Davis, Allen Freeman, 1931-

Allen Freeman Davis was an American history professor and writer. He was born in Hardwick, Vt., January 9, 1931, the son of Harold Freeman (1894-1977) and Bernice Susan (Allen) Davis (1896-1951). His parents owned and ran the general store started by C.F. Davis, Harold’s father.
Davis received an AB from Dartmouth College in 1953, an MA from the University of Rochester in 1954. He served in the U.S. Army, 1954-1956, and earned a Ph.D. from the University Wisconsin, 1959.
He started his career as an academic as an instructor of history at Wayne State University, Detroit, 1959-1960. He became an assistant professor of history at the University Missouri, Columbia, 1960-1963 and associate professor, 1963-1968. He was professor of history at Temple University, Philadelphia, 1968-1999, and professor emeritus, since 1999. He was visiting professor of history at University Texas, Austin, 1983, University Amsterdam, 1986-1987. He served as the John Adams chair and Director of the Center for Public History, 1987-1999.
He was the recipient the Friends of Literature award, 1970, the Christopher award, 1974; a Danforth Graduate fellow, 1953-1959, an American Council Learned Societies senior fellow, 1971- 1972, a National Endowment of the Humanities fellow, 1975-1976, a Fulbright fellow, 1986-1987; and an American Philosophical Society grantee, 1962, 65.
In his own words: “I grew up during Depression and War and that had a great impact on my generation. I lived in a large Victorian house at South Main and Summer Streets across from the cemetery and in the shadow of Buffalo Mountain. It was my only house until I went to college.
My father owned a general store on South Main Street at the top of Plank Hill. My grandfather, Charles F. Davis (1864-1951), purchased the store in 1902. My father graduated from Hardwick Academy in 1914. My mother graduated from Craftsbury Academy in 1913 and the University of Vermont in 1917. She taught Latin and English at Hardwick Academy from 1918 to 1924. She also served on the Hardwick School Board for nearly thirty years. I had two sisters, Florence (1926-2020) and Marjorie (1934-1965). Like many of my friends in Hardwick my family had a grandmother living with us. In my case she was my mother’s mother, Lola Wylie Allen (1858-1940), and she died when I was nine. My grandfather and his second wife, Sarah Holton Davis (1867-1957), lived only a few houses away.
“I entered first grade in 1937 (there was no kindergarten in Hardwick) and for twelve years I went to school in the same building. We all walked home for dinner at noon ( there was no concept of lunch in Hardwick). I was in the fourth grade when the attack on Pearl Harbor catapulted the United States into the World War II. I was in the eighth graded when the war ended in Europe. In High School we had some good and some inadequate instructors as well as two great teachers. Leone Cobb and Chandler Mosher taught us how to write and inspired us to go to college. There were twenty-three in my graduating class in 1949, and twelve went to college. Because it was a small school there were opportunities to participate in a variety of activities. I played basketball, football and baseball (but I never could hit a curve ball.) I sang in the glee club (though I could not sing,) I acted in plays (though I had no talent.) I wrote for the year book and for the school newspaper.
“I spent a great deal of time in the Judevine Memorial Library and the Idle Hour Theater and both places stimulated my imagination and influenced my dreams. In the library I hid out on the balcony and read whatever was on the shelves, biography, fiction and history. I went to the theater at least once a week and usually more than once. Often there was a double feature as well as a cartoon, a serial and a news reel. I also spent many hours in the “New Gym” which had been completed in 1940. I went there not only for basketball, but also for dances, lectures, graduation exercises, plays and even movies. I also spent time at the United Church on South Main Street, not only for religious services, but also for church suppers and young peoples’ meetings that included lectures and folk dancing. The United Church was a liberal protestant church. The Catholic Church was across the street. There was tolerance, but little cooperation. My family was Congregational and Republican by conviction and habit. I outgrew both within a decade after I left town. Hardwick was a declining granite town while I was growing up. There was some conflict and prejudice but there was also a real sense of community.
“I graduated from Dartmouth College in 1953, earned a Masters Degree in History from the University of Rochester in 1954 and a Ph.D. in History at the University of Wisconsin in 1959. I served two years in the Army, as most men of my generation did, but because of student deferments, the Korean War was over before I was drafted. I taught American Cultural History and American Studies in several American Universities and lectured widely in the United States, Europe and Asia. I have written or edited more than a dozen books, and many articles.
“I contribute regularly to The Hazen Road Dispatch. I live in Philadelphia, but I return each summer to the family camp on Caspian Lake built by my grandfather in 1923 on land purchased by my grandmother, Florence Haines Davis (1864-1923), in 1913. And I return each year to Hardwick.”