Ethan Otis Allen This account is central to the divine healing movement of the late nineteenth century. Carrie Judd (later Montgomery, 1858–1946) would play pivotal roles in many developments until her death. Mrs. Mix’s ministry, begun only slightly more than a year earlier with her own healing, would end prematurely. Ethan Otis Allen (1813–1902) stands in the shadows.

A grandson of the famed Revolutionary War hero, Ethan Otis Allen was a native of Springfield, Massachusetts. Born August 25, 1813, in Belchertown, Massachusetts, he was apparently one of six children of Joel and Lydia Allen.7 On March 22, 1837, in Springfield hemarried Kezia Davis, daughter of Joel and Kezia Phelps 8 FAITH CURE Davis. She, too, had been born in Springfield, on April 7, 1813. The family’s home place seems to have been a farm on South Wilbraham Road, on the eastern edge of present-day Springfield. An 1864–1865 Springfield City Directory lists brothers Henry and Joel as well as nephew Joel A. as living there. A Loren G. in the household may have been Ethan and Kezia’s son Loring Davis, born January 6, 1838. The Springfield City Directory for 1896 says that Ethan “removed to California.” Why a man of eighty-three would leave the city of his birth and his home of a lifetime to travel across the continent is intriguing, though it may have been an extension of his ministry. He died in California in 1902.

According to Allen’s book Faith Healing,8 he began proclaiming the notion of faith healing in 1846 after he was prayed for by his Methodist class leader and healed of consumption. For the next fifty years he proclaimed the notion all around New England and prayed for the healing of others with favorable results. Allen published Faith Healing: or, What I Have Witnessed of the Fulfillment of James V: 14, 15, 16 in Philadelphia in 1881. He was also the subject of an undated biography by William T. MacArthur titled Ethan O. Allen, also published in Philadelphia. As the movement developed, Allen labored humbly in the camp meetings, conventions, and faith homes led by others.

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