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Elam Ethan Allen and Katherine Irene Aplington,
1898 wedding photo, courtesy of Rene Rodgers. |
Elam Ethan
Allen, my great-grandfather on my dad’s maternal line, led a very interesting
life. Several years ago my cousin, Rene Rodgers, passed an old family history
book to me. I don’t think I could write it any better so will instead share a
few pages of that old book.
“A Narrative of Events in the Lives
of the Descendants of William Allen”,
Issued November, 1957 by
Ethel E. Allen, Clan Historian
1286 Elm Street, N.W., Salem,
Oregon
Assisted by
Glen and Helen Allen
10 Overlake Court, Oakland,
California
First issue, August 1947
Excerpt, Pages 45-48
Page 45
ELAM ETHAN ALLEN, fourth and last
child of James Miller and Sarah E. (Butler) Allen
Born October 22,
1868; died July 7, 1951
Elam was born on the
Butler Donation Land Claim at Buena Vista, Oregon
Married Katherine
Irene (“Rena”) Aplington on December 21, 1898, at Asotin,
Asotin County,
Washington. Katherine’s sister, Retta, was second wife of
John Lucas Allen
Katherine was born
May 2, 1880, at Almena, Kansas; died January 7, 1951
Both Elam and
Katherine are buried in Forest Lawn, Seattle.
(5) Lois Lee Allen Born August 21,
1900
(5) Inez Rhea Allen Born March 24, 1902
(5) Elam Cecil Allen Born December 14, 1904
(5) Felma Estell
Allen Born September
21, 1906
(5) Edna Ernestine
Allen Born September
16, 1908
(5) Mabel Elizabeth
Allen Born February 2,
1910 Died July 1910
(5) Laura Beryl Allen Born July 26, 1911
(5) Isaac Lawson
Allen Born June 1,
1913
(5) Joyce Wilma Allen Born May 14, 1915
(5) Helen Lucille
Pauline Allen Born April 2, 1918
Elam’s father, James Miller Allen,
had crossed the plains by ox team. (See life of James Miller Allen, p. 19) In
1871 Elam moved with his family to Prineville. They built a log house and also
a flour mill, which latter is still standing. His father was school director
and Justice of the Peace and often took the place of parson by reading the
Scriptures on Sunday mornings. Tragedy came to the family in the death of Elam’s
mother soon after they moved to Prineville. When Elam was about eight years
old, his family moved to Fifteen-Mile Creek near The Dalles, where they had a
farm and mill. They moved later to Dufur then Boyd where they built and
operated flour mills.
One
of his duties as a boy was to drive to the hills for the winter’s wood. He was
accompanied by his older brothers and since there was an Indian uprising, the
trip was fraught with danger and adventure. Adventure was to be the key word of
his life and coupled with a marvelous memory for people, events, and places, he
was able all his life to keep everyone about him entertained with witty and interesting
accounts of episodes and events in his life.
At
sixteen, he hired out as a sheep shearer at six cents a head. He sheared twenty
the first day but was shearing sixty-five by the end of the season and also was
getting eight cents per head. In 1887 his father died, so following the next
harvest Elam went to Pendleton, Oregon, to live with his half-sister, Nancy
Crawford, where he went to work in a harness shop. On the side he broke horses
at $5.00 a head.
Page 46
In 1885, he went to Joseph Creek in
Asotin County, Washington. With his brother-in-law, Jim Bradley (Pauline Jane
Allen’s husband), he went into the cattle business. Joseph Creek was primitive
country and he soon felt there would be more opportunity if he sold to Bradley
and went into business for himself. Elam filed on land for himself and proved
up under one of the last remaining preemption claims in the State of
Washington. His claim was on the Snake River and he conceived the idea of
bringing calves in by boat. This proved to be a workable idea and he began to
prosper. In winter he carried mail from Anatone to Bly, Washington, on
horseback. Elam sold his claim to Mr. Greene and bought the Bolton place. At
about this time he was married to Katherine Irene Aplington, who had moved with
her widowed mother and brothers and sisters from Colorado. He met “Rena”
through her uncle, Nathan Aplington, whom Elam had saved from drowning in the
Snake River. He not only saved Nathan from drowning but from freezing to death
by making him and the two men with Nathan run all the way to the nearest Indian
camp of the Chief Joseph tribe, and got help from the Indians in getting them
warm and dry again. Nathan never forgot this and became one of Elam’s closest
friends.
Three
children were born to Elam and Rena while they lived on the Snake River ranch
and as they grew to school age the decision was made to move to a more
civilized part of the county. Consequently, they sold out and purchased a
harness shop in Anatone, where they built a home. There was plenty of business
in the shop. Elam’s brother, Isaac, came out from the East and went into the
business with him. The rude awakening came when it was discovered that
thousands of dollars were on the books, but people wouldn’t or couldn’t pay.
Elam made the discovery then that business involving credit was not for him. He
trusted everyone and could not turn down anyone with a hard-luck story. He sold
the harness shop and with Isaac moved to the Yakima Valley. For this move they
rigged up two covered wagons and drove twenty head of horses and some cattle,
which they owned. Other horses pulled the wagons containing the household
effects. They swam the livestock across the Columbia River and ferried the
wagons. Elam always made the camp bread at the evening stops. This he loved to
do by mixing it in the top of the sack of flour.
One
more child had been born to the family at Anatone. In 1908, the Elam Allen
family bought a ranch at Outlook in the Yakima Valley and lived there fourteen
years. Here the remaining six children and the first grandchild were born.
On
this ranch, hay, potatoes, and livestock were raised. Elam kept breeding stock
and doctored all the sick animals for miles around, as well as raising bumper
crops of potatoes. He owned good modern machinery and was in great demand for crop
harvesting. He employed Indians from the Yakima tribe at Wapato to harvest the
potato and sugarbeet crops. He was about the only man who could get along with
the Indians and get work out of them, so his crew was also in demand as long as
he was the boss. He spoke their language and understood them and they often
came to visit during other seasons of the year. The Indians always ate with the
family on these visits and often came to use Rena’s sewing machine.
Elam
was referred to as “Spud” Allen or “Potato King” and in 1922 was awarded the
Northern Pacific Railway’s potato medal. At the time of his award the family
lived at Benton City, but in 1928 moved to Selah, Washington, where Elam worked
as Supervisor on a hop ranch.
After
the children were all in school, Rena decided to pursue a vocation she had
always liked, that of nursing. She went to a local doctor and through him got a
correspondence course in practical nursing. The doctor helped her and soon put
her to work on cases under him. She was a born nurse. Everyone loved her. There
were always more jobs than she could take. She followed this profession for
seven years and finally illness forced her to stop.
Elam
had been making exploratory trips to Oregon. His half-brother had told him how
to locate the old trail their father, James Miller Allen, and other immigrants
had followed after becoming lost. With his son, Elam Cecil, and a
Page 47
son-in-law, Guy Michael, he found
the buried land marks for which he sought. One of those was an ox-yoke still
intact but weather-beaten.
Elam
also went to the Joseph Creek country to check up on a copper mining claim he
had filed on years before. This claim probably would be valuable if
transportation were available for the ore.
In
1939 Elam and Rena moved to southwest Seattle to be nearer the majority of
their children. Here they built a new home and retired from work, except to
care for their beautiful flowers and garden. Elam developed a hobby of writing
verses, cowboy songs, short stories, and spent some time on the story of his
life.
He
enjoyed telling the reunion groups that he had the largest family of any one
present – ten children, twenty-seven grandchildren and thirty-three great
grandchildren;
He
passed away in his sleep at his home in Seattle. He was Honorary President of
the Allen Clan 1949 and 1950.
- - - -
This
poem was written to Lee Niles when he was planning a hunting trip:
Rifle Packin' Daddy
Daddy’s gone a hunting,
You
should hear the kiddies cheer,
For
all of them are positive
That
Dad will get his deer.
Mother’s
looking out the window,
The
kids can hardly wait,
For
rifle packin’ daddy
Is
half an hour late.
Hope
he doesn’t disappoint us,
For
we are low on points.
We
need a tender juicy steak
To
limber up our joints.
Just
in case he has no luck
In
bringing home the stew
We’ll
send pistol packin’ mamma,
And
see what she can do. ----
Elam
Ethan Allen
THE
MISSING LINK
Oft
times when writing poetry
I
think with all my might
To
find the one word needed
To
make it sound just right.
Sometimes
I write it many times
And
think and think and think,
Then
finally it comes to me,
The
long lost missing link.
It’s
when I go to bed at night,
And
lie there seeking slumber,
New
ideas pop into my head,
So
out of bed I lumber.
Page 48
And
when I switch on the light
And
make an awful clatter,
I
hear a voice calling me,
“What
in the world’s the matter?”
“Nothing,
dear,” I answer back,
As
I make the paper rattle,
“I’ve
something preying on my mind
With
which I have to battle.”
Then
I write the darned thing down,
And
get back to bed contented,
And
feel like I have written all
That
ever was invented. –
Elam
Ethan Allen, Published
in THE MUSE of 1943, (An
anthology of poetry)
Lineage:
(1)
William and Rebecca (Stevens) Allen
(2)
Isaac and Margaret (Miller) Allen
(3)
James Miller and (2) Sarah
Elizabeth (Butler) Allen
(4)
Elam Ethan and Katherine
(Aplington) Allen
 |
Elam Allen, 1950, courtesy of Rene Rodgers |
The book was put together by Ethel E. Allen with information gathered from members of the Allen clan who regularly attended reunions in Oregon. It's not known if Elam himself is the one who submitted the information from the excerpt above, but I think he probably did. A disclaimer at the beginning of the volume asks family members to submit corrections for any errors or omissions they should find. As this is the second printing of the volume, it is likely such a disclaimer was printed in the first printing and some corrections have already been addressed in this printing. The pages are all hand typed and total 203, including an index, and are assembled with dividers for the descendants of each of the children of William Allen (1759-1815) and Rebecca Stevens (1768-1855) in a three ring binder. This book is a real treasure.
