Mark W. Allen

Mark W. Allen (August 23, 1877 – October 12, 1958) was an American lumber dealer and politician.

Early life and education Allen was born on August 23, 1877, in Fairfax County, Virginia, the son of Thomas Douglass Allen and Mary Elizabeth Williams.

Allen attended the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church in West New Brighton, and founded the popular Trinity Men's Bible Class. He was a member of the Freemasons, the Royal Arch Masons, the Knights Templar, the Scottish Rite, the Shriners, the Odd Fellows, the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, and the Knights of Pythias. In 1907, he married Bessie E. Vorhees of Belford, New Jersey. Their children were Ida M., Doris V., Bessie Betty Elizabeth, George F., and Mark Jr. Allen then married Julia Maud Smiles of Port Richmond in 1937. Julia died in 1945. Allen then married his third wife, Lila A. Zorn of West New Brighton.

Career Allen moved to Staten Island, New York in 1898 and began working as a carpenter for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. In 1902, he was promoted to superintendent of carpenters. and 1924. While in the Senate, he helped get three Staten Island bridges built: the Kill Van Kull Bridge, the Goethals Bridge, and the Outerbridge Crossing. He was buried in the Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp.