Isaac ALLRED

Allred Family Organization

Isaac ALLRED (010205)

Allred Progenitors: (William, Thomas)
Born: 01/27/1788 Pendleton Co., SC
Died: 11/13/1870 Spring City, Sanpete Co., UT
Submitted by: Sharon Allred Jessop 03/29/1999

ISAAC ALLRED (1788-1870)

Isaac Allred was the second son and fifth child in the family of eight children born to William Allred and Elizabeth Thrasher. Between 1786 and the time of Isaac’s birth the family moved from Randolph County, North Carolina to Pendleton, Anderson County, South Carolina, where Isaac was born on 27 Jan. 1788. We have no record of his early life. He may, however, have been employed in Georgia as a young man, or the Calverts may have gone to South Carolina. Whatever the circumstances, on 14 Feb. 1811, Isaac married Mary Calvert, who was born in Elbert County, Georgia. (The distance between these locations is 30 to 50 miles).

Isaac’s older brother, James, had married previously and gone north westward to the Ohio River. Then, following Isaac’s marriage, the two brothers settled together in Tennessee, near Nashville. The newlyweds, Isaac and Mary, must have prepared for the move soon after, if not before, their marriage. We might also guess that they spent their first summer traveling, for their first child, Elizabeth M., was born in Bedford County, Tennessee, on 6 Jan. 1812. (She lived only six years.).

They remained in Tennessee until 1830, when both families moved about 500 miles north westward to Monroe County, Missouri. Isaac’s son, William, described the location as, “....on the State Road (with?) in three miles of one of the three forks of Salt River....” and son, Reddick, noted in his account, “....Father purchased a home on the great highway from east to west....” Today (1982) the three forks of the Salt River are under the Clarence Cannon Reservoir and there does not appear to be any great highway in the area. (This is also very near the birthplace of Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain, born in 1835, the year the Allreds left).

According to William, they found the climate to be much colder than in Tennessee and Isaac was hard pressed to provide -- especially sufficient clothing -- for his large family, which by May, 1831, numbered eleven children. He enjoyed one advantage, however. It was the abundance of game animals. William tells of his father going out and bagging two deer before breakfast, and William, himself, killed one at age 12. We may well guess, then, that Isaac’s family was largely buckskin-clad.

Reddick has left the best explanation I have seen concerning the coming of the LDS missionaries to the Salt River Settlement (also known as Allred Settlement): “....My parents were members of a school of Presbyterians and brought up their children to reverence a God and were very exemplary in their lives, so that when a new religion was introduced they naturally looked at it with suspicion, having been taught that Prophets and Apostles were no longer needed, so some cried false Prophet. In 1831 two men preached in our settlement saying a new Prophet had organized a new church and introduced a new gospel or rather the old one come again. His name was Joseph Smith. Their names were Hyrum Smith, brother of the Prophet and John Murdock. Other Elders were passing every few months from Kirtland to Jackson County -- the gathering place for the Saints, and father opened his house for meetings....” The Salt River Branch of the Church was organized that same day.

William indicates that his father Isaac sold his farm on Salt River in 1832 or 1833 in anticipation of moving to Jackson County, the gathering place for the Church. But when the Saints were expelled from Jackson County, he rented his farm back from the buyer and remained in the area for a time, though the family had to relinquish the house to the buyer and find other accommodations. They stayed there for one more year, during which the Prophet, Joseph Smith, came to their settlement with his “Zion’s Camp” expedition in an attempt to reclaim the homes and property of those evicted from Jackson County.

In 1835, in response to the call of the Prophet to assemble at Clay County, Missouri, Isaac and his family moved. From Reddick’s account, “...In 1835 father moved up to Clay and located on Fishing River where he raised one crop, and the influx was so great that the old settlers became alarmed and the mob spirit began to raise, which was checked only by a compromise by which the old settlers were to buy out the Saints, and we to move into a new county adjoining called Caldwell County.

“1837 Father preempted land on Long Creek where he hoped to be able to build and inhabit -- to plant and eat the fruit in peace thereof. This was eight miles from the newly laid out city of Far West. On the 14th of March 1838 the Prophet and other leading men came in from Kirtland and settled in Far West and the Saints

began to gather and spread out so that two counties had to be organized, Caldwell and Davis were two Stakes of Zion was organized.”

William’s account tells us something about the circumstances and results: “...We lived there about two years and was getting a pretty good start. Broke ground for a temple in 1837. My father had quite a large family, in all nine boys and four girls, the oldest girl died before I was born, and we suffered considerable from persecution and exposure...”

Isaac and Mary’s oldest son, John, married in 1833. This left William (age 19 in 1838) as the oldest unmarried son. But William fled the area after it was learned that the Missourians were seeking him because he had been involved in the battle of Crooked River and in the defense of Far West. This left Isaac and his daughters and youngest sons -- with only one or two ox teams which had not been either stolen or destroyed -- to transport family and good in the wintertime exodus from Missouri.

At length the family reached Illinois and were reunited. Isaac rented a farm a few miles down the Mississippi River from the town of Quincey. The family resided there until the Prophet, Joseph, made his escape from Missouri and founded Nauvoo, on a bend in the Mississippi on the Illinois side. Isaac moved his family there in 1840. We have little information about him from then until the exodus from Nauvoo. Isaac’s family were not among those leaving there early. William noted that it was in the spring of 1846. Reddick’s record is that as he returned to Nauvoo after assisting some of the early movers to camps in Iowa, he found his family (Isaac, Mary and children, and his wife, Lucy) on the Iowa side of the Mississippi awaiting his return so they could resume the journey. He noted that weather conditions had improved so much that they actually had a pleasant trip across Iowa to Council Bluffs (a great contrast to the experiences of those who left Nauvoo early).

It appears that most of the quite numerous Allred clan -- Isaac and James now being the patriarchs of large posterities of children and grandchildren -- settled about five miles east of Council Bluffs at what became known as Allred settlement. According to Reddick, it was at “Little Pidgeon” (probably a stream). A branch of the Church was organized there.

About the time they reached this camp two of Isaac’s sons, Reddick and James Riley, enlisted in the Mormon Battallion. Reddick’s wife and baby remained with Isaac’s family. These soldiers’ pay was received by the Church and helped the families financially, but the great strength of the two sons was missed. Isaac, with other remaining family members, began making preparations to overwinter there.

After Reddick’s return in December of 1847 (James Riley remained in California), preparations to move west were hastened. The journey was commenced in the spring of 1849. Reddick was a captain of 50. Isaac and family traveled with him. They arrived at the Salt Lake valley on 16 Oct and remained in Salt Lake City that winter. In 1850 they located near the mouth of Big Cottonwood canyon. The next year Isaac had the sorrow of Mary’s death -- on 16 Sep 1851, at age 58. The cause of her death was apparently not recorded.

Isaac married Matilda Park, a widow with three children, on 1 Mar 1852. Thus, at age 64, after having raised a family of 12 (two of whom were still teenagers), he began raising a second family. A daughter was also subsequently born to this marriage. They apparently then moved to Kaysville, as that is where Reddick noted finding his father when he returned from his mission in 1855. Reddick’s words: “...they were quite destitute having lost their crop the two successive seasons as also many others throughout the territory, especially the last season.”

In the spring of 1858 most of the Salt Lake valley settlers moved south to the Utah valley and beyond at the approach of Johnston’s army to Salt Lake. Reddick tells us that he remained with the rear guard and sent his family on ahead. It may be that he sent them with Isaac. Then he states, “I came to my family in Nephi and instead of going back I sold my home worth $500 for one yoke of oxen worth $100. Whether Isaac had already sold out at Kaysville or whether he also made a sacrifice trade rather than return we have not been informed. All we know for certain is that he must have proceeded on to Sanpete valley immediately, because later that year he was selected as a committee member for a study of the feasibility of making a settlement at Pleasant Creek, near the north end of the valley. (Isaac’s brother, James, and others had been called by Brigham Young in 1851 to settle the Sanpete valley, but had had serious Indian problems the entire time. They had a stronghold at Manti.) The committee made the survey and reported favorably. Then Isaac was chosen as one of the committee to present the proposal to Brigham Young. Whether he met with President Young is in some doubt, as there is some indication that he was replaced by someone else. It may be that the Allreds had decided against settling there. Whatever the circumstances, Isaac and Reddick did not settle at Pleasant Creek (Mt. Pleasant), but at Spring City, a few miles to the south. Reddick claimed to have built one of the first cabins there in the fall of 1859 (though this was where his Uncle James had settled earlier only to be driven out by Indians. The settlers’ houses were burned.) He states that his father, Isaac, and a number of other Allred families, as well as others soon settled there.

Thus, Isaac, at age 72, was still extending the western frontier, building upon the ashes of home sites burned out by the Indians. Nor were the Indian problems over. One night they killed every pig and chicken in the settlement. But Indians were not the only predators. The wolves killed so many cattle that the settlers sharpened their horns that they might better protect themselves. There is indication that this measure lessened the losses, but did not stop them entirely.

In spite of Indians and wolves, Isaac remained at Spring City until his death on 13 Nov 1870.
He was 82.

Compiled by E. Morrell Allred, 1 ggson

Sources:
Allred, Reddick N., autobiography, in Treasure of Pioneer Hist., K. Carter, ed. 5: 297-372 DUP.
SLC.
Allred, Wm. M., autobiography, unpub. ms.
Biography of Wiley Payne Allred, unpub. ms., author unknown.
Munson, Eliza M.A., Early Pioneer History, 3 page unpub. ms.

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