Ira Allen

Ira Allen, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre

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Ira Allen

1814-1900

Biographical Sketch

Early life in Indiana

Ira Allen was born April 27, 1814 in Thompson, Windham County, Connecticut to Simeon Allen and Elizabeth Leavens. His forebears were New Englanders. Allens' father was born in Massachusetts but settled in Connecticut before moving west to Indiana.

Allen was born in Eel River Township in the recently formed and sparsely settled Hendricks County in west-central Indiana. His family were among the early pioneers in Indiana.

In 1834, Allen married Calista Bass. In 1835, their first child died in childbirth. Their second child, Andrew Augustus Allen, was born in 1836. Calista bore him six more children between 1839 and 1846. During that time, the Allen family relocated to Michigan where, evidently, they heard the Mormon message.

Immigration to Utah

In 1845, the Allen family joined the Mormon settlers in western Illinois and, following the difficulties there, they moved west to Iowa Territory. In 1850, the Allens immigrated to the valley of the Great Salt Lake and immediately headed south to settle an area later known as Springville near Utah Lake. In 1852, Allen entered into polygamy by taking a second wife, Keziah Benson (1925-1901), the daughter of Alva Benson and Cynthia Vail. She would later bear him eight children, only three of whom lived to adulthood.

In 1853, Allen and his two wives and children moved south to the Little Salt Lake Valley (now the Parowan Valley) in southern Utah. There they aided in founding the Iron Mission headquartered in Cedar City. Most of the younger men involved in the later massacre were either unmarried or in monogamous marriages. Many of the older, more senior men were polygamously married such as William Dame, Isaac Haight, John Higbee, Philip Klingensmith and -- the most married of them all -- John D. Lee. Ira Allen was among those involved in polygamy.

In the Iron Military District: 2nd Lieutenant Ira Allen, Company E, Isaac Haight's 2nd Battalion

In 1857, Ira Allen, 43, was the 2nd Lieutenant in a platoon in Captain Elias Morris's Company E. The company was attached to Major Isaac Haight's 2nd Battalion of the Iron County militia. Around Friday, September 4, Joel White and Philip Klingensmith left Cedar City for Pinto with an express, which, they claim, directed those at Pinto to pacify the Indians. They met John D. Lee who was bound for Cedar City. According to them, Lee reacted angrily when he heard of the message they carried. After delivering their express in Pinto, their returned toward Cedar City. They met Ira Allen carrying a new express. According to them, Allen said that the emigrants' "doom was sealed." During that time, Majors Haight and Lee had met secretly in Cedar City. This new express reflected the plans Haight and Lee had in store for the Arkansas company.

After the attack on the emigrants on Monday, September 7, Majors Haight and Higbee assembled several ad hoc militia detachments in Cedar City that rode to Mountain Meadows over the course of the week. Ira Allen was in one of these detachments. Allen was present during the Thursday evening militia council that sealed the fate of the emigrants. Allen was at the Meadows on Friday, September 11, and it seems likely that he was among the Cedar City militiamen who marched alongside the emigrant men when they left the protection of the wagon circle. However, Allen's actions during the actual massacre are not known with certainty.

The 1859 arrest warranty named, among others, Ira Allen "and son". It is clear that Ira Allen played in role in important events surrounding the massacre. But there is considerable doubt about his son Andrew's involvement in the massacre. In Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Walker, Turley and Leonard opine that Andrew Allen may not have been present.

Later Life

In 1858, Allen married Cynthia Elizabeth Benson (1841-1913), the younger sister of his wife Keziah. The following summer, their first child was born before they left Cedar City. Cynthia bore him nine more children between 1862 and 1883, after they had moved north and settled in Cache Valley, Utah.

The dual disasters of the massacre and the failure of the iron works caused many to abandon Cedar City in 1858-59 for other parts. Among them was the Allen family. In spring 1860, they moved to Cache County in northern Utah, joining the rush of new settlers to that newly-opened region. Cache Valley is an alpine-like valley, 50 miles wide and 12 miles wide surrounded by mountains. The Allens and other Americans joined immigrants from England, Scotland and Scandanavia in founding Hyrum, Utah. Initially, they lived in wagon boxes and sod houses. In the spring they planted crops. Then Allen led a group in digging a 9-mile extension of the irrigation ditch from the Little Bear River near Old Paradise to their new settlement. Shoes were in scarce supply so Allen made his children shoes from rawhide. In the early years in Cache Valley there were bears including grizzlies. Allen is credited with peppering a charging grizzly with buckshot before on of his companions felled it with a final shot. As time went by he built and operated a molasses mill which processed sugar cane into molasses. After he closed the mill, he started in apiary, tending the beehives himself and selling the honey. There were no doctors in Hyrum so his neighbors came to Allen to sent simple fractures and provide help in medical emergencies. Allen had learned how to set a fracture during his earlier life in the East. He carried a book which contained home remedies and formulas for salves. Allen also had a granary, attached to which was a carpenter shop. There workers built furniture and other necessary implements for the community. In 1873, he was on the board of directions of the Wasatch steam mill company. In additon to that the townspeople in Hyrum operated a variety of cooperatives for stores, roads, livestock, and mills. In 1875, these coops were combined into the United Order of Hyrum. Allen and his son Andrew were on its board of directors. During his four decades in Cache Valley, Allen also served as postmaster and road builder and held other civic or church positions as well.

During the period of the anti-polygamy "raid" in the 1880s, Allen was prosecuted for Unlawful Cohabitation ("U.C."). In 1888, following his conviction he paid a $300 fine and served a six month term in the Utah penitentiary. Following his release, he faced a dilemma: Should he have one of his wives (they were sisters) leave the family home in order to avoid further prosecutions for U.C. In the end, he determined to leave the family home and move to a vacant home a block away. There he lived by himself for several years. In the 1890s as his health declined, his wives, Keziah and Cynthia, determined the one of them should marry Allen so he could legally return to the home where he could receive better care. Keziah moved from the family home, Cynthia married Allen and he moved in where Cynthia cared for him.

In 1900, after a three-week illness with typhoid fever, he died at the age of 86, survived by his second and third wives, Keziah and Cynthia, and his many children. Keziah moved back into the family home and lived with Cynthia until Keziah's death in 1901. Cynthia remained in the family home until her death in 1913.

Ira Allen, c. 1860s.

References

Allen, et al, Home in the Hills of Bridger Land [Hyrum, Utah], 9-14, 23, 30, 47-48, 50-51, 56-61, 69. 73, 88; Bagley, Blood of the Prophet, 171, 172, 275; Bigler and Bagley, Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives, 70 fn. 14, 122, 235, 345; Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, 714; FamilySearch.org; Fielding, ed., The Tribune Reports of the Trials of John D. Lee, 112; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, ; Lee Trial transcripts; Ricks, The History of a Valley: Cache Valley, Utah-Idaho, 44-45; Turley and Walker, Mountain Meadows Massacre: Jenson and Morris Collections, 107, 119, 223; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 142, 187, 193, 201, 254, Appendix C, 256.

External Links

For more on Ira Allen see:

• http://www.mendonutah.net/history/cache_county/39.htm
• See also Alvin Allen, Ira Allen: Founder of Hyrum (1947)

Further information and confirmation needed. Please contact editor@1857ironcountymilitia.com.