CONRAD S. ALLEN
Annie Anderson and Conrad Allen wedding photo
Conrad Sophus Allen
1874-1951
Conrad's mother was Eliza Dorothea Henriche Davids, a Mormon convert from Denmark. Eliza came to the Utah home of her older half-sister Caroline, who had migrated earlier, and was married to Samuel Jackson Allen. Caroline was not strong and Eliza was to help her with the children and housework.
Eliza left Caroline and Sam's home and married a Swedish Mormon convert named Oge [also written on some records as Oke or Ake] Nielsen [Nelson]. The marriage of Oke Nielsen and Eliza Davis [Davids] was in Salt Lake City on the 1st of September 1873.
They raised a family of six sons and two daughters. Conrad was the oldest, born the 28th of March 1874 in Sandy, Salt Lake County, Utah.
Conrad Nielsen was married in 1873 to Annie Emelia Anderson, who was born in Norway. Annie and Conrad’s first three children died at birth but then they had Florence Vivien, Carlos William and Narvel Leslie.
Around 1906 after Oge had died [d. 1904], Eliza heard that Sam Allen was not well. Caroline had died in 1900. Eliza told Conrad that he was not the son of Oge Nielsen, as was believed, but was the son of Samuel Jackson Allen.
Conrad took his wife & children to Lewiston Utah to see his real father. The only record found of Conrad meeting his new family was written by Ada Glover Allen, Conrad’s sister-in-law, in 1965 as she remembered it:
St. Anthony Idaho, Aug. 2, 1965
I, Ada Allen in my 85th year, just returned from the Allen reunion. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has requested that we get our genealogy into the Archives, and many of the young people at the reunion asked about Uncle Conrad Allen’s family group sheet
I had been married to John Julius Allen for six years and was living in Lewiston, Utah. We were neighbors with Julius’s father and his brother Arthur and his family.
It was in the early spring when a knock came on Arthur’s door and when the door was opened by Arthur, a young man introduced himself as Conrad Allen, his half-brother. Although this was a shock to Arthur, he had to believe it to be the truth, for this young man looked more like his father, Samuel Jackson Allen, than any of his other six boys.
After inviting Conrad, his wife Annie Anderson Allen and their three children…Florence, Carlos and Narvel into their home, Arthur walked thru the field to his father’s home. He went up to his father and asked, “Father, do we have a brother that we do not know about?” Grandpa Allen answered, “There is a possibility.” He then asked Arthur why and Arthur told him about Uncle Conrad.
Because of the respect the family had for their Father, no more questions were asked and Uncle Conrad was given a warm welcome by the six boys, George, Arthur, Lewis, Francis, Julius and Jim and their only sister, Carrie.
Conrad went back for his furnishings at Sandy, Utah and visited his Mother, Eliza Dorthea Henreche Davids. She was a sister to Grandma Allen. Grandma’s name was Caroline Amelia Davids. Conrad returned to Lewiston and although his profession was a Smelter Worker, he began working with his brothers as a farmer.
Julius and I with our four children, Ceathel, Delva, Flossie and Alda, came to Idaho in 1907 and was here for two years. We then returned to Lewiston for two years and once again returned to Idaho. Uncle Conrad and his family moved to Idaho also. Our two families went to Dubois, Clark County, Idaho and took up homesteads of 180 acres each. Arthur and Lewis homesteaded in Idaho too. That was in 1912 that we all went to Dubois. While there, Uncle Conrad, like the rest of us, had good times along with the bad. It was about January 1915 that they lost a baby boy.
From that time on, Aunt Annie developed Dropsy and she passed away in the fall of 1917 or about that time. She was buried in Dubois, Idaho by her baby.
Uncle Con then moved his family into Parker, Idaho and put the children in school. He went to work in the hay at Kilgore, Idaho.
Conrad done a marvelous job of being both father and mother to his lovely family of four boys, Carlos, Narvel, Clide and George, and his three daughters, Florence, Grace and Nettie. He and his family spent the latter part of his years around Bliss, near his brothers George and Jim. He passed away in Gooding Idaho the 25th of September 1951.
I truly loved all of the Allen family as my own brothers and sisters.
Ada Glover Allen
Below is an Allen family family group sheet with Conrad and his Allen half-siblings. At the top is Samuel and his wife Caroline Davids Allen. Conrad's mother, Eliza Davids, is not pictured on the sheet.
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