Allen Family and Descendants of Latimerstown, Wexford, Ireland [1663-1900 ] -
Notes for Katherine "Katie" S. FORWOOD:
Katherine described herself as the daughter of a poor country daughter who had left her and her sister a small house in Maryland.
In order to support herself, she was working as a private secretary for "an extremely busy manager of a business house on W. 27th St." in New York and was making $900.00 a year when she corresponded with family historian, Benjamin William Allen in 1904 and 1905. Echoing author Ayn Rand who arrived in New York about the same time, she writes: "Everything is on such tremendous scale here that one can not fail to be impressed by that fact first. Afterward, the monumental and stupendous business undertakings appeal to you. I wonder if you understand me when I call it inspiring?"
About herself she said: "I am 36 years old but more generally taken for 26, being small and slight, and with considerable animation." She had some interest in the family history, making a couple of references in her letters to her desire to research the history of William Johnson.
Katherine is believed to have married late in life, an older man who was her second cousin once removed. According to another letter written in 1906 by a woman who identified herself as the eldest daughter of Edward Miller Allen and signed her name as Mrs. Thomas Archer Haye, one of the daughters of Dr. Wm Stump Forwood had recently married her father's half-brother, Dr. Robert Gover Allen. Mrs. Haye added that the bride was about 40 and that the groom was about 85. Although Dr. Robert Gover Allen's death date is unknown, he is buried with Katherine and her second husband, Count Viscardo G. Santi in Darlington Cemetery, Maryland.
