190th birthday
For members of the Mitchell family
Hannah Allen was born on April 25, 1835. That means that today is her 190th birthday.
Hannah is my 3rd great-grandmother, an ancestor of my paternal grandfather.
Hannah was born in Illinois to Josiah and Elizabeth Allen. Sometime between 1848–1852, the Allen family moved to Lawrence County, Missouri. That’s where Hannah met her husband, William “Willie” Chrisman Lowder; they were married in December of 1853, when Willie was 25 years old and Hannah was 18 years old.
The couple’s first daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1855. She was followed by Aletha, Malinda, and finally my own great-great-grandmother, Martha Chrisman Lowder in June of 1864 — 9 months after the death of Hannah’s husband, Willie.
The couple moved briefly to Texas, where they lived a rough pioneer life in a disputed territory that was also occupied by Native Americans, who were understandably unfriendly to the newcomers. However, the couple moved again back to Illinois to be near Willie’s family after Texas seceded from the Union, shortly before the start of the Civil War. This is where Hannah was widowed and left practically penniless. After the end of the war, Hannah and her daughters returned to Texas.
By 1870, Hannah had her own stock ranch in Erath County, Texas; three of her younger brothers and an older sister also lived there and worked the ranch with her. After her daughters were grown and establishing families of their own, she married for the second time. Hannah wed widower William D. McWhorter in November of 1889 when she was 54 years old; she would spend the remainder of her life in his company. Hannah died at the age of 74 in Wood County, Texas.
Hannah Allen lived a fascinating life, by turns tragic and inspiring. Happy 190th, Hannah.