Ira Allen played a major role in establishing and defending an independent Vermont in 1777. He was a frontier entrepreneur, an officer of the Green Mountain Boys, and served in the 1775 American Revolution northern campaign. Allen was also an author and a principal founding father of the University of Vermont. He died on January 15, 1814, was buried in the “Free Quaker” graveyard in Philadelphia, and was later removed to a nearby site.