murphy]

Maybe the earthquake had a disastrous effect on his business. Before 1906 may be a better place to look.

[George M. Purtill]

Very good point Bill

[John E. Williams]

Send me your e-mail and I can send you a picture maynard_rifles@att.net

That is invaluable information, Ken! An overview like that provides a good framework within which to base the rest of my research. Thank you so much for the contribution!

And Dave, your link to the San Francisco city directories is proving an enormous help. The search function is clearly not working as it should, but I am gradually learning where to look and what to look for manually within the directory.

[John E. Williams]

Maybe the earthquake had a disastrous effect on his business. Before 1906 may be a better place to look.

It has came to light that Allen sold out to an H.E. Skinner sometime in 1900, so before that date would be where we'd find anything. An obituary or even year of his death would serve as a helpful bookend to this hunt, should anyone have that information.

[James Palmer]

This is were 416 Market would stand today......

[John E. Williams]

That's the address I'd narrowed it down to. "Bank of the West" building, or that was who seemed to occupy it during the most recent photos I'd found.

In other information, I've tracked down several of Allen's residences nearby, including the one where he was living when his wife died in 1912 at 2204 Jackson Street. Edward died in 1926 and is buried across the Bay in Oakland. I'm just beginning to find some information alluding to the unraveling of a very shady business deal just prior to 1900 that may have led to his selling out to Skinner, or it could have been a different Edward Allen. There's much more to be uncovered here...

[Bill Zachow]

E. T. Allen was the ordering source for four consecutively serialed 34" 8 gauge hammer Parkers in 1892. The guns were V grade equivalents--outline border engraving. I owned one of the four at one time.

[charlie cleveland]

bill there was actully 6 of those 8 ga ordered by allen...mills had one that he let me have and then i bought one from a guy online here...so that makes 3 of the 6 i wonder where the other 3 are at...these guns were used hard in their heh day...charlie

[John E. Williams]

After considerable research, I’m prepared to offer what information I’ve managed to compile regarding Edward Tracy Allen and his business concern, The E.T. Allen Co. of San Francisco, relevant to us as a significant west coast seller of Parker shotguns. The following is interspersed with opinion and conjecture, and some of it is blatantly copied from available sources. As it’s not presented as an original work or with intent for any form of monetary gain, I do hope you’ll overlook my taking such “artistic license.” It's my hope that anyone else seeking information about Mr. Allen or his business concerns will stumble across this post and find what they are looking for, avoiding at least some of the searching and compiling I undertook.

Although I’m told Parker only produced around four hundred of the big 8 gauge doubles, it seems a number of them were sold through The E.T. Allen Company, with what I understand to be several accounts of these guns being shipped in multiples. Considering the market hunting present in California’s Central Valley wetlands at the time, where ducks and geese all but blotted out the sun on occasion, the value of the 8 gauge can be easily understood.

http://i433.photobucket.com/albums/qq51/ghostdncr/Willows%20CA%201906_zpspbzr9g4k.jpg

Results of a morning hunt in the Central Valley wetlands just after the turn of the 20th century. Reportedly taken in the area around Willows, California, which lies about 125 miles due north of San Francisco.


http://i433.photobucket.com/albums/qq51/ghostdncr/Cpt%20Edward%20Tracy%20Allen_zpsv5blhcwi.jpg

Cpt. Edward T. Allen in an undated photo, probably around 1863-64.


Edward Tracy Allen was born November 1, 1838 in Windham County, Connecticut, the oldest of three brothers. His father was Edwin Allen, a manufacturer of wood printing type. His brother Edwin R. served alongside Edward as a 1st lieutenant in the 7th Regiment of Rhode Island Volunteers and eventually as lieutenant governor of Rhode Island. His brother Charles N. worked as a manufacturer in Connecticut and at one time was acting assistant engineer of the United States Navy. His early education was obtained in the district schools of his town and finished at Hall's Academy, Ellington, Conn. At the age of eighteen he entered the store of S. Robinson & Son, Wakefield, R.I., and continued there until enlisting in the military on or about September 4th, 1862.

http://i433.photobucket.com/albums/qq51/ghostdncr/Lt%20Edwin%20R%20Allen_zpsjbjemmbz.jpg

Another version of the prior photo showing both Edward and his brother Edwin R., future lieutenant governor of Rhode Island, during their period of military service in the Civil War.


Originally joining the Narragansett Guards, Allen was commissioned a Second Lieutenant and given the job of recruiting men for what became Company G of the 7th Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry in August 1862. In January of 1863, Allen was promoted to First Lieutenant and reassigned as commander of Company A after the company's previous commander was wounded. He was officially promoted to the rank of Captain in May 1863. Allen was soon temporarily reassigned to a unit which would be involved in the pursuit and capture of Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan during his July 1863 raid north. Afterwards, Allen returned to the 7th Rhode Island where he served until June 1864, when he was seriously wounded on June 18th, 1864 by a musket ball in his left leg on the march to Petersburg. He was conveyed to the Armory Square Hospital, Washington, D. C., whereupon he was honorably discharged for resulting disability on July 29th, 1864.

In 1865 he was employed at a hardware and gun house in New Haven, CT, whereabouts he remained for the following decade. For a third of that time, at least, he was connected with a machinery manufacturing company, and in such a manner as to frequently necessitate visiting the Provinces. The year 1866 was spent, however, in California. On April 30 1867, he married Elizabeth Clarke, daughter of Col. Geo. W. and Ann Frances Cady Sheldon, of Wakefield, Rhode Island. No children were born to them, but in July of 1886, he informally adopted those of Mrs. Allen's sister Emma, who died Oct. 12, 1886, leaving twin daughters Emma S. and Anna C., only two days old, and a son, George W., born June 8, 1885. Their father, William Allen Kenyon, died Dec. 16, 1887, at Wakefield. Edward’s health, having been shattered by the exposures of prolonged campaigns and the bullet wound suffered near Petersburg, did not fully return. Seeking a more favorable climate he moved west to San Francisco in October, 1875. He brought with him samples of various arms, guns, pistols, cutlery, and other articles representing the Whitney Arms Company and John P. Lovell and Sons. He rented a store at 515 Market Street, but soon outgrew these quarters and moved to 416 Market Street, eventually becoming one of the important suppliers of sporting goods on the West Coast.

He was an agent for the following companies: John P. Lovell’s and Sons, Boston; N.R. Davis & Sons, Freeport, Mass.; Whitney Arms Company, New Haven, Conn.; Excelsior Cutler Co., Northfield, Conn.

He also manufactured hunting clothes, loading tools, and other items along these lines. English guns and gunware were imported and all American styles and makes were stocked. Though Allen was not a gunsmith, he always employed a gunmaker, undoubtedly for making special orders using the English gunware. One of the more noted gunmakers that worked for him was David Thom.

http://i433.photobucket.com/albums/qq51/ghostdncr/Parker/Two%20Sisters/E%20T%20Allen/Davis%20Gun_zpsukvyjlfi.jpg

A period ad for the "Davis Gun" offered by the E.T. Allen Co., San Francisco.



Allen’s name first appears in the San Francisco City Directory (Langley) of 1877. He is listed first on p.94 as follows: “Allen, Edward T., commission merchant, 330 Sansom, 35 South Park.” I’m left to assume the Sansom address was his office and 35 South Park was his residence, in accordance with how later addresses were formatted in the city directory. The 35 South Park address is today residential in nature with what may be surviving period structures and lies approximately six blocks SSE of the Market Street address. He is again listed on p. 991 of this directory under the “Merchants-Commission (*Importers)” section as follows: “Allen Edward T., 330 Sansom(e).” The modern spelling is Sansome, but numerous entries of the period lead me to believe it was originally spelled without the e.

Entries in the city directory are relatively consistent over the following years; a few random samples are included below:

• Listed in the 1879 Langley directory as “Allen Edward T., manufacturer’s agent hardware, cutlery, and firearms, 515 Market, r. 19 Guy Pl”

• Listed in 1881 Langley Directory on p. 105 as “Allen Edward T., mnfrs agent, hardware cutlery, and firearms. 416 Market, r. cor Fifth Av and Eleventh, E. Oakland.” Also listed on p. 1109 under “Merchants-Commission” as Allen Edward T., 416 Market”

• Listed in 1886 Langley Directory as “Allen Edward T., mnfrs agent, hardware cutlery, and firearms. 416 Market, r. 2204 Jackson.” The structure currently standing at 2204 Jackson is a nine-story building that may be the one in which he lived. Not being a student of period architecture, the building’s appearance strikes me as being of a design school and height that could potentially be of the period. According to the 1920 census record commented on later, he would have occupied a dwelling on the second floor of this structure.

• Listed in 1905 Langley Directory as “Allen E. T., office 414 Market, r 2204 Jackson” although Allen apparently sold out all or a significant portion of The E.T. Allen Co. to H.E. Skinner sometime in 1900.

No listings for him were found in the 1906 directory forward, although Allen and all members of his immediate family appear to have survived the ’06 earthquake with no mention of undue hardship or loss that I’ve been able to uncover. I’m left to speculate he either retired from the business around this time, only dabbled in the background with other firms, or perhaps shifted his focus to other interests. There is some mention as to his involvement with a team in the early Pacific baseball league as a primary sponsor, but I was unable to find additional details concerning this.

Edward also served as a director of the Miller & Lux Corporation in the late-1800’s. Henry Miller was one of the largest land owners in U.S. History, being in possession of approximately 1.4 million acres throughout California, with the corporation primarily concerned with the raising of cattle. Hints of a scandal involving Allen were found in several newspaper reports of the time, but after viewing additional records it appears there was not much to this. Something similar to a bench warrant was issued for his and the other directors’ arrest due to non-payment of award to a plaintiff that resulted from a lawsuit. I could find no additional information regarding the outcome of this incident, so am left to assume it was a matter quickly dealt with and dismissed.

He and his wife seem to have been socially active based on newspaper accounts of the day. He was a long-time member of the George H. Thomas Post, No. 2, Grand Army of the Republic, at San Francisco, and of the California Commandery of the Loyal Legion, and was listed as an officer of the organization for many years. His wife was found to be included among the attendees of numerous ladies’ social functions.

Edward’s wife, Elizabeth C. Allen, passed away March 5, 1912. ID confirmed by residence at 2204 Jackson Street, San Francisco, and survivors. Obituary from “San Francisco Call” (Volume 111, No. 98) dated March 7, 1912:

Allen-In this city, March 5, 1912. Elizabeth C., beloved wife of Edward T. Allen, and aunt of George W., Emma S., and Anna C. Kenyon, and sister of Mrs. Mary C. Hubbard and Georgiana L. Langworthy and Jerry and John Sheldon, and niece of Mrs. Sarah Loveland of Rhode Island, a native of Rhode Island.

Funeral services will be held today (Thursday), March 7, 1912, at 10:30 o’clock a.m., at her late residence, 2204 Jackson Street. Interment private. Please omit flowers.

An entry from the 1920 United States Federal Census, California, San Francisco Assembly District 31, District 0151 shows Allen was still a resident of San Francisco and still at the 2204 Jackson St. address at this time, although he was now eighty-one years old: “Edward Tracy Allen, 2204 Jackson Street, Dwelling 266, Family Number 303, Head of Household, Homeowner, Home Free (no mortgage), Male, White, Age 81, Widowed, Attended School-No (incorrect, as Edward’s schooling is documented), Able to read and write-Yes, Birthplace-Connecticut, Father’s Birthplace-Connecticut, Mother’s Birthplace-Rhode Island, Able to Speak English-No (This must also be an entry error), Occupation-Merchant, Industry-Hardware, Employment Field-Own Account.”

No obituary or specific date of death could be found for Edward, but he finally passed from this mortal coil in 1926. He is interred at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California. The photos below are of his grave markers there.

http://i433.photobucket.com/albums/qq51/ghostdncr/Parker/Two%20Sisters/E%20T%20Allen/ET%20Allen%20Grave1_zps23hmj16q.jpg

http://i433.photobucket.com/albums/qq51/ghostdncr/ET%20Allen%20Grave2_zpsclsom3hy.jpg


My youngest daughter saw this post and pointed out something she referred to with "Awww, that's so sweet!" It didn't occur to me at the time but in the last grave marker photo above, the names shown are Allen and Kenyon. Edward Allen had no connection to the name Kenyon that I encountered, aside from it being the name of his "informally adopted" children's deceased father. That alone may speak deeply to the man's character, that these children would choose to be buried alongside the man who took them in, if that is indeed the case.

[Bill Zachow]

Charlie, the order I spoke of was specific to 4 8 gauges serialed consecutively as 74619, 20, 21, and 22. This order came in on 8/25/92 and was no. 50473. The order was listed in Factory book 31, page 213.

[charlie cleveland]

thanks bill for setting me straight i was so excited about you posting this that i just assumed it was one of the sixthat i have 2 of...only this evening i was going trru the 8 ga list and i dicovered in one order that there was 10 consexitve guns in order made and even some more...i knew i had made a mistake in posting this evening...but thanks i just wish i new how many of these old guns have survived i know there is more than 100 of them in some kind of condition....i use to keep up with all the 8 ga s i seen for sell or if some one posted they had one i wish i had kept up but i have not in the last coupla years..i would estimate there is at lkeast 200 of these gun s in that have survived....charlie

[Dave Suponski]

John, Wonderful research. We had a John Lovell hardware store in the center of my town(Stratford,CT) for many many years. Could there be a connection?

[John E. Williams]

John, Wonderful research. We had a John Lovell hardware store in the center of my town(Stratford,CT) for many many years. Could there be a connection?

I've come to be under the impression that the outfit John P. Lovell and Sons, so commonly encountered when researching in the late 19th century, was very much like the business built by E.T. Allen, only it was based up east in or around Boston and underwent many name changes due to changing partnerships over the years. Hard to say if there's any direct connection, as in your local store being owned by a descendant, for instance. I would guess the original business ceased operations upon the sale to Iver Johnson in 1900, but I've seen no documentation to support that theory.

Here's a brief history of the outfit, as near as I've been able to determine it: 1840-Began operations as Grover & Lovell at 145 Washington Street, Boston, MA.; 1850-Name changed to Fairbanks & Lovell; Name changed to JP Lovell & Sons. Name changed to John P. Lovell Arms Co. (may have been bought by Charles J Godfrey Stores). 1894-Opened branch in Portland ME, may have made some shotguns there. 1900-Sold to Iver Johnson's Arms and Cycle Works. John P. Lovell died on July 29th, 1897.

[George M. Purtill]

John
Your research would make a wonderful PP article.

[Dean Romig]

In the 1880's, I believe, John P. Lovell in Boston burned down and many Parkers (don't know what state of condition they may have been in as a result of the fire) were sent back to Meriden for credit.




.

[John E. Williams]

John
Your research would make a wonderful PP article.

That left me momentarily speechless, George, and thank you. I can't imagine a higher compliment being made than just the suggestion of that! Well, I suppose actually getting it published would do, right?. :cheers: