103. My mother's Allen Ancestors, pioneers in Kirtland, Nauvoo, and Utah
In blog # 96 I told about the grandmothers of my mother, and her mother Levinah Emeline Wilson -- who married John Butler Allen. Today I'll mention John Butler Allen's faithful parents and grandparents, to give important history leading up to their lives.
The first Allen ancestor to join the Church in 1835 was Gideon Allen, my gg grandfather, and his wife Rachel Hand. We don't know much of their history, but they lived in Litchfield, Litchfield County, Connecticut, where they heard the Gospel, and several of their living children were baptized with them in 1836. They gathered with the Saints first in Kirtland, then Nauvoo, and then stayed with the body of the Saints, coming to Utah in 1849 with the George A. Smith/Dan Jones Company. They experienced all the challenges and persecution which occurred during those momentous times.
Their youngest child, Philo, my great grandfather. married Lucy Alford Hawks as his first wife in the original Nauvoo Temple on February 2, 1846, just days before the Saints were driven out of Nauvoo. As newlyweds, they left Nauvoo and were taken across the Mississippi on barges and flatboats manned by the Nauvoo Police Force. The immense wagons were driven onto the barges and lashed down so they could not move. The livestock were tethered so there was no escape. Crates of poultry were tied to the rear of the wagons.
For Philo and Lucy, this beginning step in their long journey was, perhaps as dangerous and as breath-taking as any that was to come later. The weather, while not cold enough yet to freeze the Mississippi, was cold enough to form some ice. In addition, ice cakes that had frozen farther north were hurling down the flooded river. Reaching the Iowa shore, teamsters drove their wagons nine miles to a wooded area along Sugar Creek. The temperature hovered near zero. There was snow on the ground and a freezing sleet falling. The newlyweds, Philo and Lucy, had to use all the skill and resourcefulness at their command just to stay alive through that terrible first night.
There on the banks of Sugar Creek, that first night out of Nauvoo, they proved their mettle. That night, in what at the best was a primitive camp, nine babies were born. The next day the camp on Sugar Creek was organized. More and more families were coming in, and places must be made for them. About the middle of February the Mississippi froze hard enough so that the ice would support a loaded wagon and the beasts that pulled it. The boats were no longer needed. By the first of March, there was a whole city of tents on the banks of Sugar Creek.
Philo Allen knew taking his new bride, and his aged parents, (Gideon and Rachel Hand Allen) that this was to be no ordinary journey. There were about three thousand people in the first camp. This left about seventeen thousand still in Nauvoo. At this time the Illinois authorities had said that all of the Mormons had to be out of Nauvoo by late spring.
When they came west, Gideon was 74 and his wife Rachel was 72, which was quite elderly for that time. They came in the same company as their son Philo and his wife, Lucy, who helped them on the journey. We have in one record that they went to the original Nauvoo Temple for their endowments, and it is probably correct as Philo and Lucy were married there on Feb. 2, 1846, but the record in Family Search says they went to the Endowment House in Salt Lake City in 1852.
The time came in a few weeks, to leave Sugar Creek camp and make room for those still in Nauvoo. The great Western Trek really began with a few wagons that struck across Iowa the last day of February, 1846. The following day almost five hundred wagons followed them. Philo and Lucy Allen were in that group.
There were no hard surfaced roads and the temperature was nineteen degrees above zero, just warm enough to soften the snow and let the heavy wagons plunge into the mud beneath it. Sometimes a whole company needed most of their traveling day to cross a single swamp which might be a quarter of a mile wide. Sometimes they worked hard to travel one mile in a whole day.
About the middle of April, the first of the wagons rolled into a place one hundred and forty-five miles from Nauvoo they called Garden Grove, a village and farm land wherein oncoming Mormons might rest and review their stores. A hundred and ten men started making rail fences to enclose fields so that crops would be protected from wandering livestock. Forty-eight men built houses, ten dug wells, and ten devoted their time to building bridges. All the rest set to work plowing and cultivating.
Each family was to have started from Nauvoo with a year’s worth of supplies. However, many left Nauvoo with scarcely enough to see them through to Sugar Creek. This was because their fields were destroyed, stock was shot, and other damage was done by vandals who wanted to take over what the Mormons left behind.
At Garden Grove many hundreds of acres were planted to grain; many cabins were built; wells were dug. A small company was left to watch over everything while the main body pushed on. Philo Allen and his wife Lucy, stayed with this group in Garden Grove, because their first child, a daughter, was expected, and later born on 13 January 1847. She was given the name of Alice Jane Allen and lived only five months.
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While they were in Garden Grove, Philo went a long distance from there working on the river dragging timber that was being cut high in the country and floated down the river where it could be sawed into lumber. At this time there was no means of communication, so when Philo returned, he found his child had been born, and had died and had been buried. What a piece of sad news to come home to.
Philo and Lucy Hawks Allen moved to Council Bluffs in the spring of 1847. All the Saints had learned much after they were driven out of Nauvoo. Men who had never done much except plow a field now knew how to take their teams almost anywhere. They knew what to do should an animal, or a team, become bogged down, and many other vital skills.
There were about three thousand people now living in Council Bluffs. Before the summer ended there would be twelve thousand. Many, many more would be in smaller villages which the Mormons had established along the way.
Brigham Young went to Big Elk, Chief of the Omaha Indians. The Mormons, he said, must camp on the Missouri River in the territory of the Omahas. They needed permission to cut trees, plant corn and wheat, and build houses. The Mormons had with them doctors, gunsmiths, and blacksmiths. They had supplies which the Omaha Indians could share. Big Elk, the Chief, gave the Mormons permission to do as they wished and to stay on the Indian lands “two years or more.”
On the fourth of July, 1849, the Allens finally started westward. They encountered hail and rain storms. Their cattle stampeded, and at the South Pass of the Platte, on Wednesday, 3 October 1849, they were overtaken by heavy storms, in which seventy of their animals were frozen. They made their journey to Salt Lake City, 1,034 miles in 155 days, arriving October 27th, 1849. After arriving, later Gideon and Rachel Allen moved to Ogden, and Gideon died there 12 years later in 1861, and Rachel died in 1863.
Philo and Lucy had moved to Spanish Fork where John Lowe Butler was the bishop. In 1857 Philo married Sarah Adeline Butler, the daughter of John L. Butler, my great grandmother, as a second wife. I'll tell about her in tomorrow's blog.
Philo Allen's headstone in Escalante, Utah
Their youngest child, Philo, my great grandfather. married Lucy Alford Hawks as his first wife in the original Nauvoo Temple on February 2, 1846, just days before the Saints were driven out of Nauvoo. As newlyweds, they left Nauvoo and were taken across the Mississippi on barges and flatboats manned by the Nauvoo Police Force. The immense wagons were driven onto the barges and lashed down so they could not move. The livestock were tethered so there was no escape. Crates of poultry were tied to the rear of the wagons.
For Philo and Lucy, this beginning step in their long journey was, perhaps as dangerous and as breath-taking as any that was to come later. The weather, while not cold enough yet to freeze the Mississippi, was cold enough to form some ice. In addition, ice cakes that had frozen farther north were hurling down the flooded river. Reaching the Iowa shore, teamsters drove their wagons nine miles to a wooded area along Sugar Creek. The temperature hovered near zero. There was snow on the ground and a freezing sleet falling. The newlyweds, Philo and Lucy, had to use all the skill and resourcefulness at their command just to stay alive through that terrible first night.
There on the banks of Sugar Creek, that first night out of Nauvoo, they proved their mettle. That night, in what at the best was a primitive camp, nine babies were born. The next day the camp on Sugar Creek was organized. More and more families were coming in, and places must be made for them. About the middle of February the Mississippi froze hard enough so that the ice would support a loaded wagon and the beasts that pulled it. The boats were no longer needed. By the first of March, there was a whole city of tents on the banks of Sugar Creek.
Philo Allen knew taking his new bride, and his aged parents, (Gideon and Rachel Hand Allen) that this was to be no ordinary journey. There were about three thousand people in the first camp. This left about seventeen thousand still in Nauvoo. At this time the Illinois authorities had said that all of the Mormons had to be out of Nauvoo by late spring.
When they came west, Gideon was 74 and his wife Rachel was 72, which was quite elderly for that time. They came in the same company as their son Philo and his wife, Lucy, who helped them on the journey. We have in one record that they went to the original Nauvoo Temple for their endowments, and it is probably correct as Philo and Lucy were married there on Feb. 2, 1846, but the record in Family Search says they went to the Endowment House in Salt Lake City in 1852.
The time came in a few weeks, to leave Sugar Creek camp and make room for those still in Nauvoo. The great Western Trek really began with a few wagons that struck across Iowa the last day of February, 1846. The following day almost five hundred wagons followed them. Philo and Lucy Allen were in that group.
There were no hard surfaced roads and the temperature was nineteen degrees above zero, just warm enough to soften the snow and let the heavy wagons plunge into the mud beneath it. Sometimes a whole company needed most of their traveling day to cross a single swamp which might be a quarter of a mile wide. Sometimes they worked hard to travel one mile in a whole day.
About the middle of April, the first of the wagons rolled into a place one hundred and forty-five miles from Nauvoo they called Garden Grove, a village and farm land wherein oncoming Mormons might rest and review their stores. A hundred and ten men started making rail fences to enclose fields so that crops would be protected from wandering livestock. Forty-eight men built houses, ten dug wells, and ten devoted their time to building bridges. All the rest set to work plowing and cultivating.
Each family was to have started from Nauvoo with a year’s worth of supplies. However, many left Nauvoo with scarcely enough to see them through to Sugar Creek. This was because their fields were destroyed, stock was shot, and other damage was done by vandals who wanted to take over what the Mormons left behind.
At Garden Grove many hundreds of acres were planted to grain; many cabins were built; wells were dug. A small company was left to watch over everything while the main body pushed on. Philo Allen and his wife Lucy, stayed with this group in Garden Grove, because their first child, a daughter, was expected, and later born on 13 January 1847. She was given the name of Alice Jane Allen and lived only five months.
.
While they were in Garden Grove, Philo went a long distance from there working on the river dragging timber that was being cut high in the country and floated down the river where it could be sawed into lumber. At this time there was no means of communication, so when Philo returned, he found his child had been born, and had died and had been buried. What a piece of sad news to come home to.
Philo and Lucy Hawks Allen moved to Council Bluffs in the spring of 1847. All the Saints had learned much after they were driven out of Nauvoo. Men who had never done much except plow a field now knew how to take their teams almost anywhere. They knew what to do should an animal, or a team, become bogged down, and many other vital skills.
There were about three thousand people now living in Council Bluffs. Before the summer ended there would be twelve thousand. Many, many more would be in smaller villages which the Mormons had established along the way.
Brigham Young went to Big Elk, Chief of the Omaha Indians. The Mormons, he said, must camp on the Missouri River in the territory of the Omahas. They needed permission to cut trees, plant corn and wheat, and build houses. The Mormons had with them doctors, gunsmiths, and blacksmiths. They had supplies which the Omaha Indians could share. Big Elk, the Chief, gave the Mormons permission to do as they wished and to stay on the Indian lands “two years or more.”
On the fourth of July, 1849, the Allens finally started westward. They encountered hail and rain storms. Their cattle stampeded, and at the South Pass of the Platte, on Wednesday, 3 October 1849, they were overtaken by heavy storms, in which seventy of their animals were frozen. They made their journey to Salt Lake City, 1,034 miles in 155 days, arriving October 27th, 1849. After arriving, later Gideon and Rachel Allen moved to Ogden, and Gideon died there 12 years later in 1861, and Rachel died in 1863.
Philo and Lucy had moved to Spanish Fork where John Lowe Butler was the bishop. In 1857 Philo married Sarah Adeline Butler, the daughter of John L. Butler, my great grandmother, as a second wife. I'll tell about her in tomorrow's blog.
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