Legacy

In the closing years of his life William Allen had a substantial family surrounding him. His third wife, Sarah Cox, lived until 1797, preceding him to the grave by two years. Two of his three surviving sons had married and were living on the land that William had purchased close to forty years earlier. Joseph had five children before William's death; James had probably three or four. Sarah's daughter Catherine Skillman Edwards, still lived nearby and two of her children owned land cut from the original Red Hill purchace. The number of grandchildren (and potentially great grandchildren) parading about was considerable. William was by any measure a successful man, both in terms of his financial accomplishments and the size and closeness of his family. By all accounts, he was respected in his church and in his community. But these achievements came with a terrible price. Along the way he outlived three wives, lost three sons to war, gave up one infant daughter for adoption, and buried three more. There are also reports (and evidence) that the daughters who made it to adulthood died at relatively young ages. In addition to his own pain, he had to watch son David suffer through the loss of a wife, too.

If we run the numbers--a perhaps cruel way to look at it--the picture is bleak. He gave life to thirteen children. Only five survived him (Jane, David, Ann, Elizabeth and Joseph). He had the help of three women along the way, none of whom were with him at the end.

William Allen left this world on June 9, 1799. According to family tradition, he was buried, along with Sarah Cox, in the graveyard of the local Presbyterian Church at Gum Spring, now Arcola--the graveyard of which is now the parking lot, according to one source. (However, during my visit there I could not locate the church, and no one I spoke to knew anything about it. I deal with this mystery in more detail in Reconstructing William Allen.) William's eighty-eight years spanned the bulk of the 18th century, a time when his adopted land made a daring transition from colonial backwater to, even at the time, one of the largest nations in the world.

As noted above, after his death most of the Allen clan pulled up stakes and left it all behind. In 1800, son Joseph sold his 100 acre parcel to his half brother James and moved his family (and slaves) to Clark County, Kentucky--only recently become a state. Within five years, David moved from Hampshire County to Bourbon County, Kentucky, along with the Herriotts and at least some of the Formans. From there, later generations of Allens moved to Indiana, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and beyond--each generation of children forsaking the legacy of its parents in order to provide for itself.

James, who stayed behind, saw his children move to Tennessee and Illinois. Only one grandson remained behind at Red Hill: John F. Allen (b. 1823), the youngest but one of all William's grandchildren, married but childless as far as we know. He tended the farm until his death in 1884, and was buried (along with his parents) in the family graveyard on the property. He left the farm to a cousin, John Gulick.

Wrap-up

Historians like to look for meaning in the stories they tell. The meaning of this story is complex, carrying elements of hope, pride, sorrow, shame, and sadness. It is, in many respects, the American story writ small--on the scale of one family. Immigrant nation. Westward movement. The breaking of old patterns, though not necessarily old connections. Perseverance in the face of loss. Building (sacrificing) for the future. Expediency in the face of need. And rejecting the past in order to fulfill that most human of needs: to do it on one's own.

In assessing the significance of all this, we need to remember that William Allen would not have judged his life in these terms. What his life meant to him is easily quite different from what it may mean to us. This is an okay thing. Social context changes; values change; and a historical perspective evolves which mandates new ways of looking at past events. I hope this description, though it may not represent William's way of looking at the world, brings him to life, at least to some extent, to his descendents today.