Minnie Catherine Allen (September 3, 1851 – June 5, 1922) was a leader among the Shakers, active as a historian and activist as well as a member of the Central Shaker Ministry. Allen was born in Patriot, Indiana, to clergyman John Allen and his wife, Ellen Lazarus. The couple were perpetual joiners of communal societies, and had previously been members of Brook Farm in Massachusetts; at the time of Minnie's birth they were living at a similar community in Terre Haute, Indiana, which had been financed by Emma. This, too, failed, and the family moved again, to join the Utopian Community of Modern Times in New York. It was from here that Allen and her brother were sent to board with the Shakers, where they lived with the North Family of the Mount Lebanon Shaker Society. The arrangement had be