Frank Gates Allen

Who was Frank Gates Allen?

Frank Gates Allen 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.

After graduating from Michigan, Allen moved to Moline, Illinois, where he became a manufacturer of plows. He was for many years the president and general manager of the Moline Plow Company and 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 president and general manager of the company.

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.