In many ways, the story of Charles and Sarah Allis is the story of Milwaukee. It’s one of migration, industry — and generosity. Both Charles and Sarah’s families left the East Coast to settle in Milwaukee. Charles' father arrived in the very year the city was established in 1846, while Sarah's family arrived shortly thereafter in 1851. As their fortune grew along with the family business, they made provision to serve the community in perpetuity — by bequeathing to Milwaukee a most magnanimous gift.
The Allis family traces its roots to a passenger on the third voyage of the Mayflower in 1630. The Allis name made its way to Milwaukee two centuries later, when Edward Phelps Allis — after graduating college at the age of 21 — moved from his hometown of Cazenovia, New York to Milwaukee in the spring of 1846. Charles Allis was born in 1853 in Milwaukee, the third of E.P and Margaret’s twelve children.
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