Mrs. W. H. Allen Of Calhoun, Nebraska, Pioneer, Dies

Mrs. William Henry Allen of Fort Calhoun township, a Nebraska pioneer and a resident of Washington county since 1865, died on Sunday evening, at the Methodist hospital in Omaha of pneumonia.

Mrs. Allen was born in Clark county, Indiana, May 20, 1844, where she grew to womanhood.

She began teaching school in Indiana at the age of sixteen years and taught during all the years of the Civil war and dismissed her school on the afternoon of Lincoln’s funeral to attend services in a country church.

At the close of the war, she came west in a covered wagon, in the autumn of 1865 and while crossing the swamps of Illinois and Iowa contracted ague and when they arrived at Rockport, just across the line in Douglas county, she was quite ill and Dr. Andrews, father of Mrs. E. H. Clark, of Calhoun, who later officiated at her marriage, was brought from Calhoun and crawling into the covered wagon ministered to her. She was taken to a nearby house, the Shipleys, where she received the comforts of a home and after a week, had recovered so as to be able to be out and enjoy the most beautiful autumn weather that she had ever experienced, a long Indian summer, with many nuts and wild grapes to gather, and often, on her rambles, she would scare a deer to chase.

Mrs. Allen was a woman of education and refinement and had a wide circle of warm friends who will miss her greatly. It has been the writer’s rare privilege to frequently enjoy the hospitability of her home since early boyhood and in all the years it has been our pleasure to know her we have never known of an unkind remark being made by her. She was a Christian woman of the highest character we have ever known and we believe that we express the feelings of the entire countryside when we say that mere words are inadequate to tell of her virtues and her motherly graces.

She was among the earliest settlers in the county and as such enjoyed a wealth of experiences which she relates in a publication known as a “Collection of Nebraska Pioneer Reminiscenses” just issued by the Nebr., Society of the daughters of the American Revolution of which she was a member which are most interesting and are herewith reproduced at the close of this article.

The funeral services, conducted by Rev. Warren, of the Christian church at Blair, were held on Tuesday afternoon, April 4, 1916, at the home south of Blair and interment was made in the Allen cemetery.

A very large gathering of friends from the neighborhood and the nearby towns, too, as well as from Omaha, were present at the ceremonies.

The floral offerings were beautiful and profuse showing the esteem in which the deceased was held by the hundreds of friends who had remembered to show this mark of respect.

The pall-bearers were the four sons and the two sons-in-law who with two daughters and the husband are left to mourn her.

The relatives from a distance were Mrs. Anna Akerman, and Mr. and Mrs. M. O. Whalen, of Stanton, Mrs. Jennie Riley, of Pierce, Neb., Chas Whalen, and Mr. and Mrs. F. Janda of Omaha.

Remisecenses of Washington County, By Mrs. Emily Bottorf Allen.

I came to Washington county, Neb. with my parents in the fall of 1865, by ox team from Indiana. We stopped at Rockport, where father and brothers got work at wood chopping. They build a house by digging into a hill and using logs to finish the front. The weather was delightful, and autumn’s golden tints in the foliage were beautiful.

We gathered hazel nuts and wild grapes often scaring a deer from the underbrush. Our neighbors were the Shipleys, who were very hospitable, And shared their garden products with us. During the winter father bought John Frazier’s homestead, but our home was still in a dugout, in which we were comfortable. We obtained all needed supplies from Fort Calhoun or Omaha.

In the spring Amasa Warrick, from Cuming City, came to our home in search of a teacher and offered me the position, which I accepted. Elam Clark of Fort Calhoun endorsed my teacher’s certificate. I soon commenced teaching at Cuming City, and pupils came for miles around. I boarded at George A. Brigham’s. Mr. Breigham was county surveyor, postmaster, music teacher as well as land agent, and a very fine man.

One day while busy with my classes, the door opened and three large Indians stole in, seating themselves near the stove. I was greatly alarmed and whispered to one of my pupils to hasten to the nearest neighbor for assistance. As soon as the lad left, one Indian went to the window and asked “Where boy go?” I said, “I don’t know.” The three Indians chattered together a moment, and then the spokesman said, “I kill you sure,” but seeing a man coming in the distance with a gun, they all hurried out and ran over the hill.

I taught at Cuming City until the school fund was exhausted, and by that time the small school house on Long Creek was completed. Allen Craig and Thomas McDonald were directors. I boarded at home and taught the first school in this district, with fourteen pupils enrolled. At this time Judge Bowen of Omaha was county superintendent, and I went there to have my certificate renewed. When all the public money in the Long Creek district was used up, I went back to Cuming City to teach. The population of this district had increased to such an extent that I needed an assistant, and I was authorized to appoint one of my best pupils to the position. I selected Vienna Cooper, daughter of Dr. P. J. Cooper. I boarded at the Lippincott home, known as the “Halfway House” on the stage line between Omaha and Decatur. It was a stage station where horses were changed and drivers and passengers stopped over night. At the close of our summer term we held a picnic and entertainment on the Methodist church grounds, using the lumber of the new church for our platform and seats. This entertainment was pronounced the grandest affair ever held in the West.

The school funds of the Cuming City district being again exhausted, I returned to Long Creek district in the fall of 1867, and taught as long as there was any money in the treasury. By that time the village of Blair had sprung up, absorbing Cuming City and DeSoto, and I was employed to teach in their new log schoolhouse, T. M. Carter was director of the Blair district. Orrin Colby of Bell Creek, was county superintendent, and he visited the schools of the county, making the rounds on foot. I taught at Blair until April 1869, when I was married to William Henry Allen, a pioneer of Ft. Calhoun. Our license was issued by Judge Stilts of Ft. Calhoun, where we were married by Dr. Andrews. We raised our family in the Long Creek district, and still reside where we settled in those pioneer days.”

#2-Enterprise 7 April 1916

Mrs. W. H. Allen of Calhoun, Nebraska, Pioneer Dies

(From the Tribune) This article was exactly the same as the Tribune article above.

#3-Published in the Blair Democrat April 6, 1916

Mrs. William Henry Allen, for more than fifty years a resident of Washington County, died in the M. E. Hospital in Omaha of pneumonia, on April 2, 1916. Mrs. Allen was one of the early settlers of Washington County, coming here with her parents from Indiana in 1865. The trip was made with a team and wagon, she enduring the hardships of the early pioneers settlers.

Emily Bottorff was born in Clark County, Indiana in 1844. In her early life she taught school in Indiana before coming west. After coming to Nebraska, she taught school in Blair, Cumming City and near her home in Calhoun Township. She was married April 20, 1869 to William Henry Allen, homesteading in Calhoun Township, where she resided until her death.

Mrs. Allen is survived by her husband and six children, four sons, Grant, Scott, Clyde and Clark and two daughters, Mrs. May Lazure and Mrs. Grace Steavenson, who resides in Omaha. One daughter, Cora, died in infancy.

The funeral services were held at the family home at 2 p.m. Tuesday, the Rev. Frank Warren, of the Christian Church conducting the last sad rites. The remains were laid to rest in the family burial ground on the homestead where she had so long lived.

Mrs. Allen was a member of Christian Church, and had lived a consistent Christian live from early girlhood.

Note: From Allen Cemetery listing: name: Ruth Emily Bottorff Allen; died 2 April 1916.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~