John Ferguson Allen
18 Feb 1844 - 16 Apr 1911
-
BIRTH: 18 Feb 1844, Adams County, Illinois
-
DEATH: 16 Apr 1911, Hagerman, Gooding County, Idaho
-
Married Brennetta Hickman (Nickname: Kitten)
-
Family 1 : Bernetta HICKMAN (Kitten)
- MARRIAGE: May 1865, West Jordan, Salt Lake County, Utah
- +Louila Bernetta ALLEN
- Mary Emma ALLEN
- Selmon ALLEN
- Phoebe ALLEN
- Phillip ALLEN
- Pearl ALLEN
- John Henry ALLEN
- Ruby ALLEN
- George Elihu ALLEN
- William Adams Hickman ALLEN
- Burckhardt ALLEN
John Ferguson Allen was the son of:
Father: Elihu Marcellus ALLEN
Mother: Lola Ann CLAWSONIn 1847 Elihu Marcellus Allen was a member of Captain Jedediah M. Grand's hundred, part of which arrived in the Great Salt Lake Oct 2, 1847. The children who came with him were Elihu Moroni, Lola Elizabeth, John Ferguson, and Joseph Brigham. Were the other children with William and Caroline Allen Weeks, during the journey, their mother being dead. Elihu was a member of the Mormon Batallion for a short time, he died not long after entering the Salt Lake Valley. Because of the number of his children and Elihu being a widower in his 60s, many of his younger children were taken in and adopted by Brigham Young and his family. They were adopted 12 Mar 1847.
John Henry Allen and Julia Nickerson Allen. John is a son of John Ferguson Allen and Brennetta Hickman Allen.
The following information is from a few emails that I have received from people about John Ferguson Allen.
MYTH:
I was told by his family was that John Ferguson Allen was orphaned on the prairie, and raised by Indians and drunken gamblers. That was the family story, and they were sticking to it. They liked Bill Hickman though. They like the outlaw image. But they did not like Brigham Young.
TRUTH:
My personal feeling about how that story came about was because grandma Bernetta (Hickman) Shelton was no fan of the church, and especially of Brigham Young. She had her reasons which she was quite vocal about.
How could the family explain that John was orphaned and adopted by Brigham Young?
Imagine my surprise when I ran across the BYU transcripts of early church proceedings and found a notation that the younger children of Elihu Marcellus Allen and Lola Ann Clawson Allen were adopted on March 12, 1847 by Brigham Young!!!!!!
We know that Elihu and his wife Lola were baptized in New York. His first wife Laura's brother has his diary on the LDS CD ROM Library. Their families remained very close after Laura's death, and his marriage to Lola, who was Laura's cousin. Elihu, along with Josiah and Lola Richardson, his in laws, as well as the Foote and Clauson families left upstate New York and lived in Kirtland, Ohio. We know from Laura's brothers diary that Elihu lived outside Kirtland with his family. We know from the marriage of Elihu's daughter Caroline to William Weeks in Nauvoo that the family was in Nauvoo. We know again from the diary that the family was living in Adams Co., Ill at the time of the death of Joseph and Hiram, as there is a stirring account of him and Elihu in the field when they heard the news. We know that they were in the wagon train and arrived in SL in 1847.
(An interesting side bar here..........................No one has ever really known what happened in NY when the saints left, as there is really not much written about it, except to say that they were persecuted. That I can understand seeing that some of the saints had been ministers in the local churches. But the story that the locals give is that a militia was going to drive them out, and when they went to get all of "those Mormons", the people had disappeared in the night and kidnapped many of their family members too.)
(These are my notes: IN 1847 ELIHU MARCELLUS ALLEN WAS A MEMBER OF CAPTAIN JEDEDIAH M GRANDS HUNDRED, PART OF WHICH ARRIVED IN THE GREAT SALT LAKE 2 OCT 1847. THE CHILDREN THAT CAME WITH HIM WERE ELIHU MORONI,LOLA ELIZABETH, JOHN FURGUSON, AND JOSEPH BRIGHAM.) From Elihu's older son Franklins notes, we understand what the main business in the family was:
FRANKLIN ALONG WITH WARREN FOOTE BOUGHT THE MILL AND HOUSE WITH 3 ACRES OF LAND FROM FATHER MEYERS [his father in law] , AND FRANKLIN MOVED INTO THE HOUSE. WARREN FOOTE WRITES IN HIS DIARY:
" SEPT 1848, THE GRISTMILL WAS LOCATED 5 MILES FROM KANESVILLE IN WINTER QUARTERS IOWA" FRANKLIN WAS A MEMBER OF THE MORMON BATTALION. HE IS LISTED AS A PRIVATE AT THE TIME OF HIS DEATH IN DECEMBER 1890 AND DIED IN IOWA. HE WAS ORDAINED A SEVENTY 27 OCT 1844 BY JOSEPH YOUNG ENDOWED 5 SEP 1895 IN PROVO
Elihu's son George drowned in the Missouri river, Caroline and William Weeks lived in Nauvoo, and from this we can presume that all of Elihu's living children had come west with the family.
Elihu and Lola's daughter Phoebe, sister of John Ferguson, lived also in Hagerman, and many of the descendants also live in that area.
His son Charles had a son who was blind, and went on to open the first Blind School in Salt Lake City.
Now, John's brother Elihu died in Pocatello, Idaho. I see that you have Ida.net, so you are from this general area too. I have been looking for his decendants in the area. My husband uncle Joseph Allen owns Allen Farms in American Falls, Idaho. Joseph is the son of William Adams Hickman Allen, John and Bernetta's son. Last I knew Uncle Joseph was still living. Joseph's brother Bud lives in the Glenns Ferry area, and for many years led the Three Island Crossing reinactment there.
Bernetta Hickman, John's wife, was the daughter of William Adams Hickman, who was a body guard for Brigham Young. The Young family lived in Salt Lake, while the Hickman's lived in the area between Nephi and South Jordan in Utah. I have my speculations as to how John and Bernetta met, but it is more then likely that they met through their parents associations.
Despite later disagreements between the two, Brigham Young and Bill Hickman were first and foremost friends. I have my theories as to why they split, none that I have found any direct evidence of as yet. But Bernetta was quite upset with Brigham Young over her families poverty, which she blamed on her father being a poligamist. Bill, however, was prone to speculation in "get rich quick" schemes, and most of the families money went there. There are several references to Brigham Young stepping in to protect Bills assets against his creditors.
John was a Bishop in Orderville, Utah, a town that was organized to help establish the United Order. (I don't know if you are LDS, if not is is a commonwealth situation where there are shared assets.) It was shortly after this that Bernetta left John. She went to western Idaho and he followed shortly thereafter. They lived in the Hagerman, Idaho area, where John died. He is buried in the Old Pioneer Cemetery in Hagerman (unmarked, as are most of the graves, however the historical society has erected a monument with the names of those buried there.) Bernetta married Isaac Shelton after that. Bernetta became a member of the RLDS church in that area. She is also buried in that same cemetery under the name Bernetta Allen Shelton.
Many of their children lived in the Northern Utah, Southern Idaho area. I have a photo of Bernetta with her second husband Isaac, that I can scan and send to you via email. I sent it once to Hickman researcher Hope Hilton, and she said that she looked allot like many of Bill Hickmans other daughters.
Bernetta is the youngest daughter of Bill Hickman and his first wife, Bernetta Burckhardt. John is the son of Elihu Marcellus and Lola Ann Clawson Allen.
John’s mother died (March 1847 is the date given, and the date that the adoption took place) and Elihu was in his very late years by this time. There is a notation in a presiding bishopric meeting that Brother Elihu Allen was to be given a beef cow for his family, as they were having significant troubles with such a large family.
Some interesting notes; One of Johns sisters was married to William Weeks, archetect of the Nauvoo Temple, and another was married to John Riser, who's reconstructed shop stands in the restored Nauvoo.
