Robert Scott Allen, 1797-1864

My great great grandfather, Robert Scott Allen, is the genealogical end of the trail in tracing back the Allen family. He was born in Virginia, and it appears that he died in Illinois during the Civil War. His life is a perfect picture of the pioneer spirit in America.

According to several sources, Robert Allen's father was John Allen, or possibly John Watson Allen, and his mother was Rebekkah "Becky" Scott, both from Virginia. In this reconstruction of his life, I hope to clarify my thinking and develop better questions for further research.

To find out what I learned about Robert Allen's father John Allen, please CLICK HERE.

Augustus D. Allen, son of Robert S. Allen and father of my grandmother, Teresa Allen
Augustus was born in Illinois in 1859, the youngest of nine children. His parents were Robert S. Allen of Virginia and Elizabeth Heylands of Ohio. Robert and Elizabeth Allen lived in Kentucky for many years before moving to Hancock, Illinois where Augustus was born. Summary of evidence of parentage:

• 1860 U. S. Census, Hancock, Illinois - parents Robert S., b. Va, and Elizabeth Allen, b. Ohio.
• 1870 U. S. Census, Hancock, Illinois - mother, Elizabeth Allen, 54, b. Ohio living with John W. Allen
• 1883 Illinois Marriage License - parents, Robert S. Allen (deceased) and Elis [sic] House.
• 1900 U. S. Census, Wichita, Kansas - parents both born in Kentucky* 
• 1910 U. S. Census, Wichita, Kansas - parents both born in Kentucky* 
• 1910 History of Wichita and Sedgwick County, Kansas - born in 1865 in Hancock, Illinois; "parents died when he was small."**

*The misinformation about Kentucky is understandable. Robert and Elizabeth were married in Kentucky and had their first seven children there. Augustus may not have known their actual birthplace. Ironically, his brother Harrison tells the census taker that both parents were born in Virginia.
** Augustus married a younger woman after he divorced my great grandmother Eva - possibly lied about his age? It is not true that both of his parents died - there is evidence that his mother Elizabeth was alive until 1895, but no indication that he ever saw her again after he moved to Wichita. 

Robert Scott Allen
Robert Scott Allen was born in 1797 in Lunenburg, County, Virginia. He moved to Kentucky, along with many others from Southside Virginia. He married Elizabeth Heylands (Highlands, Hilen) in 1834. Elizabeth was from Hamilton County, Ohio which is just across the river from Robert's home in Covington, Kentucky. Timeline and summary of sources:

• 1797 - Thomas/Steinhauser & Associated Family Genealogy (unverified source***) - Robert Scott Allen, born May 28, 1797 in Lunenburg, County, Virginia. Father: John Watson Allen; mother: Rebecca Scott, born November 25, 1795.
• 1797 - Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume 2 - Robert Scott Allen, born May 28, 1797. His father was John Watson Allen
• 1797 - Findagrave.com - Robert S. Allen, father of Harrison Perry Allen - born May 28, 1797 in Lunenburg County, Va. 
• 1812 - Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume 2 - Robert Scott Allen served in the war as a young boy (again, family lore).
• 1833 - Thomas/Steinhauser & Associated Family Genealogy (unverified source***) - Robert Scott Allen married Elizabeth Hilen, born 1815 (?) in PA (?) on Aug. 2, 1833 (?).    
• 1834 Hamilton County Marriage Records - Robert S. Allen and Elizabeth Heylands were married in Hamilton, Ohio by a Justice of the Peace on August 2, 1834 (ages not given, but Robert should have been about 37 and Elizabeth, about 26 - 29 years old).  
• 1850 U. S. Census, Kenton, Covington Ward, Kentucky - Robert S. Allen, 54, carpenter, born in Virginia; Elizabeth, 37, born in Ohio, Mardissa, 15, John/James (twins), 13, Sarah, 10, Rebecca, 8, Jacob (6).
• 1855 Illinois State Census, 1825-1865 Walker, Hancock County, Illinois - Robert S. Allen; one male under age ten (Augustus), three males under age 20 (John, James, Jacob), one male age 60-70 (Robert); two females age 10-20 (Sarah, Rebecca) , one female age 20-40 (Mardicia). Total in household=8; 2 in the militia. (Where was Elizabeth? She should have been about 42.)
• 1860 U. S. Census, Walker Township, Hancock County, Illinois - Robert S. Allen, 64, farmer, born in Virginia; Elizabeth, 45 (She should be 47. Is this a different Elizabeth?), born in Ohio, James/John, 23, born in KY, Sarah, 20, born in KY, Jacob, 16, born in KY, Harrison P., 8, born in Illinois, Augustus, 1, born in Illinois.
• 1864 Thomas/Steinhauser & Associated Family Genealogy (unverified source***) - Robert Scott Allen, died October 16, 1864 at Tioga, Hancock County, Illinois. Burial at Buckeye Schoolhouse, Tioga, Hancock County, Illinois.
• 1864 - Findagrave.com - died October 16 in Tioga, Hancock County, Illinois.
• 1864 - Illinois Infantry Roster - Robert Allen, enlisted in Springfield, d. 13 Sep 1864 in Memphis. (death date does not match other records which gives death date as 16 Oct 1864 - not positive this is our Robert S. Allen).
• 1864 U. S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 - Nov. 17, 1864 - Elizabeth J. (?) Allen, widow, Robert S. Allen, P.114, Illinois Infantry.
• 1865 Illinois, State Census Collection, 1825-1865 - Elisabeth Allen - one person under 10 (Augustus); one person between 10 and 20 (Harrison); two between 20 and 30 (Jacob, Rebecca); one between 40 and 50 (Elizabeth).  (Robert presumed deceased)
• 1870 U. S. Census, Hancock County, Illinois - Elizabeth, age 54 (should be 57?), born in Ohio, living with John W. and younger brothers.
• 1895 - Findagrave.com - Elizabeth A. Highland Allen, mother of Harrison Perry Allen - born 1815 in Ohio, died 1895 in Illinois. (Confirmation of this birthdate would have made her 29 years old at her marriage date).
• 1918 - Missouri Death Certificate, Harrison Perry Crawford Allen (brother of Augustus) - parents: Robert S. Allen and Elizabeth Hilen.

***Thomas/Steinhauser & Associated Family Genealogy -  I attempted to contact the researcher Jim Thomas but got no response. His information is not to be considered reliable until I can learn of his sources.

Note: Walker Township had two villages:  Tioga and Breckenridge. Tioga was established in 1855 on the former Mormon site, Yelrome (Morley Town). 

CAUTION:
There is another man named "Robert S. Allen" in Montgomery County, Illinois, who also received a land grant for service in 1854 around the same time that our Allen family moved to Hancock County. This other Robert S. Allen left a will dated in the 1890's, proving that he is could not be our Robert Scott Allen (d. 1864). Here is the land grant information for this other Robert S. Allen:

• 1854 Illinois, Public Land Purchase Records, 1813-1909, v. 340, p. 151 - Robert S. Allen - Sep. 29, 1854 - 40 acres ($5.20 @ .13/acre), township 08N, range 04W, meridian 3  (Montgomery County). 

I cannot find any record of a land grant for Robert S. Allen in Hancock County. I have exhausted the online records and scoured every landowner map I could find from the 1850's. I found a David Allen who owned property in the northwestern part of Walker Township, but it is nowhere near Tioga where Robert S. Allen lived.

Rose Spitler, 1st cousin of my grandmother Teresa Allen

I have written several posts now about Rose and her mother Mardisha.  What I forgot to include is a picture.  When I discovered this photo yesterday, I got goosebumps! Rose could be my grandmother's twin. It absolutely confirms for me that I am on the right track with my Allen family research.

Here is a photo of Rose [Nash] Spitler Scofield:

This photo comes from www.floraandwill.com - Rose was mentioned in the diaries of Will & Flora Geiger.  These diaries are being transcribed and will eventually be published.

Compare to this photo of my grandmother, Teresa Allen:

Could they not be more alike!? They are first cousins. Same brow, same eyes, same mouth, same jaw....so sad that they never knew each other. They even shared a similar experience of being orphaned at a young age. These two photos were taken around the same time. Wouldn't they have loved each other if they had known...  

And...there is also a remarkable resemblance to my cousin Cindy:

No doubt about it - my grandmother is definitely the daughter of Augustus D. Allen from Hancock, Ill. 

Mardisha

Made some actual progress on the family tree yesterday!  I decided to focus on the story of Mardicia Allen (Mordicia, Mardecia, Mardisha, Murdista - just a few of the ways I've found her name spelled).  I wrote about her daughter Rose in a previous post this week.

Mardisha (which is the way she actually signed her name) was my 2nd great aunt, sister of Augustus D. Allen.  She was born in Kentucky in 1835, the second oldest of nine children of Robert Scott Allen and his wife Elizabeth.  The family moved to Illinois in the early 1850's, where she met and married John Nash.  Her two youngest brothers, Harrison and Augustus, were born in Illinois.

A while ago, I found a History of Hancock County that told of a Miss Rose Spitler whose birth parents were John and Mardisha Nash.  It said that Rose was orphaned at a young age; her findagrave.com bio states that John and Mardisha both died in 1858.

Yesterday, I found the probate record for John Nash.  He did indeed die in 1858, leaving Mardisha to be his executrix.  Though her name was spelled Mordecia in the document, her signature was "Mardisha." The record mentions that they had three children. With the information from this record, I was able to search and find Mardisha (spelled Murdista) in the 1860 U. S. Census for Hancock County, Ill., also listing her three children, thus proving that she did not die in 1858 as her daughter Rose's findagrave account states.

The 1880 U. S. Census for Hancock County shows Mardisha (M. Z. Nash) at age 45 living with her mother (Elizabeth Allen), grandmother (Sarah House), and brother, John Watson Allen - no mention of her children, though they would have been adults by this time. The Census document indicates that both Mardisha and her brother John were "ill." Some family trees on Ancestry give her date of death as November 1, 1892, but I have not yet found supporting documentation of this.  These family trees give her middle name as "Zerush," also an unverified fact.

So now I am wondering what sad story caused Mardisha to give up her children (at least her baby Rose).  Rose was still living with her mother at age 3; the other sisters (Frances and Ro...[undeciferable]... were 7 and 8. Could she no longer support a young child on her own? When did she move in with her mother and brother? I sense a heartbreaking situation here.

The larger question for me is:  why did Augustus Allen move so far away (to Kansas), while his mother and brothers and sisters remained in Hancock County, Ill., all their lives? Did they remain in contact somehow?  His mother, Elizabeth, died in 1896 - did he return to Illinois around that time? There was a newspaper story telling of a business trip to Iowa in 1903, but this was to western Iowa, not close to Illinois.

Ancestry DNA

For my birthday this year, I asked my mother for a subscription to newspapers.com and a DNA test.  Am I a nerd or what?!  I filled a test tube with my saliva this morning and prepared it for shipment.  I cannot wait to see what it reveals about our family.

The newspapers.com subscription proved its worth in the first day.  I found a dozen articles about my enigmatic great grandfather, Augustus Allen.  Those articles helped me to flesh out his life story.  The most heart wrenching discovery was this personal ad in the Wichita Daily Eagle the week of May 5, 1919:

TO ANYONE knowing anything of A. D. Allen, formerly a real estate dealer, would appreciate all information.  Teresa Allen, 125 Pine Bluff, Paris, Texas.  

Teresa died not knowing what ever became of either of her parents.  I am hoping the DNA test will finally find them.

Oh, by the way, I also applied to be on the Genealogy Roadshow!  I received a letter confirming that my application is being considered.  I sent them the story of Teresa Allen.

Douglas Avenue (click on link at bottom of this post for the most recent info)

I am delighted to have finally solved another baffling mystery about my maternal grandmother's parentage.  All her life, my mother has believed that her maternal grandfather was named "Augustus Douglas Allen," because that's what her mother told her it was. In months of research, however, I have never come across that exact name.  I did find many records for "Augustus Dozier Allen" and "Augustus D. Allen," but I could never be sure that I had found the man I was looking for.

Tonight, after reviewing the information on Mom's side of our family tree, I was showing her some of the documentation I had gathered on her family.  I pulled up a Wichita City Directory from 1911, and sure enough, there was "Augustus D. Allen."  It took a minute or two to realize what I was seeing underneath his name, but it slowly registered... his business address (A. D. Allen Real Estate and Loans) was...drum roll...

                         121 Douglas Avenue! *

My grandmother, that sad, abandoned little girl, had remembered only bits and pieces of information about her childhood in Wichita, and she put them together as best she could.  Now, it all makes sense.  

Augustus lived with his family in Wichita.
Eva was sent to a hospital for the insane at Old Fort Supply (near Woodward) in Oklahoma.
Ethelyn (Teresa) was sent to an orphanage Paris, Texas, then worked as a nurse in Oklahoma City.
Augustus continued to live in Wichita and married Emma in 1905.
Note the proximity of the locations though they are in three different states.

I do not take for granted that I can access all the information I need from my living room couch.  Up to very recently, people had to take long sabbaticals and travel all over the country, visiting libraries and courthouses to search through reams of documents for rare nuggets of information about their family's past.  In just a few days I have revealed things about my grandmother's life that she never knew, and could never know, in her entire lifetime.  I pulled up Google Maps, searched for "121 Douglas Avenue" and was virtually transported to the very spot that my great grandfather conducted his successful real estate business.  (It's now a vacant lot in the middle of the city).  Less than a week ago, I knew absolutely nothing about the man and now he is a tangible reality... to me, it's just amazing.

121 E. Douglas Avenue.  Now a vacant lot.

*postscript:  in the process of compiling a timeline of Augustus' life, it became obvious that A. D. Allen Real Estate was established much later than my grandmother would have remembered.  However, in investigating his early work in Wichita, I found that he had worked at the Kansas Bureau of Immigration, also on Douglas Avenue.  This is what my grandmother would have recalled from her year or so in Wichita with her mother and father. 

Update - January 2, 2015:  New information had brought up questions about the above story.  See the updated entry, "My orphan grandmother," for the newest information on Augustus D. Allen:  http://descenddance.blogspot.com/2013/12/un-common-ancestry.html

Teresa Marie Allen, part 1

When I first began dabbling in ancestry research a year and half ago, progress happened so fast it was mind-blowing.  On Ancestry.com, it took no time at all to follow some family lines all the way back to medieval times in Europe (Europe has much better historical and genealogical records).  I happily paid the annual fee to join Ancestry.com so I could continue the excitement.  Then it began to be tedious as each branch of the family reached the end and the facts were more and more difficult to find.  Still, random discoveries have kept the fire burning.

Since I do not subscribe the International version of Ancestry, our tree mostly begins with the original immigrants to America.  But overall, it is an impressive assemblage of ancestors!   There are some famous and admirable folks in our family lineage, such as Roger Williams (founder of Providence RI) and Joost Van Den Vondel (the Shakespeare of the Netherlands).  Governors, religious leaders, pioneers, colonists, soldiers of the Revolution... I can't even begin to wrap my mind around it all.

I have learned to be discriminating about sources.  Sloppy research can become a contagion on Ancestry.com as researchers build on inaccurate facts from other family trees.  For instance, when double-checking the facts, I couldn't actually prove a Mayflower connection with reliable sources though there was some anecdotal evidence; therefore, I reluctantly disconnected that link from the tree.  Working on the research only occasionally and for short periods of time, I have spent most of the time over the last few months looking over my sources, fleshing out facts, and adding media.

Start with the biggest question
Last night, I decided to pick a random ancestor to investigate.  My maternal grandmother's lineage has been the most confounding mystery in our family tree, so I chose to look again at my long lost great-grandmother Eva L. Allen, who was born in Illinois.  I had previously been unable to find anything about her after 1900.  I was mainly concerned with finding proof that my grandmother "Teresa" was the same person as "Ethelyn" who was documented as the only child of Augustus and Eva Allen.  I did a search for "Eva L. Allen" on findagrave.com, and was surprised when a 2010 entry took me to Oklahoma.  It turns out that around 1998, an inmate at a low level security prison in Oklahoma had cleared out an old, overgrown cemetery at nearby Old Fort Supply and uncovered hundreds of grave markers no larger than bricks.

Cemetery at Old Fort Supply
http://yireng.blogspot.com/2013/06/another-old-cemetery.html

This photo was taken after 1908 in the early days of the mental hospital. It shows the north line of barracks used as wards. Some of the trees on either side of the road are still there. The tree-lined road or path led from the Superintendent's home, the former Commanding Officer Quarters to the hospital administration offices.
(Fort Supply Historic Site Facebook page).

The graves were of patients who had died at the mental hospital at Fort Supply.  One of them was Eva L. Allen, 1867-1911.  A mental hospital...!  Sure enough, Eva L. Allen is listed on the 1910 census as a patient at the hospital.  My heart raced as I checked facts against each other to be sure it was the right person.  I already knew that, according to the 1920 census, my grandmother had lived in a boarding house in Oklahoma City which is not far from where her mother had died. There were just too many coincidences to dismiss the information.  Sadly, Teresa never knew what became of her mother.  Raised by nuns at a Catholic boarding school in Texas, she remembered a visit from her father, Augustus, but she never knew what happened to him either.  Teresa attended a nursing school in Paris, Texas - I tried to identify the school and came up with St. Joseph Hospital, which was run by nuns.  No proof... yet.  Mom and I conjecture that she changed her name while she was at this school, from Ethelyn to Teresa Marie (perhaps named for a favorite nun?) UPDATE:  see later post with more information about Teresa! 

Update, January 2, 2015:
Further research has brought up more questions about Augustus D. Allen.  I have created a timeline of confirmed events.

Year - Source - Subject - related persons:
1860 Census, Warsaw, Ill.  Augustus, age 1.  (Robert, b. Va.; Elizabeth, b. Ohio)
1870 Census, Hancock, Ill.  Augustus, age 11. (Elizabeth, widowed)
         Census, Littleton, Ill.  (Schuyler County) Eva L. Bosworth, age 3. (OM, Eliza)
1880 Census, Littleton, Ill.  Eva L. Bosworth, age 13. (MO, b. Ohio; Eliza, b. Kentucky)
1883 Marriage record, Littleton, Ill.  Augustus m. Eva on Nov. 25. (Robert, Elizabeth, Orlando, Eliza)
1890 .... (Census destroyed by fire).
1900 Census, Wichita, Kansas.  Augustus, real estate agent (Eva, Eliza, Ethelyn, b. abt 1893)
1904 City Directory, Wichita.  Eva L. Allen, widow of A.D.
1910 Census, Woodward, Oklahoma.  Eva, widow, age 43.
1920 Census, Oklahoma City.  Teresa, age 26.  (fellow boarder, Maude Marshall)
1930 Census, Waukegan, Ill.  Horace, Teresa, H.C. Jr.

This is where it gets tricky... there is documentation of "Augustus D. Allen" residing in Sedgwick, Kansas after Eva was supposedly widowed.  Like my ancestor, this Augustus was also born in Hancock, Ill. and moved to Wichita in 1900.  He was also a real estate agent.  In 1905, the year after Eva was listed as a widow, this Augustus married "Miss Emma Schindler" and became a well known business tycoon in the Wichita area, opening his own Realty Co. on Douglas Avenue in Wichita. (Coincidentally my grandmother grew up thinking her father's middle name was Douglas).  A brief biography by O.H. Bentley does not mention either Eva or Ethelyn/Teresa.  His year of birth is given as 1865, six years later than my ancestor. Also my ancestor was not known to have a love of horses, and he was not orphaned at a very young age (though his father died when he was a small boy; his mother died in the 1890s). This Augustus must have died sometime between 1911 and 1925* because Emma is listed as a widow in the Wichita directory in 1925.  To complicate matters further, there is an Augustus D. Allen listed in Dallas, Tx, in 1915, spouse Emma S.; occupation, grocer. (Dallas is close to where my grandmother was living in an orphanage).

In 1905, Sedgwick County had a population of about 45,000.  What are the chances that there were two Augustus D. Allens, both real estate agents, born in Hancock, Ill., and moving to Wichita the same year?  Did my ancestor die before 1904, or did he live to 1917?  Did he die, or did he abandon his family to start a new life?  If he lived, why the discrepancy in birth year?   Did Eva claim to be a widow rather than bear the shame of divorce?  Was Eva mentally ill, or was she a victim of circumstance?  And the biggest question of all.... Are Ethelyn and Teresa the same person, or am I completely on the wrong track with her parentage?

Augustus D. with Eva
and seven year old Ethelyn