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.
