Elisha Hunt Allen

Elisha Hunt Allen (January 28, 1804 – January 1, 1883) was an American lawyer, diplomat, and Hawaiian justice. He was born in New Salem, Massachusetts, attended New Salem Academy and graduated from Williams College in 1823.

Allen was admitted to the bar in 1825 and commenced practice in Brattleboro, Vermont; later moving to Bangor, Maine and continuing the practice of law. From 1835 to 1840 he was a member of the Maine House of Representatives, representing Bangor. He served as Speaker in 1838. From 1841 until 1843, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives as a member of the Whig party, but was not reelected. Following his loss, he ran for the Maine Legislature once more, serving one term before moving from Bangor to Boston and being elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1849. From 1852 to 1856, he was United States Consul in Honolulu, Hawaii and subsequently he became prominent in the affairs of the Hawaiian government.

From 1857 through 1876 he was Chancellor and Chief Justice of the Hawaiian Islands. Afterwards, he was Minister from the Kingdom of Hawaii to the United States until his sudden death, shortly before his seventy-ninth birthday, while attending a New Year's Day diplomatic reception given by President Chester Arthur at the White House in Washington, D.C.. He is interred in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass. Allen is one of six people known to have died inside the White House.

References

*CongBio|A000120
*American National Biography, vol. 1, pp. 307-308.