Private Isaac C. Allen

brief biography and family

a Patriot of the American Revolution for VIRGINIA with the rank of PRIVATE

notes

DAR Ancestor # A001585

links

• https://services.dar.org/public/dar_research/search_adb/?action=ful...

content to clean up

The text of "THE ALLENS OF WALLACE/WOLFCREEK" follows:

Isaac C. Allen was Revolutionary War Soldier under the command of George Rogers Clark. He participated in Clark's expedition to the capture of Kaskasia and then the march across Illinois to the capture of Fort Sackville at Vincennes. Family tradition says he was the third man after Clark to cross the swollen Wabash River with a shorter man on his shoulders holding the powder to keep it dry.

D.A.R. records say that Isaac was born March 15, 1755 in Scott County, Virginia. There could be some question about this because it seems that pioneer settlement had not yet reached that area at that time. In any event we can be fairly confident that he was born somewhere in the Shenandoah Valley region, of Scotch-Irish parentage. The author of this article has made some trips and attempts to find the parentage but no success. Several Allens, including a brother of Ethan Allen, settled in the valley and it appears most of them came from Scotch-Irish families which originally came into port at Philadelphia and began migrating down the Shenandoah. These settlers were busy taming the wilderness and didn't have much time to waste with reading and writing, which makes it difficult to find good records.

A little history here of George Rogers Clark will reveal some of the ties Isaac had with Clark which includes theories by this writer. During the Revolution Patrick Henry was the Colonial Governor of Virginia and Virginia claimed the present-day West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois as part of of her territory. Clark was a Virginia native and a friend of Patrick Henry.

More History here:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~inparke/BiosRoachAllen.htm

Before his famous march to Vincennes he did some walking about in the Kentucky settlements. A two-volume book on Clark's life was written in 1895 by William English, a President of the Indiana Historical Society and builder of the English Hotel which was located on the Circle in downtown Indianapolis. In his book he lists Clark's soldiers, which includes Isaac. When Clark travelled about Kentucky, English says he took a walk from Fort Harrod (Harrodsburg, Kentucky) to Fort Boone (Daniel Boone's Fort), a distance of about forty miles, and that overnight he stayed at the home of the Pettits. Now Isaac's first wife was Frances Elizabeth Pettit. Gordon Allen believes that when Isaac went back to his home in Virginia after leaving Vincennes, he picked up Frances Elizabeth in the Jessamine County, Kentucky area and took her with him back to his home in Virginia where they raised six children. Her Pettit family was not originally in his home area because the first population census for the year 1790 shows no Pettit family anywhere near his Scott County, Virginia home. Their children's names were Thomas, Annie, Isham (Isom), William, Jane, and David.

When Patrick Henry wanted an army to push the British out of Virginia's territory he called upon a fellow Virginian, George Rogers Clark, to create a force to the job. Clark called for men to assemble at Fort Pitt (Pittsburg Pennsylvania). He sent one of his officers in to the Appalachian region of present day southwestwern Virginia to pick up more volunteers. Isaac was one of these. This force met at the falls of the Ohio (Louisville, Kentucky). When the men were assembled Clark revealed his plan to float down the Ohio on rafts.They came ashore near present-day Shawneetown, Illinois and marched across country to the French settlement of Kaskasia. After capturing Kaskasia and winning the allegiance of its citizens, he dispatched part of his army up the Mississippi to capture Cahokia, near present day St. Louis. This completed, he marched across southern Illinois to Fort Sackville. This was in mid-winter and the weather was wet and nasty. The British General Hamilton was taken completely by surprise and quickly induced to surrrender whereby he was taken prisoner and escorted with a guard to Virginia and held as a P.O.W. but later exchanged and released.

The death of Frances Elizabeth is unknown but it's said she died at Crab Orchard, Kentucky. Crab Orchard is near Pettit's Station, an early fort no longer on the map, which was established by Benjamin Pettit from Virginia. She is possibly a descendant. Isaac's second wife was a widow, (Margaret Elizabeth Poplett). By her he had three more children, who were James, Isaac, Jr., and Peggie (Margaret). This Poplett name appeared nowhere in the early population census reports so it's somewhat of a mystery where her family came from. Maybe, someone knows.

About the year 1825 Isaac and his clan migrated from Virginia to Morgan County, Kentucky. His daughter, Annie, married Lewis Henry and remained in Morgan County where she raised her family of ten children. She's buried in the Henry Cemetery on Caney Road near the village of Index. Isaac's son, William, married Jane Summers, and his daughter, Jane, married John Summers III. His son, Thomas, married Elizabeth Summers.(William, Jane and Thomas Summers were children of John Summers II). Thus, there are close ties of the Allen and Summers families. Records in Morgan County show where Thomas and his brother-in-law, John Summers III were assigned to lay out a road in the Caney Creek area. Also they took up about 50 Acres of land from the government. As for Annie's husband, Lewis Henry, his family also came from Virginia and it's possible he was related in some way to Patrick Henry. This would be interesting to know.

Most of Isaac's people left Morgan County after a short time and took up land around the Wolf Creek Church area, 2 and 1/2 miles south of Wallace, Indiana, purchased from the government. His son-in-law, John Summers III, donated land for the church and cemetery. Many of these people, including Isaac, are buried there. Over the years Isaac's descendants have multiplied rapidly and there are surely thousands living today in all parts of the nation. To date, Gordon Allen has identified about 300 of these and hopes to find many more so as to compile a publication to be placed in libraries, and some for sale. (Anyone interested and claiming descent should contact:

Gordon Allen, 9342 Crestview Drive,

Indianapolis, Indiana 46240

phone 317-846-5026.

Please show how you are descended and provide as much detail as possible such as dates of birth, marriage, deaths, parentage, children, brothers, sisters,etc., also where others can be contacted.)

Note: During a telephone conversation with Gordon Allen, Lyle VanHook was informed that the familys of Summers and Allen were acquainted with each other in Virginia before either of them emigrated to Indiana..... which he stated, "was about 1827".

For those who have interest in an affiliation with the Daughters (or Sons) of The American Revolution, and who wish to use their descendancy from Isaac C. Allen for qualification purposes, they can find a listing for him in the 1990 DAR Patriot Index - Centennial Edition, Part one.