W. L. Allen

W. L. ALLEN, proprietor of The Reliance Telephone and Manufacturing Company, of Butler, is identified with other business interests of this section and is numbered with the representative men of this city. He was born at Portageville, in Wyoming County, New York, in 1858, and when eight years of age accompanied the family to Corry, Penna., where he obtained his public school education.
The first work in which Mr. Allen was engaged was done during a school vacation, for the Corry Tub and Pail Factory. Later he worked for a short time in a local machine shop and this gave him a taste for machinery, induced him to learn the trade and to work at the same until 1879, when he became a clerk in the post-office at Bradford, and in 1880 he had a mail contract in McKean County. When he came to Butler, in 1886, he entered the machine shops of T. & W. G. Hays & Company, where he continued until 1890, when he went with the firm of Masseth & Black, with whom he remained until 1896. Mr. Allen then embarked in business at Evans City, under the style of Elliott Brothers & Allen Machine Shops, but in the spring of 1900 he sold out to his partners and came to Butler again, where he had already many social and business ties. He resumed business in this city, establishing the Butler Electro Plating Works, and in 1904, in partnership with J. B. Nixon, purchased the plant of the United States Electric Manufacturing Company, in less than a year becoming sole proprietor. He then combined his two plants under the name of The Reliance Telephone and Manufacturing Company. He manufactures the best telephones that are now in use and also chandeliers. His business is a constantly growing one and is a standard concern in the commercial life of Butler. Mr. Allen is a director and secretary of the Ozark Uplift Oil and Mining Company, a corporation that controls 9,000 acres of land in the Ozark regions of Missouri.
In 1881, Mr. Allen was married to Miss Mollie E. White, a daughter of Thomas B. Wliite and a great-granddaughter of Matthew White, who was one of the first commissioners of Butler County, this family being one of the old-settled ones of this section. Mr. Allen's maternal grandfather was a McQuiston and his father came to Butler County as early as 1796. Mr. and Mrs. Allen have five children, namely: Roy M., who resides in New York City; Frank W., who lives at Dubois, Pennsylvania; and Carrie B., Marion E. and Ruth M., at home. Mr. Allen and family are members of the First Baptist Church, in which he has served as a deacon for many years. In his political views he is a Prohibitionist and in former years served as secretary of the Butler County Committee of that party.
Source: 20th century history of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and respresentative citizens, McKee, James A., 1909, page 1097.