PETER ALLEN

Peter Allen was born on December 27, 1881 to Thomas Allen and Mary Anna Massey (Doran) Allen in the town Houtzdale Pennsylvania. Peter was Baptized at St Lawrence Church now Church of Christ. Thomas Allen died at the young age of 58 and at that time Peter was only 11 years old. The census records of 1900 say that Peter is living with his mother he is 18 years old and that he was born in Pennsylvania. His profession appears to be that he is a shoemaker. Peter's mother died in 1906.

In the 1910 census say Peter is living with Cornelius and his profession is machinist at the locomotive company. His career has him involved in the inherited business of shoes. His father, Thomas Allen, brought this skill to America from Ireland. His brothers John and Conelius were taught this trade. Conelius started a shoe store in Dubois. Peter was a machinist at heart. He opened an Ford Auto Repair Shop in Dubois on Brady Street. This was across the street from where Florence Downing worked the millinery shop. Peter soon marries Florence Downing of Dubois and they move to Buffalo, New York where they have four sons.

When Peter first moved to Buffalo, New York he worked for Pierce Arrow Automative Company. It has been rated one of the 10 top automobiles ever to be designed in this country. It was a very elite car and went out of business during the depression.

Peter designed a transmission that made his Model T go 70 MPH. He loved to head out on the highway and get that thing going so fast, grinning as he passed every driver on the road. He had put a Pierce-Arrow Ah-ooh-ga horn in the Model-T. He'd blow that horn at everybody (and Bill says you wouldn't believe how many fingers he got waved back.) Nobody could ever figure out how he got a Model-t to go so fast.

Peter's employment also involved working at Bell Aircraft Corporation of Niagara. Peter not only worked on the first helicopter Bell ever built. He was the first to take it up 20 feet off the ground. At the time there was a competition going on between major companies as to who actually designed the first successful helicopter. Bell was one of them.

Peter's son Frany (second son) bought property on Cherry Street in Buffalo, New York to start a business. He and Marty Ryan began work when grandpa Peter moved in the upstairs flat to the property on Cherry Street. Peter, being a machinist by trade, had a collection of machinery that he brought to the business so he too could be a partner. Two years later they needing more machinery so they asked Jim and Joe, Peter's other two sons, to invest and be partners. They did.

On April 8, 1948 they incorporated and filed with Erie County and officially became Alry Tool & Die, Co, Inc. In the fifties grandpa Peter began getting sick. And he died in 1953.