Happy Birthday!
DRURY ALLEN, SR
BIOGRAPHY and GENEALOGY
(1777 – 1857)
Clarke County, Alabama
Drury Allen, Sr. was a pioneer to Alabama, born Nov. 26, 1777 in Ninty-Six District, SC. His will was proved in Clarke Co. Alabama in Feb. 1857 He came with his family to Clarkesville from Edgefield district, S. C., in 1811 or 1812. He brought his household goods on two pack horses and in a rolling hogshead along the pathway through the Indian tribes. He soon removed south of Suggsville, Alabama and found safety for his family during the Indian troubles in Fort Madison. The area that they settled was then known as Clarke County, Mississippi Territory.
He was in the expedition led by Capt. Dale connected with the Canoe Fight. Drury Allen, Sr. married 1st Margaret Waite who died in 1818 in Alabama. She was the daughter of John Waite; 2nd on Jan 17, 1821, Clarke Co., Nancy Fannie Webb, the daughter of Hendley Webb of Edgefield Co., South Carolina. “Drury was one of the minor orphans of Josiah Allen, deceased, in the estate settlement papers of Josiah Allen in 1784. Drury’s mother, nee Elizabeth DeLoach, was the second wife of Josiah and she later married Aaron Etheridge as her second husband. The will of Aaron Etheridge was proved in 1820, and he bequeathed a legacy to Drury Allen who was one of the children his wife had by Josiah Allen. There is no record of the marriage of Drury Allen and Margaret, but Ball’s accounts of the Allen and Waite families of Clarke Co. were taken from members of the family who were living in Clarke Co. at the time of Margaret’s death, so it should be accurate.”
“Drury’s name is found on a “Petition to Congress by purchasers of public lands east of Pearl River,” signed in 1815. Drury Allen was listed on the 1816 census of Clarke County, Mississippi Territory. Alabama became a state in 1819 and Clarke County is one of the counties fortunate enough to have their early records escape destruction. The will of Drury (Drewry) Allen was dated April 26, 1856, and presented in Clarke County court for probate on February 4, 1857. It mentioned four sons: Josiah, Henry, Drewry and Turner W. Allen. It also mentioned a daughter Nancy Herlock and four other children: Elizabeth Herlock, Susanna Mosely, Sarah French and Wade H. Allen.”
His children, by his first wife; were:
- Josiah Allen, Congregational Methodist minister, b. January 20. 1800, d. December 1891 in Jasper County, Miss., when thirteen years of age enlisted in Sam Dale’s Company.
- Henry Allen, b. in 1801, d. 1893 in Jasper County, Miss., m. 1st Sarah Latham in 1826, who died in 1855, 2nd in 1860, died in 1873, settled on Bassett’s Creek near Salem; children, 1. William Allen, m. Margaret Montgomery, 2. Margaret Allen m. William Champion, 3. Sarah Allen, m. Robert Nettles, 4. Miriam Allen, m. Jackson Hall, 5. Amanda Allen, m. William McAddin, 6. Mary Ann Allen, m. John Brown, 7. Martin Van Allen, m. Emily Southall, 8. John Calhoun Allen. d. at Richmond, Va.; in the C. S. Army;
- Drury Allen, Jr., b. May 20, 1807, settled in 1850, near Choctaw Corner, about three miles on the road to Claiborne, had five sons and four daughters;
- Nancy Allen;
- Barbara Allen
By is second wife;
- Bettie Allen
- Turner Webb Allen
- Susan Allen
- Sarah Allen
- Wade Hampton Allen
SOURCES
- History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume 3 By Thomas McAdory Owen, Marie Bankhead Owen
- ALLENS OF THE SOUTHERN STATES, by Norma C. Miller.
- Ancestry.com
