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About William C. Allen

About the author: William Charles Allen (March 9, 1857 — March 14, 1938), Quaker recorded minister of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.. The University of Pennsylvania, which hold his papers, records the following:

William Charles Allen (1857-1938) was born at Westtown, Pa. on March 9, 1857, the son of Richard Allen and Mary Dutten. Allen was often ill as a child, and received little schooling after age 14. He married Elizabeth C Bromley at Burlington, N.J. on September 10, 1883, and the couple had one daughter. For Allen’s health, the family moved from New Jersey to Colorado, and later to California.

Allen was a recorded minister of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and made multiple religious visits to Japan, China, Australia, and South Africa, as well as England and Ireland. Allen also founded the Peace Committee of Churches of the Pacific Coast. Allen was a conscientious objector, and wrote a number of books related to this topic, including “Real war: as seen in South Africa, 1899-1900 (1910), “War! Behind the Smoke Screen” (1929), and “A Quaker diary in the Orient,” among other publications.

Allen died on March 14, 1938 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the age of 81.

About the diary: The entries here cover the dates February 8, 1915 to February 20, 1915 (pp. 88-99), the portion that covers a visit to the Philippines from A Quaker Diary in the Orient, Press of the Wright-Ely Company, San Jose, California, 1915. Sourced from The Internet Archive.