Penelope Van Dyke (Johnson) Allen (1886 - 1985)

Born 27 Oct 1886 in Chattanooga, Hamilton, Tennessee, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Samuel Boyd Allen — married 17 Feb 1909 (to 1923) in Chattanooga, Hamilton, Tennessee

Descendants

Died 9 Jan 1985 at age 98 in Chattanooga, Hamilton, Tennessee, United States

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Biography

Penelope (Johnson) Allen is Notable.

Penelope (Johnson) Allen was a Tennessean.

A writer, genealogist and historian of Tennessee and the Cherokee peoples local to the region.

Penelope Van Dyke Johnson, daughter of James Whiteside and Sue Cleage Johnson, was born October 27, 1886, at the residence of her Grandparents, Col. Abraham Malone and Thankful Whiteside Johnson, on the corner of Boyce & Hooke Streets in Chattanooga.

She was educated in the public schools of Chattanooga where she received her grade school instruction at the old First District School and was graduated from Chattanooga High School in the class of 1904. In May 1904, she was crowned Queen of Love and Beauty in the Chattanooga Spring Festival.

She graduated from Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio (today part of Miami University). On February 17, 1909, she married Samuel Boyd Allen of Knoxville.

During World War I, Mrs. Allen was the assistant supervisor of the large caliber area at the DuPont Shell Loading Plant in Penniman, Virginia. After the war she returned to Chattanooga and was divorced in 1923. (By 1920 census, she was no longer with her husband; they had seperated)

She worked at the Chattanooga News from 1919 to 1923 and became an early advocate of the women's suffrage movement in Tennessee. She was nominated as the 1922 Hamilton County Democratic candidate for the legislature. Although she lost a close election, some said she had actually received the most votes. In 1923 Mrs. Allen took a job as a traveling advertising salesperson with the St. Elmo based Chattanooga Medicine Company.

Mrs. Allen was got a job as publicity agent for Chickamauga Park, then engaged in building of the park museum. In 1933 Mrs. Allen took a job with the Chattanooga Times, writing a weekly genealogical feature called "Leaves From the Family Tree." Each week she focused on a local pioneer family by tracing the family roots back to colonial times. In 1982, these articles were published in a book, Leaves From the Family Tree, by Southern Historical Press. While traveling to the various rural counties doing genealogy, Mrs. Allen noticed the deplorable conditions of most of the early county court documents. She recognized the need to save these documents and persuaded the DAR to join the project. She obtained government funding through the WPA and was named state supervisor. Mrs. Allen directed the project through 1945, and as a result there are over 1500 volumes of Tennessee history in the state library.

For many years she wrote a newspaper column called "Leaves From the Family Tree" that gave the lineage of many local families. These columns are now in book form.

She was named state historian of the Tennessee Daughters of the American Revolution and state press chairman of the Tennessee Federation of Women's Clubs.

She was active in many civic clubs including the Daughers of 1812, the Colonial Dames, the Junior League, and DAR.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Penelope Johnson Allen
• Wikidata: Item Q98150432
• Census, marriage records at FamilySearch Person: MFR9-WKZ

Marriage

• "Tennessee, County Marriages, 1790-1950," database with images, FamilySearch (21 December 2016), Samuel Boyd Allen and Penelope Van Dyke Johnson, 17 Feb 1909; citing , Hamilton, Tennessee, United States, Marriage, p. , Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville and county clerk offices from various counties; FHL microfilm 1,305,543.

• Hamilton, Tennessee marriage records

Burial

Find A Grave: Memorial #47614051

Census

1920 census, in the household of her mother, St Elmo, Tennessee:

• "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MN5W-T4Z : accessed 24 February 2017), A Malone Johnson in household of Sue C Johnson, St Elmo, Hamilton, Tennessee, United States; citing ED 202, sheet 12B, line 73, family 292, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 1743; FHL microfilm 1,821,743.

1930 census in the home of her mother:

• "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SP4H-96X : accessed 24 February 2017), Abraham M Johnson in household of Sue C Johnson, Chattanooga, Hamilton, Tennessee, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 60, sheet 19B, line 71, family 489, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 2252; FHL microfilm 2,341,986.