ON THE DAY of the battle of the Blue Licks, recorded by Theodore Roosevelt as "the last battle of the Revolution,"
Jonathan Boone Allen, grandson of Jonathan Boone and ancestor of scores of people in Pike and neighboring counties,
was born in a stockade on the wild Kentucky border. On this day, August 19, 1782, on the Licking river, Daniel
Boone's son Israel fell in battle with the Indians; as did also Thomas, the son of his brother Samuel, while Squire,
another son of Samuel, was seriously wounded in the great rout of the whites.
In this battle, Zachariah Allen, Jonathan's father, fought with the Indians even as his son was born. In this same
battle, Abraham Scholl, of blessed Pike county memory, and his brothers Peter and Joseph, one of whom married a
daughter of Edward (Neddie) Boone and the other a daughter of Daniel Boone, fought gloriously and well by Daniel
Boone's side; as did also Aaron Reynolds, great grandfather of Frank Lindsey of Milton, famed on the Kentucky border
for his doughty challenge of the noted renegade, Simon Girty, at the attack on Bryan's Station, immediately preceding
the Blue Licks defeat.
Jonathan Boone Allen, born on the last day of the Revolution, was probably the first-born of Zachariah and Dinah
Allen; at least he was the earliest born of the children of whom we have found any record. He was the eldest brother
of Polly Thornton and Sally Garrison, and the brother of Lewis Allen, militant early-day Baptist, of whom we have
written in former chapters. Jonathan Boone Allen was fifty years old when he enlisted as a private from Pike county
in the Black Hawk war in 1832, enrolling in Captain Benjamin Barney's company, of which his brother, Lewis Allen,
was second lieutenant.
Little is known of Jonathan Boone Allen or his family. An early writing in reference to Pike and Calhoun counties
speaks of Jonathan B. Allen as one of the earliest comers to Pike county and as having been "born in a Kentucky
stockade while his father was fighting Indians in the famous Blue Licks defeat." Born in the darkest and bloodiest
period on the "dark and bloody" ground, he was literally cradled in the wilderness. He grew to manhood
in Boone and Warren counties, Kentucky, and on the banks of the Wabash river, near the settlement of his grandfather,
Jonathan Boone, who had built a mill there. From the banks of the Wabash he came to Pike county, Illinois.
Of Jonathan Boone Allen's wife, nothing is known, except that her first name was Caroline and that she died in
Pike county February 13, 1826. It is supposed she is buried in what is now the French cemetery near Milton, in
the burial plot where were buried her husband's parents, Zachariah and Dinah Boone Allen. Not even grandsons who
are living know who their Grandmother Allen was. Her identity is even more obscure than that of Lewis Allen's wife,
whose first name was Chloe, and who may have been Chloe Van Bibber, a daughter of Peter Van Bibber. Jonathan and
Lewis Allen were both married in Kentucky and brought their wives with them to Pike county, Illinois, in the spring
of 1822. They are known to have arrived here prior to June in that year, inasmuch as one member of the immigrant
party (Joseph Jackson) was called for jury service by the first Pike County Commissioners' court sitting at Coles'
Grove in what is now Calhoun county, on June 4, 1822.
Jonathan Boone Allen appears never to have become a landowner in Pike county; at least the writer has been unable
to find any record of a land grant of any sort to Jonathan B. Allen; the name of Jonathan B. Allen, however, is
of frequent occurrence in early Pike county records, none of which throw any light upon his family history. On
June 6, 1827, the Pike County Commissioners at Atlas, dividing the county into five districts for the purpose of
electing justices of the peace and constables, pursuant to an act of the last General Assembly, established a district
comprising what is now Pearl, Spring Creek, Montezuma, Hardin and the south one-half of Newburg and Detroit townships
and called it Illinois Precinct and ordered that elections therein be held at the house of Jonathan B. Allen, which
was near the present Cross Roads school house south of Milton, and on land which later, in December, 1835, was
taken up from the government by Bonaparte Greathouse. George S. Hill, Daniel Husong and John Greathouse were designated
judges of election at the Jonathan B. Allen polling place.
In Pike county, about the year 1825, there was born to the Jonathan Boone Allens a son, Andrew Allen. This son
of the Jonathan Allens is still remembered by the older settlers in and around Montezuma and Pearl townships, although
none was found who could tell who was Andrew Allen's father. Many surmised that Andrew Allen was a Boone, inasmuch
as they knew of him having had a son called Boone Allen. Andrew Allen's father had left Pike county prior to the
birth of the oldest natives of Montezuma and Pearl, and no record of Jonathan Allen or his wife had come down to
any of their descendants.
Andrew Allen died May 8, 1881 at Concord, Callaway county, Missouri, and is buried there. He was born in Pike county,
Illinois, about 1825. His wife, who was Caroline Shaden of Kentucky lineage, died February 18, 1896, at Fisk in
Stoddard county, Missouri, and was buried across the St. Francis river at Ash Hill in butler county, Missouri.
Some meager records were found by the writer in an old and dilapidated Callender family Bible in the possession
of Mrs. Julia Hammond, a great great granddaughter of Dinah Boone, residing in a remote settlement several miles
southwest of Winchester in Scott county. These records show that Caroline Shaden was born December 20, 1840. She
first married a man by the name of Rogers and by him had one son, John Wesley Rogers, born June 1, 1858, and who
died August 31, 1896 at Dudley in Stoddard county, Missouri.
Upon the death of her first husband, Caroline Shaden Rogers married Andrew Allen, son of Jonathan Boone Allen,
about 1860, the wedding occurring in Missouri. Fannie Allen Callender, whose death at 70 occurred at Pearl in 1933,
was a daughter of this marriage, she being a granddaughter of Jonathan Boone Allen and a great granddaughter of
Dinah Boone.
Sarah Ann Frances Allen (who was known as Fannie Allen) was born in the state of Arkansas on February 11, 1863.
Numerous persons in this part of Illinois trace their Boone descent through her. She was married at the age of
17 to William Thomas Callender, a son of James and Polly (Turner) Callender, the latter a native of Kentucky, her
family having been intimately associated with the Kentucky Boones. William T. Callender died at Pearl August 21,
1933 at the age of 80, having been born in Hardin township, near Milton, May 20, 1853. His wife, widowed only a
few months, died in the same year, December 29, 1933, aged nearly 71. Her son, Andrew Callender, making official
report of his mother's death, stated that his mother's birthplace and the birthplaces of her father and mother
and the maiden name of his mother were unknown, the death certificate so showing.
To William Thomas and Fannie Allen Callender were born these sons and daughters, who are great grandchildren of
Jonathan Boone Allen and great great grandchildren of Dinah Boone, daughter of Jonathan, the brother of Daniel:
Thomas Martin Callender, who resides under the levee, south from the Scott county landing of the Illinois river
ferry at Pearl, and who married Bertha Baize of Hillview and whose children are Anna Frances, Martin, Jr., Dorothy,
Juanita and Jeanette; Pearl, wife of Howard Brayman of Hardin, Calhoun county, and whose children are Isabel, married
and living at Bloomington, Illinois, William of Hardin, and Bernice, who married Roy Garrison at Hillview and lives
at Berdan in Greene county; Mrs. Lena Lindsey of Carrollton, Greene county; Alice, wife of George Eldridge Street
of Pearl, whose children are Mary Frances and William Eldridge; Julia, wife of Ernest Hammond, who lives on Route
2, Winchester, Scott county; Andrew who lives with his sister Julia; and Mary, deceased wife of Walter Boyd, who
is survived by three children of a former husband, Lee Custer, namely, Lester, Gladys and Trula Custer of Bloomington.
Mrs. Boyd died at Alton shortly after the deaths of her parents. When the wife of Lee Custer, she lived at Wood
River, Illinois.
The children of the Callenders were born in several states, the parents having traveled far and wide, so-journing
first in one state and then another, especially in the south, but at last settling down again in Pike county, Illinois,
where both passed away in 1933. Children were born in Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas; Mrs. Alice Street of Pearl
was born in Williamsville, Grenada county, Mississippi.
In the homes of these Boone descendants, humble though some of them are, the finest of old-fashioned hospitality
prevails. The flavor of the old timers in there, of those days when, as Zachariah Garrison put it, people "ate
hog and hominy, lived sociably and enjoyed each other's company with true friendship."
The Boone blood still pounds in the veins of these Boone descendants. The women are resourceful, able to turn to
account for the family's advantage whatever is at hand. The men are hunters; the call of wood and stream is ever
in their ears. Said Martin Callender, at his home under the Illinois river levee: "I remember my mother saying
her people were hunters and led a wilderness life — that they were always dependent upon themselves. I reckon,"
said he, "I have the Boone blood; I, too, like to hunt."
Family records, especially on the Boone side, are lacking in all of these homes of the Boone Allen descendants.
The Callender family Bible, one of the huge volumes that usually adorned the center table in early Pike county
homes, was found but the Allen family Bible, believed to have been kept by Lewis Allen, the pioneer preacher, could
not be located. Some of these Boone descendants knew in a vague sort of way that they were somehow related to Daniel
Boone, but none knew in what way their Boone relationship came about. None had any record or history of their mother's
family and, excepting the name of their mother's father, none knew anything of either of their maternal grandparents.
The pioneers were forced to travel life with a light pack. Consequently, they did not burden themselves with family
records when they set forth on their wilderness journeys. Carrying only the requisites exacted by the wilderness,
they left little of written record to be passed down to their descendants. So it is that visits to home after home
of these Boone descendants reveal nothing in the way of authentic family record, the descendants themselves knowing
little or nothing of their family forebears.
George Andrew Allen, past 70, a son of Andrew and a grandson of Jonathan Boone Allen of early Pike county, writing
from Route No. 1, Crosby, Texas, says:
"My Father's Name was Andrew Allen. He was the Son of Jonathan Boone Allen. I just heard of my parents speaking
of the too Sisters Sally and Polly, and the name of Garrison and Thornton. I haven't any record of my Father's
Father only he was a Son of Jonathan Boone Allen. I don't know of anything of my Father's Mother. My Mother's Name
was Shaden and she first married a man by the Name of Rogers. He died, then she Married my Father Andrew Allen.
She was Born in Ill., but don't know where at. She died at Fisk, Mo., and buried a place Call Ash Hill, Mo. I have
one deceased Brother Name Daniel Boone Allen. My full name George Andrew Allen. My Father died and was buried at
Concord, Mo., that all the information I can give you of the Ancestor of the Boone record. I have heard my folks
speaking of us being relatived to the Boone Family when I was real Small. My Parents both died while I was still
Young. I havent any Family record of any of my folks."
A typical Boone letter this, and affording another instance of the dearth of family records among the Boone descendants,
many of whom do not even know of such descent, even though tracing back in an unbroken line to the first Boone
in America.
Another grandson of Jonathan Boone Allen, Marion Allen, five or six years younger than George Andrew Allen, resides
with the family of Douglas W. Suppes of Moweaqua, Illinois. Until recently he had been a resident on one of the
Kincade farms in Scott county, five miles northeast of Winchester. Mr. Suppes, writing at Marion Allen's dictation,
says that Andrew Allen had four sons and three daughters, namely, George, Boone, Lathe, Marion, Lizzie, Mollie
and Fannie (the latter, Fannie Allen Callender, being the only one of the sisters of whom there is any record in
Pike county). The grandfather, Marion Allen, remembers as Garrison Allen but he says his elder brother George (quoted
above) would be the better authority on matters of family history. Andrew Allen (his father) he says has been dead
50 years (he died May 8, 1881) and was buried at Concord, Missouri. Andrew Allen's wife he says was born in Kentucky
(George Allen says somewhere in Illinois), has been dead about 40 years (died February 18, 1896), and is buried
at Ash Hill, Missouri. Marion Allen does not know where his father was born or whether he had any brothers or sisters.
The Thorntons, he says, were first cousins of his. Marion Allen was named for Francis Marion, the "leader
frank and bold," in whose gallant band his great grandfather Allen served in the closing years of the Revolution.
Daniel Boone Allen, mentioned by George and Marion Allen as a brother, was killed in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, many
years ago, "shot in the back at a sawmill," according to his nephew, Martin Callender, "by a rival
in a feud over a girl." He was generally known as Boone Allen, and was so known years ago around Milton and
Pearl. He is buried in the St. Francis river country in southeastern Missouri, where numerous of the Pike county
Allens of Boone lineage settled in the 1830s and 1840s and where most of them died and are buried, chiefly in the
counties of Stoddard and Butler, on either side of the St. Francis.
The Thorntons (mentioned by Marion Allen as his cousins) were sons and daughters of Larkin and Polly Allen Thornton,
whose story has been told in a preceding chapter. Polly Thornton, youngest daughter of Zachariah and Dinah Boone
Allen, became the mother of three sons and two daughters. Her son, Squire Nathan A. Thornton, is the Pike county
descendant whose statement of his ancestry recorded in a former chapter constitutes a most important contribution
to Boone genealogy in America.
Other Dinah Boone grandchildren of the Thornton name were Larkin and Polly Thornton's first-born son, Daniel Boone
Thornton, and their second-born, James Monroe Thornton, Nathan being the youngest of the sons. There were also
two daughters, Nancy and Sally, older than Nathan.
Nancy Thornton married Jeff O'Donald of Wellsville, Missouri (the name is written "O'Donnell" in records
of the Larkin Thornton estate); he died at Green Pond February 25, 1888, and is buried in Montgomery county, Missouri.
Sally married Alvin Wiggins and moved to Yam Hill county, Oregon, where she died, she being deceased at the time
of her father's death on December 19, 1878. She was survived by a daughter, Mary Wiggins, a minor at the time of
her grandfather's death, and for whom, as an heir of his estate, Quitman Brown was named guardian ad litem. Attorney
James S. Irwin on January 19, 1881, deposed in county court before Judge Strother S. Grigsby that Mary Wiggins
was then a resident of Yam Hill county, Oregon, and that her post office was Dayton, Oregon.
Larkin Thornton was survived at his death by his widow, Polly C. Thornton; his children, James M., Nathan A. and
Nancy O'Donnell; and his granddaughter, Mary Wiggins. Polly Thornton was unable to write her name, her signature
to various documents connected with the settlement of her husband's estate being by mark. A note given by Andrew
Allen and endorsed by Larkin Thornton also reveals that Andrew Allen signed only by mark. The earliest documents
on file in the county show that many of the earliest settlers were unable to write; pioneer women who were unable
to write their names were the rule rather than the exception. Stewart Lindsey, George W. Hanks and David A. Williams,
all early settlers in the Boone neighborhood near Milton, were appointed appraisers of the Larkin Thornton estate.
The S1/2 of the N1/2 of the SW of Section 31, Detroit township (now owned by Arthur E. Sneeden) was the old Larkin
Thornton homestead.
Nathan Thornton was never married. James Monroe Thornton married Sarah Delirah Hayton, a daughter of James Hayton
of Time and Sarah Barber of Milton; she died at Pleasant Hill March 6, 1930, aged 89, and is buried in Crescent
Heights cemetery near Pleasant Hill. Her husband preceded her in death. To them were born the following children:
Alexander Monteville, who married Sarah C. Lindsey at Detroit December 7, 1891, she being a native of Missouri
and a daughter of Jasper and Jane (Painter) Lindsey; Laura, who died on Buckhorn June 13, 1884, at the age of 21,
and who is buried at Green Pond; Warren, who is in Jacksonville, Illinois; Ellen, who married Austin Crowder September
11, 1892, and lives at Pleasant Hill; Holly who is a resident of Carrollton, Illinois; and Chloe, who married Joseph
G. Kenyon August 21, 1902, and lives in the old Boone settlement near Milton. There are also a number of Dinah
Boone grandchildren of the Thornton line in the third, fourth and fifth generation.
Another great grandson of Dinah Boone still living in Pike county is William Groce of Pearl, aged 70, last of a
family of five children born to Isaac A. and Lucy Garrison Groce, she the youngest child of Elijah and Sally Allen
Garrison, born after the Garrisons settled in Pike county, and married to Isaac A. Groce in 1853.