The Curious Case of John Allen

In the 1850s and 1860s, groups of spiritualists who believed in socialism and free love settled in the Patriot area. Some of them were connected with the famous Brook Farm experiment in Massachusetts.

Two of them John Murray Spear and John Allen, were former Universalist ministers who turned to spiritualism. But did the move toward Utopia end up in murder?

The official story of Allen’s end was that he died of congestive fever, as reported in the Historical Magazine, published in New York in late 1858. In the words of the obituary notice:

“ALLEN, who, for many years was one of the most efficient and earnest workers in the cause of constructive socialism in this country. He died at his vineyard at Patriot, Indiana, where he had been residing for several years. His disease was congestive fever. His age was 48. Mr. Allen was a native of New England, and originally a minister of the Universalist denomination.”

An abolitionist, Allen turned away from Universalism because of opposition to his anti-slavery sermons. He began following the views of Charles Fourier, a French Socialist, and moved west after the failure of Brook farm, Allen and his wife moved to Cincinnati and then to Patriot. Details are unclear, but in the middle 1850s, they moved to a Utopian settlement in Texas. He moved to New York and then back to Patriot, where later Spear’s group would purchase the Switzerland County property. During this time, Patriot was used as a staging area for laborers moving to Texas. And Allen was joined in Indiana by Francois Cantagrel who was a student of Fourier.

Whatever those details, the legal notice that appeared in the Vevay Reveille of Oct. 20, 1858 is very clear. It states an inquest was held on the body of John Allen, by a justice who was acting as coroner of Posey Township on Oct. 3, 1858. Two doctors examined Allen’s stomach contents, and the jury came back on Oct. 11, rendering the following verdict ”We are the opinion that the deceased came to his death came from the effects of poison administered by some person unknown to the jury.”

Given the lack of immediate suspects, there is little likelihood that law enforcement had the sophistication to pursue the case much further.

Two more legal notices have bearing on this. On Dec. 1, 1858, the Vevay paper carried a notice that Bela Herrick had been appointed administrator of Allen’s estate, which was probably insolvent. Herrick, who was born in New York in 1794, was a founder of the Patriot Universalist Society in 1835, a logical person to be associated with Allen. Herrick then advertised a sale to be held on Dec. 24 at Allen’s house. The few items listed were “household and kitchen furniture, 1 cow and calf, 1 copper still and wine press and many other articles.”

Considering that obituary said Allen died at his vineyard, it seems there’s little chance that there was another John Allen in the area.