Allen Family History

Patriarchal Blessings given to Ira Allen: (volume 9, page 306)

No. 917 July 21st. A blessing by John Smith Patriarch, upon the head of Ira Allan son of Simeon & Elizabeth, born April 27th 1814 Windham Co. Connecticut.

Bro. Ira I lay my hands upon thy head by the authority which God has given me to bless the fatherless, & in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth I seal a fathers blessing upon thee, thou art of the house of Jacob & of the family of Levi, & a lawful heir to the priesthood, & all the blessings of the house of Levi, thou shalt have an inheritance in the land of Zion with the children of Joseph, & in due time thou shalt be crowned with the blessings of Ephraim & be introduced into the mysteries & privileges of the gospel, & have a knowledge of all things pertaining to the gathering of Isreal, thou shalt go forth as a mighty man to gather up the remnants of Jacob, shall have great success in accomplishing a mighty mission in removing stumbling blocks, in showing the way of salvation so clearly that thousands will receive it, for thou shalt be filled with the holy ghost, & thy voice shall be might, thou shalt gather by hundreds & lead them to Zion & establish them in the land of Joseph, thou shalt be blest in thy family & be prosperous in all things that you put your hands to do, thy children shall be numerous, & thy companion shall be filled with the holy spirit, & shall have faith to heal the sick, thy name shall be had in honorable remembrance among the saints through all the generations of thy posterity, the number of thy years shall be according to thy faith, even to see Israel gather from all parts of the earth, & Zion built up in righteousness, & thou shalt be satisfied with every good thing & in the end inherit eternal life in company with thy companion, & inasmuch as you abide in the faith these words shall not fail. Even so amen. Albert Carrington Recorder

~~~~~~ (volume 35, page 342)

Brother Ira in the name of Jesus of Nazareth by virtue of the Holy Priesthood in me vested I place my hands upon thy head and seal upon thee a Patriarchal or Fathers blessing which shall rest upon thee and thou shalt realize the fulfillment thereof in as much as thou wilt continue in faith in keeping the commandments of Lord thy God. Thy days shall yet be many upon the earth. The holy angels shall be with thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up and deliver thee from all thy enemies and from the temptations of the evil one who wood seek the overthrow and downfall of the sons of Adam. Thou shalt become mighty a teacher to the Lamanites and many of them shall be made to rejoice because of thy tuition. Thou shalt go forth when the strength of the Lords house is called for in the redemption of Zion. The angels of vengeance shall be with thee shall serve and strengthen thy (____) and no power shall be able to withstand thee that thou mayest be able to accomplish thy work wisdom shall be given unto thee that thou mayest be able to fill any mission or station wherever to thou shalt be called. Thou are of the seed of Abraham of the loins of Joseph and blood of Ephraim a lawfull heir to the fullness of the Holy Priesthood which thou shalt receive in due time that thou mayest be able to redeem thy progenitors both the living and the dead who shall be brought unto thy mansion which thy heavenly father hath prepared for thee. Thou art a father in Isreal thy posterity shall multiply and become numerous upon the earth. Thy name shall be perpetuated to the latest generation. I seal upon thy head the blessings of thy Fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Thou shalt receive the dews of heaven and of the fruits of the earth wealth shall flow into thy hands that thou mayest be able to assist those who shall need thy succor and assist in the advancement of the Redeemers Kingdom upon the earth good order shall rest in thy habitations. Thou shalt receive all things needful to render life happy and agreeable as on of the horns of Joseph thou shalt become a swift messenger to those who dwell in darkness lift thy voice to Jew and Gentile and many of the scattered remnants of Isreal shall be introduced through thy instrumentality into the New and Everlasting Covenant. No miracle shall be to hard for thee to perform wether by land or by sea which is necessary for the advancement of thy work. Thou shalt behold the downfall of many people and overthrow of cities the spread of the Kingdom of peace which shall spread from Nation to Nation and from land to land. Thou shalt delight thyself in the blessings and fruits of the earth when she shall yield her strength to man receive many blessings and privileges in the Temple in Zion be numbered with the hundred forty and four thousand reign with thy Redeemer upon the earth. Be thou therefore faithfull yield to no temptation and these blessings shall be sure unto thee. I seal them upon thy head in the name of Jesus of Nazareth even so Amen. Thomas A. Dowell clerk

Life Sketch of Ira Allen:

Ira Allen was born April 27, 1814 at Thompson (now Putnam), Windham County, Connecticut. He was the son of Simeon Allen and Elizabeth Leavens, both Connecticut natives. They were religious and taught Ira to keep the Sabbath day holy and to read the Bible. Ira grew up working on his father's farm. During the summer he worked on the farm and picked wild grapes and berries. In winter, he ice skated and went ice fishing. Thompson was a small country town in the northeast corner of Connecticut. It is full of many shade trees, rolling hills, and streams.

It is said that Ira was a handsome man, stocky with dark hair, a sharp nose, and deep blue eyes. As Ira grew up he learned to be a shoemaker and brick worker. When he was 20 years old, he married Calista Bass. Three years later, in 1837, Ira moved his young family to Michigan and settled in Litchfield, a small farming area that was settled just a few years previous. Six years later they moved about fourteen miles northwest to Clarendon.

The next year, in early February of 1845, Ira heard two LDS missionaries preaching in the neighborhood schoolhouse. Ira had previously never joined any church because he felt he couldn't find one which followed the gospel as taught in the New Testament. When Ira heard the missionaries preaching, he received a testimony that these Elders had the gospel of Jesus Christ. He invited them to his home to visit Calista, who was ill and practically bedridden. Both Ira and Calista accepted the gospel and were baptized February 9 of that year. After Calista was baptized she became well again and remained in good health for many, many years.

At this time Ira believed the main body of the Latter-day Saints were living in Nauvoo, Illinois, and Ira and Calista wanted to join them. They had not yet heard that many of the Saints had been driven from Nauvoo that February. Ira and his little family headed for Nauvoo and on the way they met a man who said he would procure a home for them in Nauvoo. They gave him $1300.00 for a home but were never able to live in it. They arrived in Nauvoo in June of 1845, one year after the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith. This was not a great time to be living in Nauvoo due to the persecutions the Saints faced. Ira and his family needed money, so he left Calista and their young children and went to his birthplace in Connecticut to sell the interest he had in his father's homestead. His brothers gave him $500.00 for his share in the property. Ira tried to teach the gospel to them while he was there but they would not accept it.

Ira returned to Nauvoo with the money and told Brigham Young, president of the twelve apostles, that he had raised $500.00 for his family. Brother Brigham asked him to donate it to the Church in order to assist families in poverty. Ira was still a new member of only six months and he told his children years later that this was a great trial.

On June 15, 1846, Ira, Calista, and their four living children, Andrew, Simeon Franklin (Frank), Elizabeth, and Emily, left Nauvoo and began traveling through Iowa. They stopped several times where Ira found work on farms. About two months later they arrived at Garden Grove, Iowa, which was 150 miles west of Nauvoo. The family rested there for several days and then continued another 40 miles to Mount Pisgah. After leaving Mount Pisgah, Calista gave birth in October to a son, Joseph Smith Allen, at a place called Harris Grove. The family continued their journey and arrived at Winter Quarters, Nebraska November 5, 1846. The winter spent at Winter Quarters was difficult, and Ira wrote: I had a wife and five children, the oldest ten years old, the youngest 23 days. We lived on bread all winter, except a quarter of a deer, and I and my children had not a boot or a shoe to our feet all winter. The next spring Ira found an old pair of shoes and walked 50 miles to St. Joseph, Missouri where he bailed hemp for three weeks and earned $21.00 plus his room and board.

Ira and his family remained at Winter Quarters for over three and a half years. During this time Ira helped care for the gardens which had been planted to provide food for Saints headed to the Great Salt Lake Valley. In December of 1847 Ira was in Kanesville, Iowa, another hub for the Latter-day Saints, when Brigham Young was sustained as president of the Church. Ira has written that he was thankful for a strong testimony of the restored gospel and for the privilege of seeing Brother Brigham sustained president of the Church and being able to shake his hand.

In 1850, Ira built a wagon and the family headed west on June 6 with the new wagon and the old one they had previously been using. They arrived in the valley October 30 of that year. They stayed at Salt Lake City for three weeks and were then called by Brigham Young to move 55 miles south to help build up Hobble Creek (now Springville). Ira served as the first Sunday School superintendent of Springville and also served on the town board.

In 1852, Ira married a second wife named Keziah Benson Judy, widow of Clark Judy. The next year, Ira and his family was called to live 200 miles south in Cedar City. That winter they lived in a tent and then rented a house in March of 1854. Ira served on the High Council and was also on the city council. Ira married Keziah's sister, Cynthia Elizabeth Benson, in 1858.

Farming was difficult in Cedar City because the soil was hard and dry. The water in the area was full of heavy silt and it was hard to cook with the dirty water. After seven and a half years in Cedar City, Ira felt his mission was over, and the family began looking for somewhere else to live. They decided to move north to Cache Valley. Part of the family headed north in March of 1860 and settled at Camp Hollow. Ira returned to Cedar City for the rest of the family that same year and then moved a mile to the new town of Hyrum (named in honor of Hyrum Smith). That fall, Ira built a large three-room log house a half block east of the public square on the south side of Main Street.

Ira left for a mission November 12, 1869. He served for six months in his native state of Connecticut. One of his relatives, Ezra Carpenter, accepted the gospel and came west, settling in Logan.

In 1875, Ira and his sons built a large frame house, the first in the area to have a full basement. On the main floor was a pantry, a summer kitchen, a cooking and dining room, two bedrooms, and a living room. Keziah and Cynthia wove a beautiful carpet for the living room. They placed straw on the floor and then stretched the carpet out over the straw and tacked it down near the walls. A porch ran along the west side of the house. The basement was used for storing molasses, honey, vegetables, and fruits. The upstairs was used as a sleeping quarters, store room, and also housed a loom. Ira enjoyed gardening and kept two city lots full of fruits and vegetables. He also owned a molasses mill and tended fruit trees. After he sold the molasses mill he started raising bees and tended 150 hives. Ira had a granary with a carpenter's shop above it where family and neighbors could bring broken furniture for repairs. He helped organize the cooperative mercantile store and was one of its directors for many years.

One year Ira traveled to Salt Lake City to attend General Conference, where he heard the Word of Wisdom explained fully. He was taught the harmful effects of liquor while in Cedar City, but had continued to smoke and chew tobacco and all of the family drank tea and coffee. Ira decided they would quit these things, but it wasn't easy. Ira often chewed the root of a herb called Indian Root to partially satisfy his craving for tobacco. In time he stopped chewing the root and was free of the habit of tobacco.

In the 1880s the Saints were persecuted heavily for polygamy. Ira was arrested in February 1888 and was required to pay a fine of $300.00 and serve six months in the Utah penitentiary for having more than one wife. Calista died in 1863 but Ira was still married to Keziah and her sister, Cynthia. After Ira was sent to prison, the Deseret Evening News reported his condition in April 1888: Ira Allen, now in the penitentiary for unlawful cohabitation, is in rather a bad condition. He is seventy-four years of age, and a great sufferer from asthma. He is unable to lie down to sleep, being compelled to occupy a sitting posture. His term will last till the latter part of July . . . and as a fine of $300 and costs was imposed, which he is unable to pay, he will be kept till the latter part of August. His health is gradually failing, and those who know him say he certainly cannot last the term out. Ira did make it home, but unfortunately the law required that both wives could not live in the same house, so Ira was forced to choose which wife he would continue to live with and which would have to move out. Ira would not hurt either of his wives, and said, two women who have lived together for 30 years in such peace and harmony and reared their children under one roof and eaten at one table, shall never be separated by me. So Ira went one block south and lived in his son's vacant house alone.

A memorable event took place in April of 1893, when Ira, Keziah and Cynthia, and four of their children traveled to Salt Lake to attend the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple. For years, Ira spent many hours doing temple work at the Logan Temple. By the time he died he had served as proxy for over 800 people in the temple. He attended his church meetings every Sunday even in the later years of his life.

Ira died at Hyrum December 21, 1900 after a three-week illness from typhoid fever. He was the father of 25 children, sixteen of whom lived to adulthood.

Conversion of Ira Allen:

Ira had never joined any church as he could find none which measured up to Christianity as taught in the New Testament. In February 1845 two Mormon Elders were preaching in the neighborhood school house. Ira went to hear them and received a testimony that they had the gospel for which he had been looking. The Elders were invited to his home to visit his invalid wife. They both accepted the Gospel and were baptized by Wm. J. Phelps, February 9, 1845. Ira's wife manifested great faith in the Priesthood held by the Elders and they administered to her. At the time of baptism the affliction left her body, and she remained in good health until the latter part of her life. As soon as Ira was baptized he had a desire to join the main body of the church at Nauvoo which they did within five months. In June 1845 the family moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, where they gave all the money they had, $1300, for a home but they were never privileged to move into it as the citizens of the county were up in arms against the Mormons. . . . In need of money, Ira left his family with friends while he went to Connecticut to sell his interest in the old homestead. His brothers paid him $500 for his share. None of his relatives would listen to his story of the restored gospel. Upon returning to Nauvoo he told Brigham Young of how he had raised $500. Brother Young asked him to turn it over to the Church to assist those in poverty. After serious consideration Ira did so but told his children many times afterward that it was a great trial since he had been in the Church only about six months. He said this was the only trial the gospel ever brought to him. This is one instance out of many which showed the great faith Ira manifested in his religion. Some years later, after reaching Utah, something better than the cash was returned to Ira $500 worth of wheat and flour at a time when foodstuff was scarce. (Ira Allen: Founder of Hyrum, p. 15; Ira Allen, pp. 4-12).

While residing in Michigan both he and his wife were converted to the Mormon faith through the preaching of a Mormon preacher, and he related that although his wife had long been an invalid she arose from her bed the next morning after her conversion and went about her domestic duties, and was ever after strong and well. From that time forward he was a zealous and consistent member of the Mormon sect . . . . he carried his faith into his daily walk of life, remaining steadfastly true to the principles and practices of the Mormon sect, twice suffering the martyrdom of imprisonment on account of his belief in and practice of polygamy, rather than obtain freedom by renouncing them. . . . He was a man of strong convictions, great willpower and sterling integrity.

He lived in Connecticut until the spring of 1837 when he and family moved to Hillsdale Co. Michigan. It was there he heard Mormonism and embraced it Feb. 9th 1845. In June of the same year he moved with his family to Nauvoo, Hancock Co., Ill. He left Nauvoo on June 15th 1846 and went to winter Quarters. The following is a short sketch of his experiences, taken from his own writings: I arrived at Winter quarters on the 5th of Nov. 1846. I had a wife and five children, the oldest ten years old, the youngest twenty-three days. We lived on bread all winter, except a quarter of a deer, and I and my children had not a boot or a shoe to our feet all winter. Ira later went to Connecticut and earned five hundred dollars so he and his family could go to Utah in 1848. When he returned to his family he met Brigham Young, who asked Ira to give the money to him. Ira gave the money to Brigham Young, who gave him a yoke of oxen. Ira arrived in Utah 3 October 1850 in a wagon he had made himself. He was a staunch Latter-day Saint, always setting a good example before his children. He died in full faith of the Gospel on December 21st, 1900 being in his 87th year (Biographies and Patriarchal Blessings of the Allen Family, [ca. 1949] pp. 1-4).

Testimony and Spiritual Experiences of Ira Allen:

Ira proved to be one of the most sturdy and progressive pioneers and aided in the construction of homes and public buildings. He was recognized for his dependability, fidelity to a trust, and his unswerving testimony of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the divinity of the great mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith. He attended a general conference at Salt Lake City shortly after coming to Hyrum where one of the speakers stressed the Word of Wisdom and Ira was so impressed that he decided to quit the use of tobacco, tea and coffee. . . . Ira was an ardent Latter-day Saint and a loving devoted husband and father. (Ira Allen: Founder of Hyrum, p. 63)

After becoming settled in the home, when Ira Allen made one of his trips to Salt Lake City by ox team to attend Conference, he heard the word of wisdom explained fully for the first time. While in Cedar City they had been taught the harmful effects of the use of liquor, but he had continued to smoke and chew as he had all his life. Ira loved the Gospel and wanted to understand it and live it completely. Perhaps he understood psychology for he decided in trying to live the word of wisdom he would replace a bad habit with a good one. He told his wives that he would always keep four or five cows so they could have plenty of milk and butter to replace the coffee, tea and pork. . . . He would quit his tobacco even if the habit was very strong and the family would quit their tea and coffee. They lived the Word of Wisdom from that day on. It wasn't easy. People laughed at them as they struggled to give up these things they had so long enjoyed. They made fun of Ira Allen because he chewed the root from a herb called Indian Root to partly satisfy the craving for tobacco. . . . It can be witnessed by many today, who were in his home, that he did obey the Lord in keeping the Word of Wisdom the rest of his life. (Ira Allen, p. 24).

One very unpleasant thing came into Ira's life in 1888 owing to the Edmunds-Tucker [anti-polygamy] law. . . . Ira was arrested in February 1888 and served six months in the Utah penitentiary and paid a fine of $300 for unlawful co-habitation. Those who had more than one wife could live with either that he chose but must not co-habit with the others. . . . Ira's two families were living in the same house and when he returned from the pen he must not live in the house until one of the women moved out. The question naturally arose in the minds of some, Which was Ira's favorite Keziah or Cynthia? True devotion and love was manifest when he said, Two women who have lived together for 30 years in such peace and harmony and reared their children under one roof and eaten at one table, shall never be separated by me. So Ira went one block south and lived in his son's vacant house alone. (Ira Allen: Founder of Hyrum, p. 61)

Deseret Evening News 25 April 1888: Ira Allen, now in the penitentiary for unlawful cohabitation, is in rather a bad condition. He is seventy-four years of age, and a great sufferer from asthma. He is unable to lie down to sleep, being compelled to occupy a sitting posture. His term will last till the latter part of July . . . and as a fine of $300 and costs was imposed, which he is unable to pay, he will be kept till the latter part of August. His health is gradually failing, and those who know him say he certainly cannot last the term out. (Journal History of the Church: Ira Allen)

Ira Allen: In April 1893, father Allen took his two wives and four children, Elam, Laura, Lottie, and Lucy, to the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple. They went by train catching it in Logan at 3 a.m. . . . At the dedication, President Wilford Woodruff's prophecy was fulfilled and the Allen family saw all four seasons enacted that day. It snowed, the wind blew so hard that sand sifted in around the windows, and the bricks blew off the top of some of the stores. It rained and then the sun came out bright and warm. The Allens stayed in the house that day as the weather was so unsettled, but went to the dedication on the third day. . . . Ira spent many hours doing temple work. He would leave home long before it was light in the mornings, in the horse and buggy to go to Logan to the Temple. They were only able to do one name a day, and would arrive home in the evening. . . . Nearly ten years after locating at Hyrum, Ira left for a Mission, Nov. 12, 1869, and stayed six months in his native state, Conn. Only one of his relatives would hear the gospel. (Ira Allen pp. 32-33).

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