Penelope Johnson Allen
1886 - 1985
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. The next year her parents moved to their St. Elmo residence
at 4301 Alabama Avenue, where she lived off and on for the next 90 years.
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 did a year of preparatory work at Mrs. Starrett’s School
in Chicago and then attended for 3 years the Western College in Oxford, Ohio.
She spent the summer of 1908 traveling in Europe. After her father's death
on March 15,1908, she left college & became a teacher at the North St. Elmo
Elementary School. On February 17, 1909, she married Samuel Boyd Allen of
Knoxville. He was the son of John Mebane and Isabella Boyd Allen and was
born in Knoxville on May 28, 1883. On July 31,1911 their daughter, Penelope Van
Dyke Allen, was born in Knoxville, TN. Later they moved to Tate Springs, TN, and
from 1912-1915, Mr. Allen managed the Tate Springs Hotel. In 1916 they moved to
Williamsburg, VA., where during World War I, Mrs. Allen was the assistant
supervisor of the large caliber area at the DuPont Shell Loading Plant in
Penniman, VA. She returned to Chattanooga and was divorced in 1923. 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. This gave her an excellent opportunity to
visit in her free time old book dealers throughout the South. It was at
this time that she became acquainted with the descendants of Chief John Ross and
other Cherokees in the Oklahoma area. She gradually put together an invaluable
collection of books, manuscripts, Indian claims, letters from Indian Agents, and
other Cherokee items. Part of this collection can be found in Nashville at the
Tennessee State Library and Archives and part in Knoxville at The University of
Tennessee, Special Collections. When the Medicine Company shut down it’s
operations in 1929 due to The Great Depression, 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.
Mrs. Allen was a member of many civic and patriotic clubs.
She was a life member of the DAR joining in 1913. She served as president
of the Volunteer Chapter of the USD 1812 and as state president of the USD
1812. She was also a member of the Hamilton County Historical society, the
Tennessee Historical Society, the Tennessee Historical Commission, the
Chattanooga Area Historical Commission, the National Society of Colonial Dames
in America in Tennessee, the Daughters of Colonial Wars, and the Junior League
of Chattanooga. She was a member of Thankful Memorial Episcopal church, which
her Grandfather built as a memorial to her Grandmother, Thankful Whiteside.
She also published the following books: Tennessee Soldiers in
the Revolution, Historic Chattanooga, A Guide Book, and Tennessee Soldiers in
the War of 1812. She also compiled a family history of her Johnson line which
was published by her cousin, Mrs. Frank L. Miller.
Mrs. Allen received many honors for her dedication to
historic causes in and around Tennessee. In 1970 a portrait of Mrs. Allen was
commissioned by the Chattanooga Historical Association and now hangs in the
state Library in Nashville.
In her later years Mrs. Allen concentrated her energies on
the country of Tibet. It was said that she had one of the best collections
of books on Tibet. This collection can be found at the University of
Tennessee library at Memphis. She lived the last few years of her life at
Life Care Center in East Ridge teaching genealogy and answering questions for
all that called for help. She died January 9, 1985, and is buried in Forest
Hills Cemetery in St. Elmo.
The following is an editorial that ran
Thursday, January 10, 1985 in the Chattanooga News-Free Press
MRS. PENELOPE JOHNSON ALLEN
Mrs. Penelope Johnson Allen, born Oct. 27,
1886, saw a lot of history in her nearly 100 years of living. But more
important, she was a major force in preserving what she saw and in retrieving
and saving a tremendous volume of historical records for posterity.
A writer, genealogist and historian, she sought out and
climbed the family trees of many of those who inhabited our area. She dug into
abandoned warehouses and courthouse closets to save priceless records of the
past that otherwise would have been lost. She wove much of it into a
tapestry of history that was informative, interesting and of great value to our
people. And with it all, she was a stimulating, delightful lady of wit and
wisdom.
Mrs. Allen was an authority on the Cherokee Indians, tracing
then throughout the Tennessee mountain and river country to new homes in
Oklahoma. She was a noteworthy resident of her beloved St. Elmo for many years.
Her forebears were greatly involved in developing the early services and
institutions of our community.
In the decades and centuries ahead, historians prowling the
records from family Bibles and country cemeteries and governmental archives for
a better understanding of our traditions will find rich lore because of what
Mrs. Allen did.
She made history in her own way by saving it for us all.
Submitted by Helen Maroon
Telicochick@aol.com