Person:Virgil Allen (3)

Quote from Oscar Burton Robbins' book on the Hempstead Jacksons, as a forward to his 1950 book, he acknowledges his sources and says "Particular mention is made of Virgil D. Allen, Architectural Engineer, formerly of 10830 Pasadena Ave., Cleveland, Ohio, who springs from Elizabeth Jackson and Job Allen III, and through whom much of earlier data has come. His death occurred in 1943, and unfortunately his own connecting line had not been obtained [by Mr. Robbins]. . .

"Virgil D. Allen was a gentleman and a cousin I am proud to have met and known [him] and [he] undoubtedly possessed much of this Jackson genealogy as well as his own paternal line which I know he planned to publish . . ."

So Virgil's son, Virgil D. Allen, Jr. stored his father's records away and was "too busy" to do any thing with them. And now, 62 years later, Jerry Gross has located them in the possession of Virgil's great-grandson and has made the records of the descendants of Elizabeth Jackson and Job Allen available to us, as well as certain other Allen papers which are transcribed and posted in the 'Biographies and Histories received from Virgil Allen" in the Table of Contents of this site.

Jerry Gross writing from the papers he received from Virgil's great-grandson: "When at about the age of four, Virgil moved with his parents from Cardington to Franklin County, Ohio. He was educated at a country district school and at the Ohio State University. In 1891 he began work for a local bridge company as a structural engineer and remained employed in general engineering lines of work.

"Virgil has been shown to live in Chicago, Illinois and Cleveland, Ohio. A lot of records show his wife’s name as Gertrude D. Bergen, which I believe, is in error. Virgil was the source for much Genealogy research to include his Jackson, Moore, Lewis and Burgess branches of his family tree.

"Virgil Sr., died on 7 August 1943. The Cleveland Necrology File published an obit on 10 August 1943. It shows that he is survived by son Virgil Jr., sister Mrs. C.C. Wheeler of Columbus (his sister was Julia Moore Allen), grandchildren; John Wight Allen, Betsy Allen and Johanne Allen. He was buried at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio. Gertrude died in Feb/March 1937. The Cleveland Necrology File published an obit for Gertrude on 6 March 1937. It shows that Virgil D. Allen and her son Virgil Allen Jr survive her. Funeral services were held at her late residence, 2304 Bellfield Road at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 6 followed with burial at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.

"Virgil Sr. was in business with an Irwin Osborn. The company was called “The Allen-Osborn Co.; Virgil D. Allen-Irwin S. Osborn; Engineers, Architects; Rose Building, Cleveland.” Loan paperwork shows Gertrude’s name printed and signed as Gertrude B. Allen not Gertrude S. Allen. Virgil also had an office in the Rose Building in Cleveland, Ohio.

"Virgil Jr. wrote to his father on June 23, 1912 asking, “How many tires have you punctured? Have you learned to run over people yet?....Write soon and tell me how many plateglass windows you went through.” I’m assuming that since Virgil Sr. was only 43 years old, that Virgil Jr. was referring to his father learning how to drive since this might have been around the time when he purchased a vehicle and that a vehicle was a new commodity."

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Death Certificate.

   Can be found at the LDS Family Search Labs website, http://search.labs.familysearch.org

2.   Virgil Allen's unpublished papers provided by his great-grandson to Jerry Gross.
3.   Ohio Death Certificate Index www.ohiohistory.org/dindex/index.cfm message needname.