[Home] [Up] [Elihu Marcellus Allen] [Lola Ann Clawson Allen]

Lola Ann Clawson

Birth: 12 Jan 1806 Dryden, New York, Tompkins
Death: 17 Feb 1848 Salt Lake City, Utah, Salt Lake

Parents:
Mother: Lowly or Lola Foote
Father: Ebenezer Clawson


Spouse:
Elihu Marcellus Allen  Married: ABT 1827 , New York, Tompkins


Children:
Helen Rebecca Allen F (23 Jun 1828)
Laura Albina Allen F (19 Sep 1829)
Phebe Ann Allen F (17 Dec 1830)
Charles William Allen M (18 Oct 1832)
Wyatt Allen M (3 Mar 1834)
Elihu Moroni Allen M (9 Oct 1836)
Lola Elizabeth Allen F (25 Aug 1837)
Almira Gilbert Allen F (18 Feb 1839)
Emma Melvina Allen F (23 Aug 1840)
George Warren Allen M (23 Apr 1842)
John Ferguson Allen M (18 Feb 1844)
Joseph Brigham Allen M (19 Sep 1845)


Notes:
!Dryden in Tompkins Co. after 1817.
!BAPT: 2 Mar 1835 from Moses Clawson Autobiography 1853. Rebapt. 4 Oct 1967
S.L. Temple & 22 Sept. 1934 from TIB FHL f#1262794.
!DEATH: Warren Foote Diary Bk.1a, p.50, "Book of Records for the Baptism of
the Dead." Also from Salt Lake City Death Rec.
!ENDOW:Also 6 May 1932 Logan Bk.A, p.183, #7164 FHL f#177955 & TIB 28 Sep 1934 Arizona Bk.67
, p.24, #641 FHL f#1262794.
!Lola was among the 3rd ten of the 1st fifty of the 3rd hundred of the pioneers of 1847. Ref
erence," Pioneers of 1847" Easton, S., Roster of Pioneers of 1847.
!Archive sheet
!Moses Clawson Family Organization GROUP sheet (Oct 1992)

LOLA ANN CLAWSON ALLEN (1806-1848)

Lola Ann Clawson was born on 12 January 1806 in Dryden, Tompkins, New York, the sixth of 7 children born to her parents, Ebenezer Clawson and Lola (Lowly) Foote.  Lola’s father died of an inflammation of the brain on 12 August 1806 in Dryden when Lola was less than one year old.  Soon thereafter, in 1810, her mother remarried in Dryden to Josiah Richardson. 

Lola was married about 1827, most likely in New York, to Elihu Marcellus Allen, a widower with 4 children from his previous marriage to Lola’s first cousin, Laura Foote (Laura died 17 October 1823).  Together Lola and Elihu had 12 children, at least 7 of whom lived to adulthood.  Their first child was born in Dryden.  The next 5 children were born in Greenwood, Steuben, New York, where Lola’s fifth child, Wyatt Allen, lived just 11 days, passing away on 14 March 1834.

In 1834, Lola’s mother and stepfather were baptized into the LDS Church.  Prior to that time Lola’s mother and stepfather had been Methodists.  On 2 March 1835 Lola, her brother Moses Clawson, and his first wife, Cornelia Brown, were baptized by John Gould and George Babcock in Steuben County, New York.  Lola’s brother David and sister Lucy were also baptized into the LDS Church after 1835, but apostatized shortly thereafter.  Lola’s husband Elihu Marcellus Allen was baptized about the time of his wife in 1834 or 1835. 

Following her baptism, Lola and her family experienced untold hardship as members of their new-found faith.  In 1836 or 1837, soon after their conversion to the LDS Church, Lola’s family moved to a spot 4 miles southeast of Far West, Caldwell, Missouri at Log Creek.  Here Lola’s seventh child was born.  She and her family experienced severe persecution while living in Missouri on account of their religion.  Lola’s husband executed an affidavit on 18 May 1839 in Quincy, Adams, Illinois itemizing a bill of damages against the State of Missouri for $1,000 for property lost and expenses incurred during the expulsion.  Lola’s family moved to 4 miles east of Burton, Adams, Illinois, where her ninth, tenth, and eleventh children were born.

Lola’s stepfather Josiah Richardson passed away on 9 April 1842 in Montrose, Lee, Iowa.  Her mother died in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois on 21 August 1844.  Within 2 weeks in December 1845 and just 3 months following the birth of her last child, Lola lost 3 of her 5 youngest children--first Emma Melvina Allen on 4 December, then Almira Gilbert Allen on 8 December, then George Warren Allen on 17 December.  These were trying years for Lola and the other Latter-day Saints, who, following the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, were preparing to leave Nauvoo for the West.

Lola and her family traveled across Iowa in 1846 to the Missouri River.  On 12 March 1847 her youngest child Joseph Brigham Allen was “adopted” by Brigham Young shortly before the first group of Saints pulled out under the leadership of Brigham Young headed for Utah.  Lola and her husband, with 6 of their children, crossed the plains to Utah later that same year in the Jedediah M. Grant Company, arriving in the Salt Lake Valley on 2 October 1847.

Lola must have suffered great privation during the first winter the Saints spent in the Salt Lake Valley, for she died on 17 February 1848 in Great Salt Lake City, just four and one-half months after her arrival.  Her husband followed her in death on 11 October 1850 in Great Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.

Submitted by:  Joy M. Belnap