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Narm and Mandy Moore Allen
holding baby Esther Allen
Esther Allen was born on October 18, 1913 in Clay County, Kentucky. I believe that she was born at the Allen home place on Teges Creek which was named for her Great-great-Grandpa Adoniram “Tedious/Teges” Allen. She was the first child born to Adoniram “Narm” and Mandy Moore Allen.
Esther was born in the fall in the hills of Eastern Kentucky. Her newborn eyes must have been greeted by the loveliness of trees changing from their summer frocks into the scarlet, gold, orange and umber shades of autumn. There was probably a calming sense of slowing down in the air. Many of the summer chores would have been completed for the most part. Shocks of corn may have stood in the field, a visible remnant of the busyness of summer. Oh, her parents would still have had many, many chores to do, but fall seems like a quieter time and the new parents may have had a bit more time to marvel over the perfection of their first baby.
Esther would spend her childhood and on into her twenties there on Teges Creek. She would be joined by a younger brother and three younger sisters in the coming years. She would experience the loss of two grandmothers, her father and Fanny, her youngest sibling there.
Mandy Moore Allen, Rachel Allen, Nancy Jane Baker Allen,
John Allen and Narm Allen, Esther Allen in back
Life on Teges would have been difficult. The family survived by farming their small piece of land and it must have seemed that the list of chores to do was unending. Those chores were not just done by the adults. The children would also have to perform chores appropriate for their ages and their list would increase as they grew older.
The garden spot had to be prepared for planting. Narm would have likely done this with a mule pulling a plow. If a mule and plow were unavailable, the family would have had to scratch up the earth with hand tools.
After the garden spot was worked up, the seeds would have to be planted and they would need to plant a lot to feed the seven family members as well as the animals. They would have to grow enough, not just for now, but for the lean times of winter and early spring. Many of the seeds were likely carefully saved from last year’s crop. The family would have grown corn, beans, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbages, lettuce, peas…
After the plants started growing, the family would have had to spend hours hoeing out the weeds so their crops could not be smothered. This likely seemed like an unending chore in and of itself without even considering other chores. Every row must have seemed to be a long row to hoe for Esther and her siblings; especially when a creek with minnows and crawdads was nearby just begging to be waded.
Finally, after the crops had come in, they would have to be harvested. Some of the harvest would be used to feed the family at the time, but the rest would have to be preserved. Green beans might have been dried to make shuck beans or canned. Tomatoes would have been canned. Corn could have been dried and ground into meal. Corn could be canned or could be made into hominy. Pumpkins and cushaws could be canned or dried for later use. Potatoes, cabbages, apples, and other vegetables could be kept for extended periods in a root cellar or a hole dug into the ground and lined with straw. Produce was pickled; cucumbers, corn, green beans. Cabbage was chopped and made into sauerkraut. Raising and preserving the produce would have been time-consuming and necessary chores.
The family raised animals also: a cow for milk; chickens for eggs and meat; hogs for pork; probably a mule for transportation and help on the farm. Those animals had to be cared for. They had to be fed, eggs gathered, cows milked… In the winter, they would have to make sure to chop a hole in the frozen creek so the animals could drink water.
When the hogs were big enough and the weather cooler, the family would have to slaughter them. The carcass would have to be processed. The family did not have modern refrigeration so they had to keep the meat in other ways. Some of the cuts such as the bacon, ham and shoulders could be smoke-cured or salt or sugar-cured. Other cuts would be ground into sausage and the women would make them into sausage balls, fry them and then put them into jars covered with the grease to preserve for later use. The fat would be rendered into lard and later it might be made into bars of lye soap.
The family would have fruit and nut trees and the fruits from these trees would be harvested and preserved also. The surrounding environment would provide other sustenance for the family: berries; spring greens; medicinal herbs, roots, and barks; wildlife such as squirrels and rabbits to hunt for food.
The family had other chores also. Sacks that animal feed and flour had come in were repurposed into shirts, dresses, aprons… When those items became worn and unmendable, they would be repurposed yet again into quilts to keep the family warm in winter.
Wood had to be chopped, hauled and stacked for the family’s cooking, clothes washing, canning and heating. Every member of the family participated in these chores as to their abilities. Everyone in the family was a “Honey” and everyone had a “Honey do list’ and those chores were non-negotiable as the family’s survival depended upon them.
Esther’s dad Narm died from tuberculosis in 1927 and was buried in nearby Upper Sadler Cemetery on Esther’s mother’s birthday. Two years later, 16-year-old Esther would be the informant for little Fannie’s death from infantile paralysis. She would be buried in Upper Sadler Cemetery also.
John Allen and Mandy Moore Allen in front;
Rachel Allen, Alta Allen and Esther Allen in back
Mandy began to take in laundry to make a bit of spending money for the family after Narm’s death. Doing laundry back in those times was a difficult chore. I am sure that all of the kids would pitch in to help their mother out with this back-breaking work.
Esther and her younger siblings had non-negotiable chores, but they would have had had some downtime to visit with family and neighbors. I have been told that the family had a battery-operated radio after they became popular and somewhat affordable. Neighbors would come over and they would all listen to the Grand Ole Opry, serials, and the news together.
There was time to make eyes at the cute boy from the next holler over at Sunday go to meeting. There was time to play stickball with the siblings and the neighborhood kids. Many of the neighbors were kinfolk of one kind or another. Those that weren’t related by blood became family by shared experiences. They were a tight-knit community. Neighbors Spurgeon and Emma Murrell would become lifetime close friends to the family over multiple generations.
Esther and her family would likely not be much affected by the Great Depression. They grew much of their sustenance and had little need for much money. Oh, they likely noticed the Depression when coffee and sugar were rationed because those were among the few things that the family could not raise themselves. They would not know the hunger that many folks who lived in cities and could not farm would know.
The Depression did bring about public work programs designed to put unemployed people into jobs for the public good. Esther’s brother John would work in the CCC. He would work on building roads in eastern Kentucky and part of his wages would be sent back to the family to help provide for their needs. Sister Rachel also did some kind of public work although we have no idea of what that would have been.
Esther Allen, ??, ??, and Rachel Allen;
Mandy Moore Allen in background
In early 1940, Brother John would join the army and would live on a base in Arapahoe, Colorado. The United States had managed to stay out of WWII but after Pearl Harbor in 1941, the US would enter the fray and John would go overseas to fight.
Alta Allen, John Allen and Esther Allen
Esther’s sister Rachel would marry Boyd Nolen in 1940. Boyd’s family lived over the hill on Furnace Branch and Rachel would move out of the Allen home and move there. Esther, her mother, and younger sister Alta would remain together there on Teges. The families were just a mule-ride over the ridge apart so they would still see each other often. I am sure that Esther, Mandy, Alta, and Rachel likely wore a path across that hill.
Esther Allen in front; ??, ??,
Rachel Allen Nolen in rear
Rachel and Boyd had their first child, a daughter Loretta in 1941. They would go on to have nine babies in ten years of marriage. Mandy would have several grandbabies and Esther and Alta would have nieces and nephews. I have heard that Esther loved children and loved to dote on her nieces and nephews as well as other neighborhood children.
Rachel's children, Esther's nieces and nephews
Sometime in the early to mid-'40s, Esther and Alta would move to Dayton, Ohio in search of work. I am sure that the young girls enjoyed the opportunity to meet new folks and there would be more avenues of entertainment including shopping. Emma Murrell’s daughter Vivian has told me that Esther was always very neatly put together. Her clothes were always clean and neat, her hair was always brushed so nicely and she wore a bit of makeup. I am sure that Esther enjoyed having access to more money for more fashionable clothing and makeup.
Esther Allen, a friend, and Alta Allen;
The back of this photo said "Three
of the Meanest Girls in Dayton."
Esther’s sister Alta would meet her future husband Olen “Bug” Cantrell, possibly at work and they would marry in 1945. Brother John would be discharged from the Army in the fall of 1945 after fighting in WWII. He would marry Hortense Smith from Owsley County not far from where the Allens lived in Clay County. John and his bride would join his sisters Esther and Alta in Dayton, Ohio.
All three of the siblings and their families would return often to Kentucky to visit their mother Mandy there on Teges and their sister Rachel’s family on Furnace Branch. They would catch up with family and makeover Rachel’s children. I’ve been told that Esther usually had a camera with her and she would always take photos during their get-togethers. I suppose that it is to her that I owe thanks for many of the photos that we from those times.
Now in 1946, Alta and her husband Bug had their first child. Both parents worked at an automobile factory there in Dayton and when they began having children, Mandy would move from Teges to live with Alta and Bug in Dayton. Rachel, Boyd, and their family would move from Furnace Branch to the old Allen home place on Teges.
Alta and her family with Granny, John and his family, and Esther would continue to return to Teges to visit with Rachel as they could. Kentucky cousins would become acquainted with Ohio cousins. Country cousins would become a bit acquainted with the ways of city cousins. One of Rachel’s daughters, Fanny has told me how awed she was by her cousin’s sandals. She had never seen such shoes before and snuck them on her feet to walk around a bit in them before her cousin returned back home.
Esther Allen with her nephews and niece;
Alta's children and John's son
Sometime in or before 1947, Esther and the family received devastating news. Esther was diagnosed with tuberculosis which was a disease that had wreaked havoc for the family several times in the past. Her father, step-grandfather, aunt, as well as other family members, had died from TB. Not long after the diagnosis, Esther became a resident of Stillwater Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Dayton.
So for roughly the last six years of her life, Esther was confined to Stillwater. Esther who had loved to dress nicely and fix her hair and makeup just so would have no opportunity to go out and so no need to for nice dresses or makeup.
In 1950, Esther would hear the news that her sister Rachel had died from TB back on Teges. Rachel left seven children ranging in age from ten months to nine years for Boyd to raise. He would not be able to keep the family together and Alta would take in the oldest and the baby. The other five children would end up with other family or in children’s homes.
Esther had lost, not only a sister but knowing that TB is what had killed her must have caused Esther to lose hope about her own survival as well.
Esther could have visitors while at the sanatorium. I am not certain what precautions that visiting a TB patient at Stillwater entailed. I have heard some folks say that when they visited a TB patient, the patient had to wear a mask and the visitors had to wear a mask. Social distancing was required. Another person said that the sanatorium where their family member had been had two fences separated by about ten feet. The patient would be on one side of one fence and the visitors on the other side of the other fence and they would converse over the fences.
I am not certain what Stillwater’s policy was but it seems likely that Esther may have seen family members while all wore masks or from a distance. There were no hugs, no gentle touches from the hands of a mother, sister or brother. Children were not allowed to visit patients in normal hospital settings and so they would for certain not be permitted to visit Esther at Stillwater.
John’s wife Hortense was the older sister of my father. John was the uncle of my mother Loretta, the oldest daughter of Rachel who had gone to live with Alta when Rachel had died. Both of my parents, as children, rode with family members when they went to visit with Esther. They would stay in the car and wait while the adults went to visit with Esther. Both recall that Esther’s room was on the second floor of Stillwater and both recall Esther looking down from the window of her room waving to them as they waited in the car.
I can’t imagine how bittersweet it must have been for Esther to see those children and know that she would likely not be able to ever dote on them with hugs, pinched cheeks, and little gifts again. She would never be able to marry and have children of her own to love and hold.
Esther in her room at Stillwater
When Esther realized that she would likely not live much longer, she asked her brother John to ask their old neighbor Emma Murrell if Esther could be buried in a little family graveyard there on Emma’s land. Esther said that she knew that as long as Emma was alive that her grave would be cared for.
Esther would die in Stillwater Sanatorium on April 23, 1953. She was not yet forty years old but I reckon that death must have come as a blessing for her. She was free to leave Stillwater and I can just imagine her sister Rachel and other loved ones in Heaven greeting her with embraces that she had surely been hungry for!
Esther’s body returned to Teges to be buried. She had been born there during the splendor of fall and she returned there during the beauty that is spring in the hills. I imagine that there were a few florist arrangements on her grave but nature provided the most beautiful blossoms in the form of dogwood and redbud blooms. And Emma Murrell, just as Esther was certain of, took care of Esther’s grave until her own death years later.
Esther never married. She had no children of her own to leave behind. She did leave behind photos for her future family to cherish. She also left behind at least one letter written to two of Emma Murrell’s children.
Dear Vivian + Corbit,
Will ans your sweet letter was so glad to hear from you.
The garden spot had to be prepared for planting. Narm would have likely done this with a mule pulling a plow. If a mule and plow were unavailable, the family would have had to scratch up the earth with hand tools.
After the garden spot was worked up, the seeds would have to be planted and they would need to plant a lot to feed the seven family members as well as the animals. They would have to grow enough, not just for now, but for the lean times of winter and early spring. Many of the seeds were likely carefully saved from last year’s crop. The family would have grown corn, beans, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbages, lettuce, peas…
After the plants started growing, the family would have had to spend hours hoeing out the weeds so their crops could not be smothered. This likely seemed like an unending chore in and of itself without even considering other chores. Every row must have seemed to be a long row to hoe for Esther and her siblings; especially when a creek with minnows and crawdads was nearby just begging to be waded.
Finally, after the crops had come in, they would have to be harvested. Some of the harvest would be used to feed the family at the time, but the rest would have to be preserved. Green beans might have been dried to make shuck beans or canned. Tomatoes would have been canned. Corn could have been dried and ground into meal. Corn could be canned or could be made into hominy. Pumpkins and cushaws could be canned or dried for later use. Potatoes, cabbages, apples, and other vegetables could be kept for extended periods in a root cellar or a hole dug into the ground and lined with straw. Produce was pickled; cucumbers, corn, green beans. Cabbage was chopped and made into sauerkraut. Raising and preserving the produce would have been time-consuming and necessary chores.
The family raised animals also: a cow for milk; chickens for eggs and meat; hogs for pork; probably a mule for transportation and help on the farm. Those animals had to be cared for. They had to be fed, eggs gathered, cows milked… In the winter, they would have to make sure to chop a hole in the frozen creek so the animals could drink water.
When the hogs were big enough and the weather cooler, the family would have to slaughter them. The carcass would have to be processed. The family did not have modern refrigeration so they had to keep the meat in other ways. Some of the cuts such as the bacon, ham and shoulders could be smoke-cured or salt or sugar-cured. Other cuts would be ground into sausage and the women would make them into sausage balls, fry them and then put them into jars covered with the grease to preserve for later use. The fat would be rendered into lard and later it might be made into bars of lye soap.
The family would have fruit and nut trees and the fruits from these trees would be harvested and preserved also. The surrounding environment would provide other sustenance for the family: berries; spring greens; medicinal herbs, roots, and barks; wildlife such as squirrels and rabbits to hunt for food.
The family had other chores also. Sacks that animal feed and flour had come in were repurposed into shirts, dresses, aprons… When those items became worn and unmendable, they would be repurposed yet again into quilts to keep the family warm in winter.
Wood had to be chopped, hauled and stacked for the family’s cooking, clothes washing, canning and heating. Every member of the family participated in these chores as to their abilities. Everyone in the family was a “Honey” and everyone had a “Honey do list’ and those chores were non-negotiable as the family’s survival depended upon them.
Esther’s dad Narm died from tuberculosis in 1927 and was buried in nearby Upper Sadler Cemetery on Esther’s mother’s birthday. Two years later, 16-year-old Esther would be the informant for little Fannie’s death from infantile paralysis. She would be buried in Upper Sadler Cemetery also.
John Allen and Mandy Moore Allen in front;
Rachel Allen, Alta Allen and Esther Allen in back
Mandy began to take in laundry to make a bit of spending money for the family after Narm’s death. Doing laundry back in those times was a difficult chore. I am sure that all of the kids would pitch in to help their mother out with this back-breaking work.
Esther and her younger siblings had non-negotiable chores, but they would have had had some downtime to visit with family and neighbors. I have been told that the family had a battery-operated radio after they became popular and somewhat affordable. Neighbors would come over and they would all listen to the Grand Ole Opry, serials, and the news together.
There was time to make eyes at the cute boy from the next holler over at Sunday go to meeting. There was time to play stickball with the siblings and the neighborhood kids. Many of the neighbors were kinfolk of one kind or another. Those that weren’t related by blood became family by shared experiences. They were a tight-knit community. Neighbors Spurgeon and Emma Murrell would become lifetime close friends to the family over multiple generations.
Esther and her family would likely not be much affected by the Great Depression. They grew much of their sustenance and had little need for much money. Oh, they likely noticed the Depression when coffee and sugar were rationed because those were among the few things that the family could not raise themselves. They would not know the hunger that many folks who lived in cities and could not farm would know.
The Depression did bring about public work programs designed to put unemployed people into jobs for the public good. Esther’s brother John would work in the CCC. He would work on building roads in eastern Kentucky and part of his wages would be sent back to the family to help provide for their needs. Sister Rachel also did some kind of public work although we have no idea of what that would have been.
Esther Allen, ??, ??, and Rachel Allen;
Mandy Moore Allen in background
In early 1940, Brother John would join the army and would live on a base in Arapahoe, Colorado. The United States had managed to stay out of WWII but after Pearl Harbor in 1941, the US would enter the fray and John would go overseas to fight.
Alta Allen, John Allen and Esther Allen
Esther’s sister Rachel would marry Boyd Nolen in 1940. Boyd’s family lived over the hill on Furnace Branch and Rachel would move out of the Allen home and move there. Esther, her mother, and younger sister Alta would remain together there on Teges. The families were just a mule-ride over the ridge apart so they would still see each other often. I am sure that Esther, Mandy, Alta, and Rachel likely wore a path across that hill.
Esther Allen in front; ??, ??,
Rachel Allen Nolen in rear
Rachel and Boyd had their first child, a daughter Loretta in 1941. They would go on to have nine babies in ten years of marriage. Mandy would have several grandbabies and Esther and Alta would have nieces and nephews. I have heard that Esther loved children and loved to dote on her nieces and nephews as well as other neighborhood children.
Sometime in the early to mid-'40s, Esther and Alta would move to Dayton, Ohio in search of work. I am sure that the young girls enjoyed the opportunity to meet new folks and there would be more avenues of entertainment including shopping. Emma Murrell’s daughter Vivian has told me that Esther was always very neatly put together. Her clothes were always clean and neat, her hair was always brushed so nicely and she wore a bit of makeup. I am sure that Esther enjoyed having access to more money for more fashionable clothing and makeup.
Esther Allen, a friend, and Alta Allen;
The back of this photo said "Three
of the Meanest Girls in Dayton."
Esther’s sister Alta would meet her future husband Olen “Bug” Cantrell, possibly at work and they would marry in 1945. Brother John would be discharged from the Army in the fall of 1945 after fighting in WWII. He would marry Hortense Smith from Owsley County not far from where the Allens lived in Clay County. John and his bride would join his sisters Esther and Alta in Dayton, Ohio.
All three of the siblings and their families would return often to Kentucky to visit their mother Mandy there on Teges and their sister Rachel’s family on Furnace Branch. They would catch up with family and makeover Rachel’s children. I’ve been told that Esther usually had a camera with her and she would always take photos during their get-togethers. I suppose that it is to her that I owe thanks for many of the photos that we from those times.
Now in 1946, Alta and her husband Bug had their first child. Both parents worked at an automobile factory there in Dayton and when they began having children, Mandy would move from Teges to live with Alta and Bug in Dayton. Rachel, Boyd, and their family would move from Furnace Branch to the old Allen home place on Teges.
Alta and her family with Granny, John and his family, and Esther would continue to return to Teges to visit with Rachel as they could. Kentucky cousins would become acquainted with Ohio cousins. Country cousins would become a bit acquainted with the ways of city cousins. One of Rachel’s daughters, Fanny has told me how awed she was by her cousin’s sandals. She had never seen such shoes before and snuck them on her feet to walk around a bit in them before her cousin returned back home.
Alta's children and John's son
Sometime in or before 1947, Esther and the family received devastating news. Esther was diagnosed with tuberculosis which was a disease that had wreaked havoc for the family several times in the past. Her father, step-grandfather, aunt, as well as other family members, had died from TB. Not long after the diagnosis, Esther became a resident of Stillwater Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Dayton.
So for roughly the last six years of her life, Esther was confined to Stillwater. Esther who had loved to dress nicely and fix her hair and makeup just so would have no opportunity to go out and so no need to for nice dresses or makeup.
In 1950, Esther would hear the news that her sister Rachel had died from TB back on Teges. Rachel left seven children ranging in age from ten months to nine years for Boyd to raise. He would not be able to keep the family together and Alta would take in the oldest and the baby. The other five children would end up with other family or in children’s homes.
Esther had lost, not only a sister but knowing that TB is what had killed her must have caused Esther to lose hope about her own survival as well.
Esther could have visitors while at the sanatorium. I am not certain what precautions that visiting a TB patient at Stillwater entailed. I have heard some folks say that when they visited a TB patient, the patient had to wear a mask and the visitors had to wear a mask. Social distancing was required. Another person said that the sanatorium where their family member had been had two fences separated by about ten feet. The patient would be on one side of one fence and the visitors on the other side of the other fence and they would converse over the fences.
I am not certain what Stillwater’s policy was but it seems likely that Esther may have seen family members while all wore masks or from a distance. There were no hugs, no gentle touches from the hands of a mother, sister or brother. Children were not allowed to visit patients in normal hospital settings and so they would for certain not be permitted to visit Esther at Stillwater.
John’s wife Hortense was the older sister of my father. John was the uncle of my mother Loretta, the oldest daughter of Rachel who had gone to live with Alta when Rachel had died. Both of my parents, as children, rode with family members when they went to visit with Esther. They would stay in the car and wait while the adults went to visit with Esther. Both recall that Esther’s room was on the second floor of Stillwater and both recall Esther looking down from the window of her room waving to them as they waited in the car.
I can’t imagine how bittersweet it must have been for Esther to see those children and know that she would likely not be able to ever dote on them with hugs, pinched cheeks, and little gifts again. She would never be able to marry and have children of her own to love and hold.
Esther in her room at Stillwater
When Esther realized that she would likely not live much longer, she asked her brother John to ask their old neighbor Emma Murrell if Esther could be buried in a little family graveyard there on Emma’s land. Esther said that she knew that as long as Emma was alive that her grave would be cared for.
Esther would die in Stillwater Sanatorium on April 23, 1953. She was not yet forty years old but I reckon that death must have come as a blessing for her. She was free to leave Stillwater and I can just imagine her sister Rachel and other loved ones in Heaven greeting her with embraces that she had surely been hungry for!
Esther’s body returned to Teges to be buried. She had been born there during the splendor of fall and she returned there during the beauty that is spring in the hills. I imagine that there were a few florist arrangements on her grave but nature provided the most beautiful blossoms in the form of dogwood and redbud blooms. And Emma Murrell, just as Esther was certain of, took care of Esther’s grave until her own death years later.
Esther never married. She had no children of her own to leave behind. She did leave behind photos for her future family to cherish. She also left behind at least one letter written to two of Emma Murrell’s children.
Dear Vivian + Corbit,
Will ans your sweet letter was so glad to hear from you.
I am glad you children like to go to school guess it be lonesome when school out but you can go down and play with Loretta is she as mean as ever.
She write me ever week almost poor little Weets She has been sick so much guess that why she didn’t go to school.
I get home sick to see all of you children guess you’ll be big boys + girls when I get to see you again.
Mother said all of you had grown so much how Sylvia and her babies and Bill + Daisy also.
Corbit what are you doing since school out, Does Robert have his dog yet.
So be good and mind your mother, and I bring you a big bag candy some day.
Wouldn’t it be fun for all us to get gether on Sunday with Rachel children and take pictures and play games.
Love Ester
Gee you should see Dale he’s so big and talks like a little man.
I haven’t seen the little baby. So I’d better stop + seal this before I rite a big book.
She write me ever week almost poor little Weets She has been sick so much guess that why she didn’t go to school.
I get home sick to see all of you children guess you’ll be big boys + girls when I get to see you again.
Mother said all of you had grown so much how Sylvia and her babies and Bill + Daisy also.
Corbit what are you doing since school out, Does Robert have his dog yet.
So be good and mind your mother, and I bring you a big bag candy some day.
Wouldn’t it be fun for all us to get gether on Sunday with Rachel children and take pictures and play games.
Love Ester
Gee you should see Dale he’s so big and talks like a little man.
I haven’t seen the little baby. So I’d better stop + seal this before I rite a big book.
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