Stephen Allen - Allen, Loveall, and Rush Families (Miller County)

Please read the post titled "Battle of Henrytown or Monday's Hollow" for general information about the battle, the prisoners, and the events of that winter.

Stephen Allen was born in Kentucky about 1830 to Daniel Allen and Nancy Loveall Allen. Between 1841 and 1844 the family moved from Kentucky to Miller County, Missouri. In 1850 a large group of Rush and Loveall family members followed. By that time Stephen's parents were busy farming with their eleven children. A story from their lives is included in Judge Jenkins History of Miller County Vol. 1 on page 80:

   "On Thursday, December 4th, 1851, although winter time, it was not a very cold day. Artimesia Roberts and Ellenor Matthews (married daughters of Daniel and Nancy Allen) were at Daniel Allen’s house in Jim Henry Township. A double log house with a passageway in between, Artimesia Roberts was engaged in warping between the houses. Nancy, Daniel Allen’s wife, was inside, sitting at the loom, weaving. Her daughter, Elizabeth, and son, Jonathan, were there, but Jonathan was not in the house. A stranger, coming to the door, inquired the way to Jefferson. “He came in”, Nancy said, “and a chair was set for him. Taking the chair, he sat down.” “While sitting there”, Nancy continued, “He would once in a while move on to the loom bench on which I was sitting, weaving, and he would ask me to take some tobacco which he held in his hand, and offered me saying it was because I looked so much like his damned old mother! He would make use of many oaths, swearing he was the best man in Missouri. He picked up the shuttle once while sitting on the chair. I made him get off the loom bench three different times,” Nancy concluded.Ellenor Matthews said,” The man called for his dinner. Mrs. Allen informed him she had no meal, that she had a grist ready to send to the mill, but had no one to get it up till son Jonathan came. The man replied,"A hogs foot!” At this time, Jonathan came into the house. He told the stranger to leave. The man merely laughed at him. Jonathan then informed the man if “he did not go, he would blow his brains out and hitch the young oxen to him and drag him away.” Jonathan, stepping outside, was followed by the man onto the porch.“The man came out and leaned against the hand rail of the porch,” Elizabeth said. “Jonathan asked him where he was going? The man answered it was none of his damned business. Jonathan pointed then to Mr. King’s wagon passing along the road to Jefferson City, and urged him to follow it. At this point, the man put his arm around Jonathan, and Jonathan stepping off, was followed, Jonathan saying keep your hands off of me! The man said, See here, do you know who I am? I am the best man in Missouri!” “Brother Jonathan,” Elizabeth continued, “told the stranger he did not wish to know him, and after moving away three times, the last time the stranger commenced striking at Jonathan with a knife. While scuffling around, I jumped in between them. As I jumped between them, the knife hit me on the fore and little finger of my right hand cutting me to the bone; drawing blood copiously. Brother Jonathan, broken loose; ran! The man pushed me back against the wall so as to nearly knock my breath out, and took after Jonathan.” Jonathan said, “The blade of the knife was about four inches long. He cut my comfort nearly in two, and cut my shirt under the right arm. He struck at me twice near the throat, cutting my comfort. My knife got knocked out of my hand. I ran.” “I saw Jonathan running around the corner of the house,” Ellenor Matthews continued, “with the man after him, Jonathan, running fast, jumped into the door past me. The man, striking at Jonathan as he jumped into the door, connected on my left shoulder instead, cutting a hole in my shawl; knocking me down. The door was then clapped too. Here I saw Mrs. Allen close to the man. She had a chair post in her hand.” Nancy Allen, upon hearing the commotion, had moved outside just as the man was pushing against the door of the other house with his hands. Failing to open it, he commenced pushing his shoulder against it. “I ran,” Nancy said, gathering him by the coat collar and jerking him around!” “About here,” Ellenor Matthews continued, “Mrs. Allen struck him a mighty blow with the chair post! He staggered, turning, and running about forty yards to near the corner of the stable. Here, Mrs. Allen hit him a terrible lick in the head again, and once more when he crossed the rails. He kept on up the hill. Stopping once, upon looking back, one could see his eye was pooched, and his face bunged up! He then turned and kept running as far as I could see him!”

Two years later in 1853 Daniel and Nancy's son Stephen married Permelia Ellen McKay. By 1860, Stephen and Ellen were farming in Clark Township in Cole County with four children.

Stephen was taken prisoner in October 1861 at either the Battle of Monday's Hollow or Linn Creek.  Union reports list the prisoners from both skirmishes in one group.  Stephen was marched to Rolla in October, worked on fortifications of the new town/fort for several weeks, and then was transported by rail car to prison in St. Louis.  

In December 1861 the Myrtle Street Prison at the old slave pen in St. Louis became so overcrowded that the Gratiot Street Prison was opened at the McDowell Medical College Building . Possibly to alleviate overcrowding some prisoners were allowed to take the Oath of Allegiance and return home. In addition, some were required to remit bonds to assure their compliance. Requiring citizens to take an Oath of Allegiance wasn't new to times of mixed loyalty. Many of their grandparents had taken oaths during the American Revolution - a successful attempt at secession - to determine who was loyal to the cause. In December 1861 an oath supporting the provisional government of Missouri was enacted. On December 22, 1861, Stephen and several other prisoners wrote to the state that they wished to take the Oath of Allegiance and return to their homes.

By February 1862 overcrowding became so bad that prisoners were sent to Alton, Illinois to the closed Illinois State Prison. Stephen took the oath on February 24, 1862, and returned home. He was enumerated in the the Civil War Draft in July-September 1863 back in Clark Township, Cole County. Their youngest child, Rosetta, was born in Missouri about 1868.  By 1870 Stephen and his family had left Missouri and were living in Edwards County, Illinois. In 1880 Permelia/Ellen Allen was a widow and had returned to Jim Henry Township in Miller County. She was living with her 3 youngest children and her 22 year old daughter Mary Rush with Mary's infant son Albert. The census indicates none of her younger children can read or write and Mary cannot read. Albert Lee Rush lived to 101. He is buried in Jim Henry Cemetery in Miller County.

http://rush-sullens-photo-tree.blogspot.com/2012_01_01_archive.html

Three generations of the Albert Rush family.  Albert is in the center holding his grandson.