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Ethan Allen was born in 1738 in Litchfield, Connecticut,
the eldest of the eight children of Joseph and Mary Allen. He had
five brothers (Heman, Heber, Levi, Zimri, and Ira) and two sisters
(Lydia and Lucy) all of whom lived to adulthood, unusual in those
days. Of these siblings, his youngest brother Ira is best known
as the founder of the University of Vermont in 1791, and as an influential
member of the government of the Republic of Vermont.
Ethan's
father died in 1755, thus preventing Ethan from going to Yale to
pursue his education, a disappointment he felt throughout his life.
After his marriage to Mary Brownson in 1762, Ethan lived in several
places in Connecticut, but finally settled his family in Sheffield,
Massachusetts sometime in 1767. |
