After Dr. Hutcheson's mother died in 1883, he was reared with his siblings by a servant/nanny and cook, "Aunt Mary" Mary Haskins, and his aunt, Laura Dowell. In 1892 Capt. J. C. Hutcheson won a seat for the 1893 53rd U.S. Congress. Rather than be taken to Washington DC for the 1893/94 school year, Allen was given the choice to live with his oldest sister, Elise, in Chattanooga and go to school there or join his brother Joe, Jr. at Bethel Military Academy. He chose Chattanooga (Likely Baylor's University School of Chattanooga). A year later he joined his older brother at Bethel located in Warrenton, VA. and stayed for three years at both the old campus and the new one at Fauquier White Sulphur Springs. Allen transferred to Pantops Academy for the 1897/98 year and studied there for two years. During those two years the "Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions" was active on campuses and brought many visiting missionaries to talk to students. Their inspiration was to influence him in his decision to devote his early life to the foreign medical field. During the summers of his childhood and late youth he joined his father and siblings at their Signal Mountain, Tenn. home where they spent considerable time fox and bird hunting, hiking, bowling and reading. He entered the Univ. of Virginia in the fall of 1899 and graduated in 1901 with a BA. The following fall he entered Columbia University Medical School. In 1905 he received his medical degree. While studying at Columbia Allen met his younger sister's teacher and his future wife, Strausie McCaslin. According to a letter written by his father, they were married Aug. 24th, 1908 in London during a ceremony that was attended by his bride's mother. They returned to the United States aboard the S. S. Cedric and then left the U.S. on Oct. 6, 1908 for China. Within a month of his arrival China lost its Emperor and the powerful Dowager Empress Cixi. Emperor Puyi was crowned in December; but turmoil ensued, and the doctor witnessed the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, the abdication of the boy emperor, and the establishment of the Republic of China. The doctor took up residence as a medical missionary from 1908 until 1927. He initially lived with Rev. P. F. Price in Tongxiang, Zhejiang until he was appointed to the staff of the Kashing Hospital, Jaixing, China by his 1st cousin once removed, Dr. Wade Hampton Venable. He remained there until the spring of 1917 when he moved to take the post as Chief Surgeon at the University of Nanking Medical Hospital (Originally the Drum Tower Hospital). In 1920 he was promoted to Superintendent and Chief Surgeon. As Superintendent he oversaw the construction of new hospital buildings thanks to the generous donations from the Rockefeller Foundation and many people in the U.S.

The doctor's family returned twice to the USA while he was on sabbatical first in Feb. 1915 aboard the SS Manchuria and second aboard the RMS Empress of Asia in May 1922. From 1917 through 1927 China's warlord factions kept the government fragmented. Early in 1927 General Chang Kai Shek decided to lead a northern expedition to unify the country. His soldiers arrived in Nanking on March 24 at the beginning of what became known as the "Nanking Incident". The doctor's family and others had already left to take shelter on gun boats stationed on the river. Dr. Allen went to the hospital to try to save the compound. He wrote "I had, after four hours of insults and searching and looting of my person by the soldiers, to take to the coal cellar on the advice of my hospital Chinese friends, the old cook being my chief urger and protector. While I was taking care of the hospital as best I could, the soldiers entered my house, shot my dog, and after taking everything out of it, set fire to it, and burned it to the ground. Our loss was total." By 11am he was in hiding in the cellar and the cook camouflaged him with soot and covered his white hair with the cook's own cap. As part of his ordeal, he heard troups overhead smashing furniture and equipment. They then tried to set the building on fire. Fortunately some of the Chinese staff who had stayed on the grounds were able to put the blaze out. American and British gun boats fired into the city to try to stop the killing of the foreigners. "The firing ocurred at 3:30 in the afternoon, more than eight hours after the beginning of the vandalism. My house was destroyed at ten-thirty, as were all the other houses, except one. The firing actually saved the life of the American consul and the forty more other people, besieged in the house by the soldiers, and was, we believe, the chief, if not the only factor, that secured our release in the interior of the city the next day." He wrote futher, "From this dark hole I was liberated after fourteen hours to join other refugees, now gathering from all quarters, in the University building." The family was reunited in Shanghai after he was evacuated on the USS Isabel and once together they sailed for the USA. He became the Public Health Officer for Houston from 1928-1930 under Mayor Walter Monteith and subsequently Public Health Officer for Houston Public Schools through the 1930s and 40s. Both he and his wife were strong supporters of the Presbyterian Church. He was a kind man who delighted in hiking and taking extensive walks. When he was in the company of young children he captivated them with stories that came from his travels and vivid imagination. SAR member #75006