HENRY ALLEN, son of WILLIAM ALLEN and ANN STUART, was born February 2, 1808 in Virginia, and died November 13, 1849 in Scioto County, Ohio. He married ABIGAIL MASSIE, daughter of JEPTHA MASSIE and ANNA MEADOWS, November 6, 1832 in Jackson County, Ohio. She was born December 16, 1814 in Monroe County, Virginia (now West Virginia), and died January 2, 1881.
Notes: (These notes come from Bill Allen and are from something titled "Henry and Abigail Massie Allen" by Shirley McCoy Smith):
"Henry Allen (1808-1849) and Abigail Massie (1814-1881) were married November 6, 1832, in Jackson County, Ohio - he, age 24 and she, 17.
"Abigail was born December 16, 1814, in Monroe County, Virginia (now West Virginia on Virginia border) of Jeptha Massie and Anna Meadows. At one time the family was in Greenbrier County, adjacent to and north of Monroe. Sometime after Abigail's birth and prior to 1820 (during her first five years), the family moved from Monroe County to Jackson County, Ohio, along with some of Jeptha's brothers. Abigail was said to be a relative of Henry Massie, founder of Portsmouth, Ohio.
"Henry Allen was born February 2, 1808, in Grayson County (now Carroll County), Virginia, one of 11 children of William Allen and Ann Stuart. In 1791, William Allen bought 400 acres near the head of Paul's Creek in southern Carroll County south of the village of Fancy Gap, which is south of Hillsville. It was on this farm where William and Ann's children -- including Henry -- were reared. William died July 12, 1823 and is thought to be buried on his farm, which was sold in 1825. In that year, when Henry was 17, the widowed Ann and most of the children (some married and some still at home) migrated to that part of Virginia which is now West Virginia. They remained there four or five years before moving to Jackson County, Ohio -- some in 1830 and the rest shortly thereafter.
"In 1830 brothers James, Robert, and Henry (age about 22) came to Jackson County from, one account says, Fayette County (now West Virginia). Another account says that Robert lived in adjoining Raleigh County (now West Virginia), apparently on or near Marsh Fork of the Coal River possibly near Glen Daniel just west of Beckley. So, apparently, the Allen families lived in either Fayette or Raleigh or perhaps some families in each.
"In Jackson County the brothers settled on adjoining farms along Hewitt's Fork in Jefferson Township west of Oak Hill (SR 279 runs along most of Hewitt's Fork). Later came siblings William, Isaac, and Anna and their mother (who died there May 1839). Another sister and her husband, John and Nancy Allen Clark, also came to Jefferson Township, possibly as early as 1829. The 1840 Jefferson Township census shows five Allen brothers -- Isaac, James, William, Robert, and Henry -- living on adjoining farms.
"Carr Allen, Henry's older brother, stayed in Carroll County (at least for a while before moving to what is now West Virginia) and became the grandfather of brothers Sidna and Floyd Allen, who were involved in the 1912 Carroll County Courthouse shooting tragedy in Hillsville, Virginia.
"In Jackson County, Isaac married Rachel Massie, sister of Abigail; Allen brothers married Massie sisters.
"Henry and Abigail's eight children were all born on their Jackson County Hewitt's Fork farm before the family moved to Scioto County, Ohio, in 1848, sixteen years after their marriage. The move to Winter Road, Madison Township, Scioto County was one of only a few miles, as Jefferson Township, Jackson County, is only two townships away from Madison Township, Scioto County. The late Lyle Bonzo, great-grandson of Henry and Abigail, told that the couple's 10 or 11 year old son William walked behind the wagon all the way from Virginia to Madison Township. William no doubt DID walk behind the wagon, but what Lyle didn't know was that they moved from just across the county line, not straight from Virginia.
"According to Lyle, they owned an entire section (640 acres) of Madison Township land (Section 24). They owned and cleared nearly all the land along Winter Road, including what was later their son William's place, adjoining theirs. Henry built their house, a two-story log with shed kitchen, on the south side of Winter Road by a spring. A foundation can still be found there today for either the house or barn. The house and barn sat beside a small creek which crosses Winter Road at a bend in the road. The house burned sometime after Henry's and Abigail's deaths. The story goes that it accidentally caught fire when sons of Alva Ethan Allen, Henry and Abigail's grandson, set fire to dead grass on the place to flush out a rabbit they were hunting. Alva Ethan, son William and Hannah, and his wife and children lived on his parents' place after their deaths.
"Henry was a shoemaker by trade but farmed in Scioto County. He died, however, November 13, 1849, from pneumonia the next year after moving there, at the age of 41. His daughter Emily was 14, and his son William was 12 when Henry died. William's daughter, Elizabeth Allen Bonzo, told that Henry caught a cold which turned into pneumonia after being out in a cold rain helping a sow give birth. He was buried on the north side of Winter Road on his farm in the first of three graves now at the site, which Abigail intended to be the start of a family cemetery.
"Elizabeth also told about the family's struggle for survival following Henry's death. When he died, the house hadn't been completed and the farm not well established, and the widowed Abigail and children found themselves near starvation. To make some money the girls would stay at the homes of neighbors to help out when a child was born. It was told that Abigail traveled miles to near Stockdale in Pike County, Ohio, where wild turkeys roosted in a grove of trees. Before dawn she would knock turkeys from low branches with a pole in order to have meat for their table.
"Some years after the Civil War, Abigail sold the farm. It is unknown what year she sold out, but the two graves beside Henry's, those of grandchildren, are dated 1871. The 1870 Madison Township census shows Abigail, 56, still there with only a grandchild at home, and an 1875 property map shows her still owning the land. But the 1880 Pike County, Seal Township, census shows her at age 66 living with their youngest child, David, 34, his wife, Margaret Irwin Allen, 24, and their three children. Henry and Abigail's oldest child, Anna Allen Downing, and her family also lived in Seal Township, Pike County, near David.
"So, Abigail apparently left Winter Road between 1875 and 1880. A 1900 Madison Township map shows Fred Winter, for whom the road is named, owning the property with the Allen house and graves.
"Abigail died 31 years after Henry, on January 2, 1881, at the age of 66. Her granddaughter, Nancy Elizabeth White, was 12 at the time. Abigail is buried in Barger Cemetery on the farm of George and Anna Allen Downing along the Scioto River between Piketon and Waverly on Piketon Lower River Road. Today the cemetery is on the property of a Ryder family.
"Also buried there are four of Henry and Abigail's grandchildren -- David's children who died before the family moved to Clinton County, Ohio. In the same cemetery is George Downing buried by his first wife, Elizabeth Barger Downing. No stone for second wife, Anna Allen Downing, is found there, but she is believed to be buried elsewhere on the farm, possibly in a second cemetery.
"The Madison Township census for 1850, the year following Henry's death, lists the widowed Abigail as 31 and a native of Virginia, but her age actually would have been 35. The children were all listed as Ohio natives: Anna, 17; Emily, 15; William H., 13; Isaac, 11; Robert, 9; Elizabeth, 7; Levi, 5; David, 4.
"The 1860 Census lists Abigail, 45, with all eight children still at home: Anna, 25; Emily, 24; William, 23; Isaac, 21; Robert, 18; Elizabeth, 17; Levi, 15; David, 13. (However, Emily's entry was an error, as she had been married for six years.) All five sons served in the Civil War which began the year following this census.
"In ten years Abigail went from having seven children at home to having none. The 1870 census lists Abigail, 56, and only a grandson, Edwin Louis Allen, 10, one of daughter Ann's two illegitimate children.
"The three graves on Henry and Abigail's farm are those of:
* Henry Allen (1808-1849)
* James W. Allen (1864-1871), son of William and Hannah Purtee Allen and grandson of Henry and Abigail, who died of diptheria at age 7
* Melissa Allen (1869-1871), daughter of Isaac and Julia Irwin Allen and granddaughter of Henry and Abigail, who died at 2 1/2"
On page 1 of the 1840 census for Jefferson Township in Jackson County, Ohio, Henry is listed as the head of the household. In this house are 1 male between 20 and 30, 2 males under 5, 1 female between 20 and 30, and 2 females between 5 and 10. They are living next to Henry's brothers William and Robert.
The children of HENRY ALLEN and ABIGAIL MASSIE are:
- ANNA ALLEN, b. 1834, Ohio, m. GEORGE DOWNING.
- EMILY ALLEN, b. 1835, Ohio.
- WILLIAM H. ALLEN, b. 1836, Ohio, m. HANNAH PURTEE.
- ISAAC ALLEN, b. 1838, Ohio, m. JULIA IRWIN.
- ROBERT ALLEN, b. 1841, Ohio.
- ELIZABETH ALLEN, b. 1842, Ohio.
- LEVI ALLEN, b. 1844, Ohio.
- DAVID VINTON ALLEN, b. 1846, Ohio, m. MARGARET ELIZABETH IRWIN.
(This information comes from Bill Allen, Gail Allen Justice, Penny Allen Clagg, and other sources)