Clifton Allen emigrated to Middle Tennessee, Sumner county, in the year 1796 or 1797, and settled on the Breshy Fork of Bledsoe's Creek, on the same survey of land that I am now living on. He was a Baptist preacher, and emigrated from North Carolina to this country. I believe he was raised in the State of Virginia. He possessed fair preaching talents for that day, was a man of fine sense, and appeared as though he had been well raised and pretty well educated. He had considerably passed the meridian of life; in fact, he was of far advanced that the people generally called him "Father Allen." He preached about among the people, and soon became a great favorite. The Methodists and Presbyterians would flock out to hear Father Allen. He preached sound experimental doctrine repentance toward God and faith in Christ, and that a sinner must know his sins forgiven. He was remarkably open and free in his spirit, and seemed to possess none of that close sectarian feeling that the Baptists do in this our day, as I do not recollect that I ever heard him press the subject of immersion in my life in his preaching. The Baptists at that day had a church called Elbethel, about one and a half mile from where Gallatin now stands. Father Allen attached himself to that church when he came to the country; and when the great revival broke out in 1800, he fell in with it and labored with us faithfully. In 1801, he went to a great sacramental meeting held at Shiloh, and when the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered the preacher gave a general invitation for all the lovers of Jesus to come and partake. Father Allen went forward and communed, and it was soon spread abroad throughout the country that Clifton Allen, a Baptist preacher, had communed with the Presbyterians and Methodists. In a very short time he was cited to appear before his church. I was not present at the trial, but old Father Allen told me all about it. He was a man that possessed a good deal of originality and shrewdness. He told me that the clerk read the charge against him, and it was this: "For communing with other denominations." They then asked him if he did. His answer was, "Brethren, am I to be both plaintiff and defendant in this case? If I did, prove it." The old soldier said he then sat still and never opened his mouth; he saw that he had them in a close place. The question was then put to the church: "Brother, did you see him?'. The answer was, "No." And so the question went around the whole church, and not one present had seen him commune. The old soldier, in telling me about it, observed that if they had gone to Shiloh hill, they could have proved it by five hundred witnesses. He observed, that he saw he had them in a close place. At length they asked him the second time: "Brother Allen, did you commune?" His answer was, "I did." They then asked him how he came to do it; he answered, "The preacher invited me to come to my Lord and Master's table, and in doing it the Lord blessed my soul and made me happy." They then asked him if it were to do again would he do it, and he answered. "I would." He was so venerable a man that they hated to give him up; and if they turned him out for the charge they had brought against him, they would be disgraced as a Church professing Christianity. They then asked him if he wished to withdraw from them; he answered. he did, unless they would suffer him to commune with the Lord's people when and where he pleased. So the old soldier got clear of the Baptists. He went on preaching as he had done before. for a short time, perhaps something like a year, belonging to no Church. He then joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was regarded as one of the most laborious and useful local preachers we had among us; and I very little doubt that if he had not been so far advanced in years, he would have joined the traveling connection. He fully embraced the doctrines held by the Methodist Church; his sole object seemed to be to induce the people to become religious. He would administer the ordinance of baptism in any way that the subject wished it-either by sprinkling, pouring, or immersion. He was a member of our Quarterly Conference in Sumner county, for, I think, about twenty years, and was a faithful attendant at Quarterly meetings. He was grandfather to the Rev. Dr. Allen Browning, who died a few years ago in Missouri, and great-grandfather of the Rev. William Browning, now presiding elder in the Tennessee Conference. Although far advanced in years, he was out on a preaching tour when taken sick; was brought home, and died in a short time. It can be truly said of Father Allen, "He died at his post." He selected his own burying-ground, a few hundred yards from where my present residence now is, and was buried there in his family grave-yard. Thus passed away one amongst the best men that I ever knew, whose name should go down to future generations.