Edward Allen and his family

I can't believe that I've not written a blog post about my grandfather, but it is not coming up on searches.  So this will be a brief sketch of him, and will also discuss briefly his children.  

Edward Franklin Allen was the son of George and Nancy McCoy Allen.  He was born January 17, 1868 in Gallatin, Daviess County, Missouri, where his parents had moved shortly before.  They had intended to live there permanently, but George had either sold his land or rented it out, and the farmer who took it over didn't keep his financial commitment.  The family moved back to Pulaski County, Indiana, where they had lived for about 20 years, and Ed spent much of his boyhood there.  

Sadly, Nancy died in 1880.  His father remarried very quickly, and the whole family went to Missouri.  Apparently his land was really sold this time.  This would have been the first time that Ed really got to know his grandfather, Archibald Allen, as Arch, a widower, had remarried and moved to Daviess County before Ed was born.  

We lost track of him for a few years, and then he is found in Montana, where his younger brother lived near Virginia City.  The younger George was a school teacher who studied nights to become an attorney, and Ed carefully noted that opportunity.  Ed himself became a school teacher, at least for a short period of time, near Soda Springs, Idaho.  That's where he met Edith Knott, and the rest is history. 

 Ed was 28 and Edith, the daughter of John Wilson and Harriet Starr Knott, was 18 when they married.  They first made their home in Idaho but moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where they lived the rest of their lives and raised their families.  Ed worked for the post office for a few years, and studied at night to become an attorney, as his brother had.  He was admitted to the bar in 1913, or possibly sooner-the 1913 date gives him authority to practice in federal court.  

Ed was an elder of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Salt Lake City, and of the Sons of the Veterans of the Civil War, Knights of Pythias, and Eagle lodge.  He was an assistant prosecuting attorney and then city attorney during the 1930s, which the family referred to as "the rich years".  They weren't rich, but one thing Ed did was buy his wife a fur coat or jacket during that time.  

After returning to private practice, the family income was greatly diminished because Ed refused to charge anything like the going price for legal services, especially for members of his church and the other organizations he belonged to.  Ed died July 10, 1940, after a battle with cancer.  Edith had serious health issues at the same time, so the nearby children were quite busy caring for two patients at the same time. Edith lived until 1954, but never fully recovered her health. 

The children of Ed and Edith Allen are:

Forest Wilson, born in 1898 and died in 1900

Vernon, born in 1901 in Salt Lake City.  He married Ruby Rachel Allen, the daughter of Lyman and Winona Guthrie Allen.  They adopted a son, who may be living.  

Tessora (Tessie to the family) was born in 1904.  She married Thomas McCall, the son of George and Harriet Jarret McCall, in 1922.  Their children are Thomas. Josephine, Barbara, Betty Lou, and Shirley. Tessie had rheumatic fever as a child which affected her heart, and she died apparently of complications in 1939.  

Nancy Corinne, known as Rene, was born in 1907.  She first married Guy C. Campbell.  They had one son, known as Courtney but apparently his first name was George.  Her first husband died in 1959 and she then married J. Hugh Hamilton in 1963. (The two men had known each other as professors in electrical engineering.)  Rene died in 1984.

Edith was born 9 years after Rene, so there may have been unsuccessful pregnancies that we don't know about.  Edith married Owen Carlyle Anderton, son of John and Ellen Taylor Anderton.  They are the parents of three children, two of whom are yet living.  Edith died in 1992.

Richard was the last child.  He was born in 1919, and married Gladys Holbrook, daughter of Loren and Etta Stanard Holbrook.  They had four daughters, two of who are living.  

Finally, there was a stillborn child in 1922.  As far as is known, he was not given a name.  

This is little enough information about my grandfather, who from all accounts was a good man, a loving husband, and a credit to his community.  I'd love to hear more about him.

 

Allen line: Edward F Allen obituary index: What does it mean?

I located an index for the obituary for Edward F. Allen on Family Search.  I was supposed to be able to view the actual image but the link isn't working, which is a huge disappointment.  However, the index alone makes me ponder some unanswerable questions.

First, a little background:  The family story has always been that my grandfather was more or less kicked out of his home at the age of 13, (1881 or so) because his new step mother had several young children and there was no room for him in their home.  Presumably, young Ed was left to fend for himself, end of story.  Except, bit by bit, I'm finding information that makes me doubt that story.

For instance, it seems that he was with his brother, George R., in Montana for some period of time in the 1890's, before he became a school teacher in Soda Springs, Idaho  He emulated the man in that both became attorneys, and surely big brother had a bit of influence on him.  Secondly, his father's will in 1915 indicates that Ed owed him $200.  If there had been no contact, why did son owe his father that sum of money?

Now, I find the obituary index.  I don't know who provided the information for the obituary, but I suspect that Ed's oldest son Vernon may have written it, simply because he was the newspaperman of the family.  Still, whoever wrote it mentioned Ed's parents, George R. Allen and Nancy McCoy Allen, his widow and four surviving children, and Andrew Allen, brother, Mrs. Fanny Sweeney, sister, and Frank Nance, brother.  Maybe the obituary itself differentiates and lists Mrs. Fanny Sweeney as a half sister and Frank Nance as a step-brother, but maybe the family didn't consider them to be any differently than brother and sister. This sort of destroys the myth that there was no contact after Ed left home.  We just don't know the story.

So, I got curious.  I wanted to know more about Frank Nance, who was one of the children of Peter and Sarah Powell Nance.  He was born in 1876, the same year that his father died, and he must have been a person of drive and ambition.  I found his World War I draft card, when he was in Chelan, Washington, married to Mabel.  He had been there since at least 1909, when he was granted a degree by the state board of education.  His census information indicates that he had finished four years of college, but I'm not sure when or where that occurred.  At any rate, he was in Washington State for a period of at least 7 years.  By 1920, he and Mabel and his mother, Sarah F. Allen, were living in West Palm Beach, Florida.  (Sarah died there in 1923).  Frank was a real estate agent. 

I have so far not been able to determine whether he became wealthy or even well to do there, but a real estate agent and developer in West Palm Beach in those early years would probably not have starved.  It doesn't appear that he and Mabel had children; at least I haven't located a census showing children.  It's possible that children were born and died between the census years, of course.  Frank lived a very long life, dying in 1973 shortly before his 97th birthday.  His wife Mabel had died in 1966. 

With a brief outline of Frank's life, I next turned to Ed's half-sister, "Mrs. Fanny Sweeney."  Her name was Francis, but she was known in the family as Fannie.  She was born in 1883, and married Herbert E Petty in Jamison, Daviess County, Missouri, on September 4,1901.  I haven't yet found either divorce records or death records for Herbert, but Fanny married Willaim A. Sweany on May 5,1907 in Pattonsburg, Daviess County, Missouri, and lived until 1970.  Fanny and William had at least five children, and if the oldest daughter was theirs, that would make six.  Fanny outlived William by 20 years, dying in 1970, having apparently spent her entire live in Daviess County.

Andrew Allen, apparently the only one of Ed's full siblings to outlive him, is proving harder to trace down.  I haven't located anyone in the 1900 census in either Indiana or Missouri that seems a likely match, or for that matter, in the later censuses, either.  I'm still working on him.

So these are the new questions (lots!) and new answers (a few) just from looking at the index to my grandfather's obituary.  It was printed in the Salt Lake City Telegram 5 on July 11,1940.  I sure hope that link gets fixed so I can someday see the actual obituary.  Who knows what else it would tell me, or hint at?   

Also, I am extremely curious to know if my father knew of these relatives.  We don't recall their names every being mentioned in our home growing up, but that may or may not mean anything.  That is one question that will likely not be answered here on earth.  But here are their names, they were part of my grandfather's family, and it is worthwhile to know a little of their history.  

The line of descent is:

Edward F Allen-Edith Knott
Richard Allen-Gladys Holbrook
Their descendants

Allen and Holbrook lines: Family themes

Now that I've been "doing" family history for awhile, I'm seeing some themes that run from generation to generation.  Recently I read someone's blogpost that suggested it would be good to note these down, more or less as guideposts, so that this current generation, and the generations following, would have at least a general idea of who we are besides names and dates.

The two strong themes that I see running through our families, for generations back, are God and education.  We have sub themes, like serving our country, and of course love seems to wrap around everything, but I keep coming back to God and education.  Of course, to a certain extent God and education go hand in hand, although it is quite possible to have either without the other.  Still, most pastors were educated, and they made sure their families were educated, too, if only to read the Bible and religious books. 

I've written about some of the pastors in our family but there are more who may or may not be the topic of a blog post at some point.  From Richard Allen to Roger Williams to William Eddy, we are descended from a long line of pastors who have taught us about the love of Jesus, each in their own way.  The last time I counted, there were at least 24 pastors in the Holbrook and Allen lines. If one continues back into distant England, some of our ancestors were bishops and archbishops, but I'm not sure we want to claim some of those people!

Besides pastors, we have ancestors who were church leaders, from Elder William Brewster to elder Edward Allen.  We have Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Quakers, Puritans, Church of England, and a few Lutherans (there is a German line, after all), and many of our ancestors helped establish their local church, of whatever denomination.  We may even had had a Roman Catholic or two in early Maryland, but I'm still working on that.  My hope and prayer is that all of these people served the Lord with all their hearts.

Education is also a common theme in our family.  Ralph Wheelock was one of the first schoolteachers in New England, and in the recent past we have seen great grandparents and grandparents who taught school.  Those who didn't teach went to school and learned. We have very few known ancestors who couldn't read or write.  Many of those in more recent generations have gone to college, and some have multiple degrees.  Those who chose not to go to college have acquired an education in their own way, such as through their jobs, reading, or watching on line courses intensively. 

I personally find it fascinating that the very book that means the most to me, the Bible, is the same one that our ancestors have been reading for over 400 years (more, in some cases) and if I read a King James version, it's the very same words.  On top of all the other reasons for reading the Bible, this is an intriguing one. What did Roger Williams think, when he read the same words I'm reading?  Did Nicholas Street preach on this passage? 

God, and education, are the reasons we can find a connection to our ancestors, even though we may understand nothing of the rest of their lives.  Will our descendents also find that God and education have continued as themes, generations from now?