Allen Family Records of Joy May Allen Thomason

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ALLEN FAMILY RECORDS OF JOY MAY ALLEN THOMASON

Granddaughter of Conrad S. Allen and Annie Emelia Anderson Allen.

Daughter of Narvel Leslie Allen and Margie Thorp Allen, written 1995

    Joy with her husband Tommy, 6 May 2006

 

Samuel Allen and Nancy Easter [or Hester]    

This is a brief history of the whereabouts of the Allen family, beginning with my Great, Great, Great Grandfather whose name was Samuel Allen. Little is known about his ancestry except that his parents came from Ireland, there is nothing on his father, but Samuel was born Dec. 30, 1756, to a Miss Warren who was 39 years old at the time. He was an only child. From the records of one of his grandsons, he was born under the Blue Ridge, the side of which is blue in the evening light. He was born in a wild land of game, forests and rushing waters. Here, on the fork of a creek that runs into a foaming river is a cabin that was chinked with red mud. He came into the world a subject of King George the third in that part of the realm known as the Province of North Carolina and was of English and Irish descent.

     He served 15 months in the Revolutionary War, being in two battles. He re-enlisted the year Cornwallis surrendered to General George Washington, but his mother was taken very sick and he had to hire a substitute, to serve in his stead.

     He was married in Orange County, North Carolina on August 27, 1782 at the age of 26 to Nancy Easter [marriage index  has "Hester"], her ancestry unknown. He date of birth is unknown but she was born in Chester County, South Carolina. 

     In1803 Samuel Allen went with his family into the valley of Kentucky (nine miles out of what is now Somerset) in a covered wagon pulled by two double yoke of oxen. He came across a little valley encircled by hills with only one entrance. He he decided to settle. As he took his family and wagon down into this valley, around the winding edge of the hill, he had to cut two large trees and fasten them to the back of the wagon and drag them after it to keep it from rolling down the3 hill on the hoofs of his oxen. The valley is very beautiful. The bottom of the valley is very fertile. Fishing Creek runs to the north of the land. The hills contain much slate rock. They are covered with foliage. To the South on the side of the hill he cleared the timber and this land has been in constant cultivation for the past one hundred and thirty years. (*This was written in 1934 by Maud Allen who was actually there.)

     After clearing one acre of land, Samuel built a **home for his family, one of the finest of its kind in the period it was built. It was 1 and 1/2 stories and made of logs. In the top part were two rooms and a fire place. There was a fireplace down stairs and the ground floor was divided into two rooms. The home faces South and is located a short distance from the creek. It stands today (1934) with its narrow staircase and partly decayed wooden floor, a relic of a forgotten past and a sturdy generation who thrived in this little nook of lovely blue grass country.

     Samuel raised thoroughbred horses and prize cattle on his 400 acre Plantation. He and Nancy had five children, 4 boys and one girl, all of whom were born before they moved to the valley, where he lived for 18 years before dying at the age of 85, on 11th of Dec., 1841. Both Samuel and Nancy, who died 13 Feb., 1829, a grandson, Gilmer Allen and 3 of Samuel's slaves were buried on the banks of Fishing Creek ten rods west of his home.

These are the words of Maude Allen on her visit to Samuel's home in 1933. "It was a thrill for me to climb the old rickety stair, caress reverently the old spinning-wheel in the corner, and walk so silently over to the worn threshold with memories of a long forgotten past. After placing fragrant blooms beside the headstones of the six graves, I strolled back, to stand beneath the huge dinner bell that still hung, unharmed through many long years, from a tall old rustic pole. Reaching for the old hemp rope, I pulled ever so gently, and the sudden clear ring of its melodic tones echoed fat across the valley to the hills beyond." In 1966 Maud made a notation, "Since writing the above, the valley Samuel settled and where he lived for 38 years, (it was sold after his death) is no more. The valley was sold to the County of Pulaski who had tried for years to buy it. They thought it would be an ideal spot for a conservation of water, being located so near the Cumberland Gap and the vast Fishing Creek. The Government moved the graves and today a lake covers the plantation."

I am very grateful to Maude Allen for all the research and traveling she did to obtain all this information that she has passed on to me and others interested in the Allen family. If it were not for her we would not have a description of what the plantation was like. It would have been lost to us completely.

Continues on next page, Samuel and Nancy's son Rial Allen>

 

*  "Allen, Seven Generations of Allens", author: Maud Bliss Allen
* * See page from Maud Bliss Allen's book, photos of the home that Samuel built.

[Also see Samuel Allen's history page in Leslie Mikesell Wood's Allen family gedcom.]