Oscar A. Allen, attorney, Hector, was born in Red Wing, Minnesota, June 20, 1863, son of C. J. Anderson and Christine (Peterson) Anderson, natives of Sweden, who came to America as young people, and after living in Indiana for a while, located at Red Wing, this state, in 1850. The father was a stone mason by trade and while in Red Wing engaged in draying. Later he moved on to a farm near Cannon Falls and became a successful and influential farmer. In 1887 he retired from farming and moved to Maple Plain in Hennepin county where he is still living. The mother died in 1908. Oscar A. Allen attended the public schools of Cannon Falls and the Hauge Seminary at Red Wing one term, then entering the Gustavus Adolphus College at St. Peter, and graduating in 1885. During the summers of 1887-88 he took a commercial course at the Curtiss Business College in Minneapolis. In 1885 he taught district school in Nicollet county and was principal in Grove City schools in Meeker county in 1886-87. In the fall of 1887 he was elected principal of the commercial department of Gustavus Adolphus College, at St. Peter, and was head of that department until 1899. During that time he studied law under Ex-Lieutenant Governor G. S. Ives and also took up the Sprague Correspondence Law Course of Detroit, Michigan. He passed his examinations and was admitted to the bar in 1898. The same year he opened a law office at St. Peter, Minnesota. In the spring of 1899 came to Hector where he has successfully continued his practice. Since 1900 he has been largely engaged in real estate business, being a leading figure in the Hector Land Company. Mr. Allen has held many local offices. He was president of the village council in 1906, when the village hall was built, and is now president of the board of education, of which he has been a member since 1901. He is a stockholder in the Hector Telephone Exchange. Fraternally he is secretary of Hector Lodge No. 158, A. F. & A. M., of which he served two years as Master. He is also a member of the State Bar Association. The family faith is that of the English Lutheran church at St. Peter. Mr. Allen was married June 18, 1890, to Anna C. Johnson, of Stockholm, Wis. They have one child, Florence C., who was born June 21, 1894, graduated from the Hector high school, took the academic course at the University of Minnesota and the home-makers course at the Stout Institute at Menomonie, Wisconsin, and is now a junior in The Domestic Science and Agricultural Departments of the University of Minnesota.