Eliza Crosby Allen

Eliza Crosby Allen
Born	Eliza Crosby August 20, 1803 Winchendon, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	October 15, 1848 (aged 45)
Occupation	journal editor
Notable works	Editor, Mothers' Journal (1840-48)
Spouse	Ira M. Allen ​ (m. 1827)​

Eliza Crosby Allen (1803–1848) was a 19th-century American journal editor. For more than eight years, she served as the editor of the Mothers' Journal.^[1]

Early life

Eliza Crosby was born at Winchendon, Massachusetts, August 20, 1803. At the age of three or four, she removed with her parents to Montpelier, Vermont. Her mother survived her at an advanced age, residing in Louisville, Kentucky; and two of her mother's brothers, the Hon. Joseph Locke and John Locke, Esq., were residents of Lowell, Massachusetts. Her father died at Montpelier when she was about 18 years of age. Her parents were Christians; and her mother, sought religiously to train her six children^[1]

At the age of fourteen, Eliza united with the Congregational Church in Montpelier. Six years after, her views changed. There being no Baptist Church at her home, she retained her membership with the Congregationalists until her removal to West Boylston, Massachusetts, when she became one of the Baptist Church in that place.^[1]

Career

On November 21, 1827, she married Rev. Ira M. Allen, then of Brandon, Vermont, but who became, in 1830, the agent of the Baptist General Tract Society, and removed in the discharge of his official duties to Philadelphia. Here she was united with the Sansom Street Church, then under the pastoral charge of the Rev. John L. Dagg.^[1]

Her labors in this new sphere, in connection with various women's societies, in the conduct of a young women's Bible Class, in preparing and editing tracts, and in relieving her husband by assuming the charge of the depository and correspondence during his frequent absences, were complex and onerous. At the same time, she took care of her home and received her husband's guests and friends. In addition to all of these responsibilities, she found time to become a contributor to several religious periodicals.^[1]

The Mother's Journal was first published in Utica, New York, by Bennet and Bright. It was a monthly publication of sixteen pages,designed to instill valuable social and moral lessons for parents and children.^[2] Allen was the third editor, taking over in 1840. Having fewer personal responsibilities than the previous editors, Allen was able to give more time to the preparation of articles for its pages, and in correspondence with friends, to interest them in its behalf. At the same time, her husband's employment was transferred to the American and Foreign Bible Society, and his residence to New York City.^[1] During the time Allen conducted it, her husband, Rev. Allen, assumed its proprietorship; it was enlarged to 32 pages, and published in New York City.^[3]

Allen never enjoyed perfect health. Before her marriage, sickness brought her close to death. After that event, at Brandon, and for a time in Philadelphia also, she was the subject of a spinal affection which caused great suffering, and disabled her from walking. Relieved from this, her constitution continued to be feeble. Still, she remained active in the order of her household, in her interest in various societies, and in her literary employments.^[1]

Later life and death

Her husband, then in the employ of the American and Foreign Bible Society, being required to leave home on a tour for the collection of funds, was for three months during the winter of 1847–1848 absent from her. The responsibility of procuring the paper for the Journal and making contracts with its printer, and conducting the correspondence, as well as supplying the editorial matter, was not only in itself severe, but it occasioned inevitable exposure to the severity of the weather, which broke down her strength. When the influenza seemed to leave behind it the incipient symptoms of tuberculosis, she hoped to recover as she had in former years from a similar affection.^[1]

Kindly invited by the Rev. John Teasdale in June 1848 to try the restorative effects of a residence at his house at Schooley's Mountain, New Jersey, she found the air and the weather, cold and stormy. Upon returning home, exceedingly ill, her lungs were examined and the case was pronounced one of decided pulmonary disease. She gave instructions to her husband on the disposition to be made of her books and effects after her death, and also of her interment. Though her brother invited Allen to winter in Florida, she died on October 15, 1848.^[1]

References

External links

• ELIZA C. ALLEN (1803 - 1848) at The Library Company of Philadelphia