Frank Gates Allen

{{Short description|American football player and businessman (1858–1940)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}

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|name = Frank Gates Allen

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|birth_date = {{Birth date|1858|2|14}}

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|death_date = {{Death date and age|1940|8|30|1858|2|14}}

|death_place = Moline, Illinois

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|citizenship = United States

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|known_for = Football player, manufacturer, banker

|alma_mater = University of Michigan

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Frank Gates Allen (February 14, 1858 – August 30, 1940) was an American football player and businessman. He played for the first college football team at the University of Michigan and was a forward on the 1879 and 1880 Michigan Wolverines football teams.{{cite web|title=1879 Football Team|publisher=University of Michigan, Bentley Historical Library|url=https://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/football/fbteam/1879fbt.htm|accessdate=November 27, 2010}}{{cite web|title=1879 Football Team|publisher=University of Michigan, Bentley Historical Library|url=https://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/football/fbteam/1880fbt.htm|accessdate=November 27, 2010}}

File:1879 Michigan football team.jpg

After graduating from Michigan, Allen moved to Moline, Illinois, in 1881. In June of the following year, he married Minnie Florence Stephens, a daughter of Moline Plow Company president, George W. Stephens. He organized the Moline-Milburn & Stoddard Co. in 1886 with brother-in-law George Arthur Stephens, but he left the company two years later to study law. In 1893, he became the secretary for the Moline Plow Company, and after the death of George W. Stephens in 1902 he was elected vice-president of the company. He was also president of the Moline State Trust and Savings Bank. After retiring as the bank president, he remained chairman of the board. He was also a 33rd degree Mason. In 1918, the Willys-Overland Co. purchased a majority interest in the Moline Plow Company, but Allen remained the vice-president of the company.{{cite news|title=Control of Moline to Overland|publisher=Automotive Industries|date=September 26, 1918|page=567|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dM8qAAAAMAAJ}}{{cite news|title=Overland Obtains Control of Moline Plow Company|publisher=Motor Record|date=October 1918|page=234|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zscnAAAAMAAJ}}{{cite news|title=Moline Plow Co. Controlled by Willys-Overland Interests|publisher=Tractor World|date=September 1918|page=3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=njdIAAAAYAAJ}}

His daughter, Marjorie Allen Seiffert, was a nationally-known poet. In the 1930s, Allen donated his home in Moline, valued at $200,000, to the Moline Board of Education. Allen died of heart disease at his daughter's home in Moline in August 1940.{{cite news|title=Frank G. Allen, Moline Banker, Is Dead at 82|newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune|date=September 1, 1940|url=https://secure.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/495185302.html?dids=495185302:495185302&FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI&type=historic&date=Sep+01,+1940&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=Obituary+8+--+No+Title&pqatl=google}}{{cite news|title=FRANK GATES ALLEN; Moline, Ill., Manufacturer and Banker, a Masonic Leader|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 1, 1940|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1940/09/01/archives/frank-gates-allen-moline-ill-manufacturer-and-banker-a-masonic.html}}