Who was Ira Allen? The youngest brother of Ethan does not have an eponymous furniture chain, nor are any Vermont roads named for him. A bronze effigy of Allen stands in front of the Old Mill building at the University of Vermont, but the stature of that statue is somewhat shaky, according to a new biography by Essex historian and former Vermont Historical Society executive director J. Kevin Graffagnino.
Typically described as a canny land speculator, Allen emerges as a much more complex figure from the account of Graffagnino, the author of 15 books on Vermont. Allen was the first Vermont state treasurer, the first state surveyor general, Vermont's largest landowner, a self-appointed diplomat and a leading opponent of Vermont's bid to join the Union. Ultimately, his reach exceeded his grasp, and, faced with insurmountable debts, Allen fled to Philadelphia, where he spent the last decade of his life. His own family rejected him, and he died penniless, laid to rest in a pauper's grave in a Quaker cemetery.
Seven Days sat down with Graffagnino recently to discuss the life and times of the second-best-known Green Mountain Boy.
You've studied and written about Ira Allen for 30 years. Why?
I've always been a Vermont historian, and he just kept turning up. He was the most prolific writer and defender of Vermont's right to exist as [an independent] Vermont. He is the reason the University of Vermont is located in Burlington. So I found him interesting, and it puzzled me that he got relatively little attention.
Was Ira more of a Green Money Boy than a Green Mountain Boy?
His vision was to dominate trade and commerce in the region. He planned to build mills on most of the rivers that flow into Lake Champlain. This would facilitate trade with Canada, because the lake flows north and you move goods with the current.
So he opposed statehood for Vermont because he envisioned this grand alliance with Canada.
He didn't want Vermont to be limited in any way. He wanted freedom to associate or negotiate with anyone. Ira knew the moment we joined the Union, Vermont would have to go under all federal regulations, rules, treaties, [for] trade with Canada. We'd be part of the American relationship, a bond he did not favor.
Was he controversial in his time?
Yes, there were newspapers, and he was written about. He was widely criticized for his focus on his own fortune, his ability to drive two horses — Vermont's and Ira Allen's interests simultaneously. That really annoyed the heck out of some people. They saw him as making himself wealthy while doing public service. He was just ahead of his time.
Can you compare Ira Allen to any contemporary public figure?
I know some people would compare him to Donald Trump, but I don't think that's accurate. Ira had big dreams, but he also was a small "d" democrat. He believed implicitly that the farmer was just as good as the landlord. I respect the heck out of Ira Allen, but I wouldn't trust him in a business deal. His brothers had more of the people-person touch.
What was his relationship with his brothers?
There isn't much to say. His four older brothers were more charismatic. They called Ira "Stub" because he was short, a good six inches below Ethan's six-foot-two-inch stature. Yet, barely 21 years old, Ira persuaded them to found and fund his Onion River Land Company. The brothers had been buying land in Bennington County. He wanted to focus on the area from what today is Montpelier to the lake north to Canada. "That's our empire," he told them.
Did he use his friendship with then-governor Thomas Chittenden as a kind of cloak of respectability?
Chittenden was very popular, and Chittenden was also a highly intelligent political leader, if poorly educated. He could barely put a letter together in his own hand. If Chittenden needed something on paper, Ira often was the scribe.
Was he Vermont's biggest landowner at the time?
In the 18th century, land speculation [was] the equivalent of the stock market today. Allen claimed to own over 200,000 acres, but a lot of it was in dispute. He was in and out of court constantly with other speculators and with creditors. He never had cash flow.
How is Ira known by Vermonters?
He's considered the founder of UVM, which is inaccurate. He's responsible for UVM being in Burlington, but the legislature charters UVM. Ira knows it's going to happen. But Burlington wasn't much then. Southern Vermont was much better developed. His dream was that Burlington would be Vermont's principal community, that the university would become an internationally recognized place for the sons of farmers and mechanics to get an education. He did donate some of the land.
Ira never fulfilled the monetary pledges he made to UVM, so how did he get his statue?
In the 1920s, retired banker James B. Wilbur became fascinated by Vermont history and Ira Allen in particular. He collected Allen's papers, which I used for my research. Wilbur, who had an estate in Manchester, was courted heavily by Guy Bailey, then UVM president. Among many donations to UVM, Wilbur funded the statue of his hero on the green.
In the end, Allen died broke and was buried in a Quaker cemetery in Philadelphia.
Allen died in 1814. His grave site was searched for in the 1890s and couldn't be found because the cemetery had gone to rack and ruin and headstones were tipped over. So they collected all the bones and put them out in a beautiful setting in Audubon, Pa., near the John James Audubon estate.
This interview was edited and condensed for clarity and length.