Maria Malleville Allen

Mallie, as all the Maria Mallevilles were called, was spoken of as a sweet, caring and sensitive girl, pure in spirit and loving. When her warm and nurturing mother (also named Mallie) suddenly passed away after the birth of her eighth child (Mary Annette,) young Mallie was disconsolate. The family writes that she never recovered. She lived another four years or so, but her spirit seemed to be drooping—as people said in those days when someone young died, "like a flower, she was cut off in the bloom of her youth." Her grieving spirit seems to have led to a physical condition, perhaps a stroke, that caused her death. She died while the family was still living at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Cumberland County, Maine, where her father Rev William Allen was the college's president. Here is her obituary:

Died: 30 Jan 1833 Monday, February 4, 1833. Portland Advertiser (Portland, Maine.) page 3 Source, GenealogyBank.com

"Died In Brunswick, on Tuesday last, Miss Maria Malleville Allen, daughter of President Allen, age 17 years. Never was there a purer spirit called to its home, than hers, whose death we have now to mourn. All that is virtuous or amiable, that was ever attributed to mortal, was centered in her. She possessed an exterior of uncommon beauty, but the gem within was of far greater worth. She will long live in the memory of her friends, to whom her patient resignation during a painful illness doubly endeared her. Of Miss Allen it might be truly said, "None knew her but to love, none saw her but to praise," and nothing but the blest assurance that "our loss is her gain" could reconcile her friends to her early death. They drew flattering expectations of her future usefulness and goodness, but her pure spirit was not of earth, and has winged its way to its native heaven."

Her siblings never forgot her, especially my second great grandmother Elizabeth Lee, who was next to her in age.