Just glancing at the 1860 census index and the number of DeGray and Russel families there, It's almost certain that they knew each other.
His name was Frederick P. Allen(1798-1878). The address listed on in these sets of claims is #10 Elm St., which streetview now shows as a mixed commercial/residential district. The house appears to be gone. Down the street is St. Marks Church. In 1878, the Pastor of St Marks Church wrote an affidavit for them, as did numerous judges, postmasters, and a few old friends from Plattsburg. He and his wife had to have been well-integrated into the community.
Frederick's father, Zenas Allen, moved to Plattsburg in 1810. He opened an inn that had some success, but then he died in 1811. He left a widow and six children. I know the fates of three of those children. Besides Fredrick, there was George P. Allen, who lived in Malone and published one of the first newspapers there, The Northern Spectator. That's another reason I'm pretty sure our ancestors met knew each other well. In 1835, George sold the paper to Frederick, who renamed it The Palladium. I'm not sure how long George lived in Malone, but he ends up dead in the Bronx in 1845. Frederick sold the paper that year, but stayed in the town the rest of his life.
The third brother, Charles Partridge Allen, "removed from Orwell to Mooers, New York, in 1821, an unbroken wilderness, He built the first saw mill and carried on the lumber business for several years." (Ref. Three Centuries in Champlain Valley). This was the Allen I was first most interested in. I see he did his bit for the deforestation of upstate NY. When he died in 1835 it seems to have thrown the whole extended family into a turmoil. They hung on though, the sons ran it for another fifteen years, then closed the mill and began to sell property. I assume this provided the support for their mother in her last years, as she is always named on the title transfer. In 1852, her oldest son and family left a cryptic note in the records of the local Methodist church:"Gone West".
This chain of Allen families came from early E. Bridgewater, MA, and had migrated up through western Vermont(Bennington, Tinmouth, and Orwell among others). Some of the common related names were Cary, Partridge, Brett, Alden, and Pratt. For the later generations is was Baker, Clark, Banker, and Ober. They've been an interesting family to research. Ignoring their 17th century religious nuttery for the moment, they had a habit of being near the scene of many historical events, plus they just couldn't sit still for very long. Luckily, they did just barely enough of note to be recorded somewhere. That, and every time they moved they left behind little pods of Allens.
Now back to the set of files. A longer and more careful reading shows that he didn't get the damned rifle he was promised for fighting 1814.
But he didn't let the matter drop either, and a group of 16 fellow volunteers seemed to keep each other aggravated over the issue. In 1826, they convinced a NY Senator and a Representative to introduce, then Congress to vote, a Joint Resolution of Congress that not only should they get their damned rifles, as promised, but that each one should have an engraved nameplate. It's hard to imagine a story like that didn't make the rounds at the Malone bars and church suppers for decades.
Another curiosity of a different kind. In his 1855 battle with the bureaucracy over his Bounty Claim, it was first denied because they had recorded him as Frederick A. Allen. After another two rounds of affidavits it was cleared up. A peculiar thing I had noticed over the years is that this line of families almost always used their full middle names. It continued well into the 20th century. It seemed pretentious. Now I can see that the tradition began in about 1855.
Addendum:
Sorry, but twenty years of notes and unrelated tidbits are falling into place today. Frederick P. Allen's nephew, Franklin P. Allen, attended the same school as Wilder, worked in his uncles' print shop for three years, then returned to Moors on the death of his father. Years later, he held all sorts of local functional offices -JP, notary, postmaster, and of all things, the appointment of Pension Notary from Washington, D.C., on January 19, 1876. He's the one who took care of the aforementioned saw mill and widow of Charles.
That also means that could be the JP or notary for some of the documents you have for your area relatives. They absolutely had to have known each other. He also had a large family, many of whom stayed in the area.
Enough of them lot. On to Malone. Very interesting town.
The British sacked the village during the War of 1812.
AKA, a bad start.
Malone was a staging point for one arm of the 1866 and 1870 Fenian Raids of Canada, which took place at many points along the U.S.-Canada border. The Fenian Brotherhood (Fenians) attempted to capture Canada as a bargaining tool in the British occupation of Ireland.
That seems to be a story in need of a screenplay.
Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote the book Farmer Boy about her husband Almanzo Wilder's upbringing,
Can I get the Cliff's Notes version?
Possible final stop in the Underground Railroad at The First Congregational Church.
Good, but...
In 1935, Dutch Schultz had his tax evasion trial moved from Manhattan to Malone. After a media-saturated trial before a Malone-area jury, he was acquitted.
Cool, another screenplay.
The 19th Vice President of the United States, William Almon Wheeler, resided here. His mansion is now the site of the Elks Lodge on Elm Street.
Oh boy, history buffs should follow the link. Mentioned in "Profiles in Courage". Honest as he could be, but tragically forged the "Wheeler Compromise", which was the beginning of the end of reconstruction. Unintended consequences on his part, it seems.
http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_William_Wheeler.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malone_%28village%29,_New_York
That was long for a simple howdy. Much more than I set out to do, but the whole family came together at once. I guess that's what happens sometimes in genealogy; pull a loose thread, you get a whole sweater instead.
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