Wives and Children of Nathaniel Allen (1780-1832) Part II – Son Orin Nathaniel Allen (1812-1875)

Re: Newly discovered descendants of Orin Nathaniel Allen through autosomal DNA.

Orin Nathaniel Allen was born 20 Apr 1812, Ontario County, New York, died 26 Jun 1875, Danville (independent City), Virginia. His grave marker in Green Hill Cemetery, Danville, placed by his widow is very descriptive. The given name was most often spelled as Orrin in older records but it is Orin on his grave marker. It is possible it lists the wrong mother – see Part I. Research reveals his mother was most likely Almyra Akin, rather than Elizabeth as indicated on the grave marker.

Orin apparently had a first marriage (unrecorded as so many seem to be in New York State but likely about 1842) to Catherine, said to be Catherine Connolly or Conley, born about 1823 in Ireland. I have found no proof of her surname. On 21 July 1845, Orin married Susan Ann Freeman in Culpeper County, Virginia.

It is important to understand more about Catherine. There was a child, Orin Allen, born 7 October 1843; birth place passed down as Rochester, Monroe County, New York (adjacent Ontario County) – he will later use his stepfather’s surname as a middle name – Orin Finley Allen. Some have claimed perhaps Orin was born outside of marriage, but Catherine married, as Catherine Allen, to Michael Finley, 6 September 1850, in Boone County, Illinois where her supposed sister was living. The sister Deborah, born 1815 in Ireland, was married to a much older man – John Fitzmorris, age 52, also born in Ireland. In their household in Boone County in 1850 was a son John, age 14, born in Ireland – quite possibly a son by an earlier marriage; Jeremiah, 7, Daniel and Mary E., twins age 4, and Hannah age 1 – all born in Illinois. Michael Finley was living in a hotel in Belvedere, Boone County, in 1850. I have not found any census listing for Catherine and young Orin in 1850.

Questions arise. How did Orin Nathaniel Allen and Catherine meet and where? He was born, Allen’s Hill/Richmond, Ontario County, New York. No other actual records have surfaced until his marriage in Virginia in 1845. When had she come from Ireland? Her sister was present by 1843 since son Jeremiah was born in Illinois that year. Why is one sister in Illinois, the other apparently in New York? Who were their parents? Being Irish, it is highly likely Catherine was Catholic making divorce difficult – was she actually ever married to Orrin Nathaniel Allen and was he really the father of her son? It does make sense that Catherine, possibly newly divorced with a young son, would join her sister in Illinois, and marry again, there.

In 1850, Orin Nathaniel Allen and Susan were living in Danville, an Independent City, in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, where they remained for the rest of their lives and are buried there in Green Hill Cemetery and have quite impressive monuments. He was listed as a Dentist – as he is on his grave marker – and he was age 36. Susan was there, age 26, and their daughter Rose, age 4, who will be their only child. A Margaret Freeman, age 18 was in the household – no doubt Susan’s younger sister. Also an assortment of what appears to be boarders with no occupations: Mary Rawlins, age 50 with Caroline and Virginia Rawlins, both 17; Thomas H. Grasly, age 27; Letitia Fitzpatrick, 14 and Ann L. Fitzpatrick, 11.

In 1860, Orin and Susan, and young Rose were in Pittsylvania Co with a young dentist boarding in their household.

In 1860, we find Catherine in Rockford, Winnebago County, Illinois. Michael Finley (unfortunately indexed as “Tinley”) was age 32, Catherine, 36. In the household was Orrin, with the same surname as his stepfather (which isn’t unusual – he will adopt Finley as a middle name but always use the surname Allen), age 16, born in New York, Daniel, 7, born in Illinois as were the rest of the children, Catherine, 4, Mary E., 3, Hannah, one month old, and Hannah Fitzmorris, age 11 (Catherine’s niece that was age 1 in 1850). Catherine and Michael Finley are found in the 1870 and 1880 censuses, in Rockford – no death records found but they are not in the 1900 census.

Of course, the 1850 census and Virginia marriage, gives no hint that Orrin Nathaniel had another wife and child. None of Catherine’s records lend themselves to the identification of the father of her son Orin Allen. However, it is true that descendants of Orin Finley Allen have family letters referring to his half-brother, Daniel Finley, reinforcing Catherine as his mother.

Orin Finley Allen enlisted in the Union Army, Civil War, from Rockford, Illinois on 7 August 1862 – Company K, the 89th Infantry. He was mustered out at Nashville, Tennessee on 10 June 1865. Index cards of Pensions show that he filed for his invalid pension on 15 September 1892 from Iowa. Wife Mary O. later filed as his widow.

He married Mary Ophelia Hendrix, 14 May 1871, Belle Plaine, Benton County, Iowa – he was living there in a hotel in 1870. He had served in a railroad unit in the War and all census records note his occupations as an engineer. The Allens continued to live out their lives in Belle Plaine, the untimely death of Orin occurred in a train accident, 26 September 1899. There were four sons – Alonzo Franklin, b. 1872, William Hendry, b. 1874, Orrin Thomas, b. 1881, Thomas James, b. 1884 – and a daughter, that was born and died 24 April 1899. 1899 was a sad year for his wife Mary – losing the baby and her husband.

Descendants of Orin Finley’s sons have puzzled over their lineage but autosomal DNA has proved that indeed Orrin Nathaniel Allen was surely the father of Orin Finley Allen. Multiple DNA matches have occurred to paper-proved descendants of Nathaniel Allen (1780-1832) through his daughter Almira (Allen) Rose, as well as going back a previous generation to descendants of siblings of that Nathaniel. My only living maternal uncle, a direct descendant of Peter Buell Allen, brother of Nathaniel, has a DNA match to one of Orrin Finley Allen’s grandsons (both gentlemen are in their 90’s in this year 2021) – their common ancestors would have to be the parents of Nathaniel (1780-1832) – Moses Allen and Chloe Ward, as there is no other possible ancestor match. They are 4th cousins.

Wives and Children of Nathaniel Allen (1780-1832) Part I.

Wives and Children of Nathaniel Allen (1780-1832) Part I

Nathaniel Allen, born about 1780 in Dutchess County, New York, died 22 December 1832 in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky (he was there on business and died in a hotel). He lived the major part of his adult life in Allen’s Hill (later Richmond), Ontario County, New York. His parents were Moses Allen and Chloe Ward. Well documented on my webpage, Leaves of the Tree, where you can find much, much more about the Allen family. But Nathaniel's wife, or wives, is a bit of a mystery as are the names of all his children – some of whom probably died young and will never be identified.

The Andrew Warde book about Chloe Ward’s family lists Nathaniel with a wife Almyra Akin (married in Dutchess County – and Akins are found there living near the Allens) and only two children: Orrin, living in Virginia (states he was an M.D., but he was instead a dentist) and Almira who married Robert L. Rose and lived in Allens Hill, Ontario County, New York. Early censuses in Ontario County, New York, indicate several more children for Nathaniel if all the young persons marked were actually his children – maybe as many as 4 sons, 3 daughters in 1810 – and with an apparent spouse of his same age. By 1820 there is evidently a household composed of two sets of parents (two males 26-45 and two females 26-45) – so impossible to sort children. By 1820, Nathaniel and BETSEY, his wife, sell property jointly. In the years from 1814 to 1818, Nathaniel sold property and no wife was involved, suggesting that Almyra had died, and he had remarried. It is believed that Betsy, or Elizabeth, was the daughter of a David Akin living in Allen’s Hill – David also having a son named Orra or Orrin, a name that will begin now to appear in the Allen family. David Akin had also lived in Dutchess County, New York at an earlier time. Akin family research does indeed suggest David Akin’s daughter Elizabeth, married Nathaniel Allen. But David seems to have had no daughter Almyra – perhaps she was a niece. The reasonable assumption would be that Nathaniel Allen was married to two ladies with the surname Akin, Almyra dying between 1810 and 1814 – and between 1818 and 1820, he had married Elizabeth “Betsy” Akin. No marriage records have been found.

Now - the proved children.
1. Almira was likely the firstborn. Her grave, Allen’s Hill Cemetery in Richmond, New York has her birth as 8 October 1803, death, 27 January 1849. The Geneva Gazette of 8 September 1824 listed her marriage to Robert L. Rose on 1 September 1824 and stated she was the daughter of Nathaniel Allen of Richmond.
2. Found in 10,000 Vital Records of Western New York, 1809-1850, p. 5, Item 100: “Allen, Almiron W., 23, son of Nathaniel, Esquire, died 1/12/29 in Richmond. From the Geneva Gazette. So Almiron was born in 1806. Never married and left no heirs as evidenced later. Not much question that the mother of Almira and Almiron was Almyra Akin.
3. Nathaniel O. Allen, buried Allen’s Hill Cemetery, Richmond. Died 4 May 1839, age 29 years. So Nathaniel was born in 1810. It is likely the "O" stood for Orrin - a name that doesn't appear in the Allen family until this generation - was it for Orrin Akin, an uncle? Nathaniel O. never married. N. O. Allen wrote his Will, 7 April 1839 although it wasn’t presented for probate until 15 October 1849, ten years after his death. The will left a gold watch to a nephew and namesake, Nathaniel Allen Rose and named his sister Almira, a brother Orrin N. Allen, and a brother Augustus Porter Allen – suggesting only three living siblings by 1839. His brother-in-law Robert L. Rose and brother Augustus P. Allen to be Executors. Robert L. Rose of Richmond presented the will, 15 October 1849, stating that Augustus P. Allen was deceased and that Orrin L. Allen of Culpeper County, Virginia, was the only heir at law. That says that by October of 1849, there were no other living siblings as named in the will.
4. Augustus Porter Allen, born 20 April 1812 (said to be twin of Orrin Nathaniel Allen – although I have found no proof of his birth date), died 1 September 1841. He served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army during the Indian Wars and his service and death date is listed in a volume of the Congressional Serial Set. No evidence he ever married.
5. Orrin Nathaniel Allen, born 20 April 1812, died 26 June 1875 in Danville (Independent City), Virginia. He is buried Green Hill Cemetery, Danville. Orrin’s Virginia death record states his father was Nathan Allen, his mother Elizabeth. But this would disagree with the fact no wife was named in Nathaniel’s deeds between 1814-and 1818. And it is true that death records are not created by the person who had died – perhaps Elizabeth was a stepmother. Orrin had married in Virginia – his wife and children there would never have known his parents. It is a bit odd that there was a son Nathaniel Orrin and a son Orrin Nathaniel - but that does seem to be the case. Part II of this Blog will be about Orrin.
6. Peter Allen. "Peter Allen, youngest son of Nathaniel, Esq. died in Richmond. Geneva Gazette, 24 May 1826." And from Allen’s Hill Cemetery records: “Elizabeth Allen, wife of Nathaniel, born 20 Jun 1782; died 9 Jun 1826. In the same grave is her infant son, Peter, b. 8 Apr 1826, died 9 May 1826.” This son, born some years after the others. It would seem probable other children were born but no records exist, and it’s doubtful any survived to become adults because of a lawsuit regarding their father, Nathaniel Allen.

Now that known records of the above children are cited, I will explain why I believe there were no others that lived to create records.

Nathaniel Allen’s brother, Peter Buell Allen, had left Ontario County for Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana about 1816 – in fact Peter Allen and wife Polly had sold their properties to Nathaniel before leaving New York. On 13 August 1827, Nathaniel took out a patent for about 70 acres in Vigo County – perhaps he was considering joining his brother. Ownership of this tract would be the subject of a lawsuit in the Probate Court of Vigo County beginning in January of 1847. At that time Orson Barbour was appointed to administrate the estate of Nathaniel and sell the above tract. Now Nathaniel Allen had left no will since he died unexpectedly (intestate) so any estate proceedings must necessarily name all heirs – he was also involved in a lawsuit and had heavy debts at the time of his death. Barbour came up with a list of four children – Almira and husband Robert L. Rose, Nathaniel O. Allen, Orrin N. Allen, and Nathaniel P. Allen, all of Indiana. The last named should have been Augustus P. Allen but either Barbour mis-spoke or the clerk wrote down the wrong name – and none of them were in Indiana. Myron H. Allen (son of Peter Buell Allen, resident of Terre Haute, and nephew of Nathaniel) claimed there was a deed – Robert and Almira Rose, Nathaniel O. Allen and Orrin N. Allen (Augustus already deceased) had made the deed of conveyance to him on 4 Oct 1838. And Nathaniel O. Allen had died the following year. Orrin N. Allen had then signed over all his rights to Robert and Almira Rose in 1845. The judge dismissed the family claims, decreeing the lands were subject to the debts of the deceased (about $8,500. The tract was sold for $1,118.00 at public action before the court house door on 20 Nov 1847.

So, to sum up the children. By the time of this lawsuit in 1847 – only Almira (Allen) Rose and Orrin N. Allen were living. The deaths of Nathaniel O. and Augustus prior to that date are stated in the court proceedings. Almiron and the infant Peter had died many years previously. None of these last four had married. Had there been other children, or grandchildren that were children of deceased children of Nathaniel at that time living, they would have been required by law to be named as heirs of Nathaniel. Any probate judge would have ordered the Administrator to make every effort to locate every heir of the deceased.

Both Almira and Orrin did indeed have descendants. Almira and her husband, Robert L. Rose, had seven sons. Orrin Nathaniel Allen and his progeny will be the subject of Part II.