"Anthony D. Allen" (1774-1835)

Formerly enslaved Anthony D. Allen found his way to Hawaii and made his home there in the early 1800s.Anthony was born either in Albany or Schenectady to mother who was probably a slave and father who was a free man a mariner.Anthony was freed at the age of 24 and moved to Boston where he, like his father before him,shipped out on a whaling vessel to various locals including the Caribbean,the Northwest Coast of America,China and to Hawaii where he settled in 1810.Called Alani by the Native Hawaiians,he served as steward to Kamehameha the Great and acquired a parcel of six acres in Waikiki.He married a Hawaiian woman and had three children who survived into adulthood.Anthony had a remarkable eye for business.According to historian Kenneth W.Porter,by 1820 he owned "a dozen houses,the premises clean and orderly...and a farm well stocked with cows and goats."Anthony kept his own cattle and horses and boarded others,ran a boarding house,a bowling alley even a hospital where ill injured seaman could recuperate ashore.Anthony was, according to historian Helen G. Chapin of the Hawaiian Historical Society,"respected and admirer by missionaries,other residents,vistors,and Native Hawaiians alike."Anthony died of a stroke on December 31,leaving behind a considerable fortune to his children.