John Allred’s War Stories
Stories compiled by John’s great, great, great grandson, Fredrick Ford:
“John Allred, was born and reared in the house built by his father,
William Allred. In the same home Claiborne Allred, who was the youngest son
of John Allred and Sarah Spencer, and Orpha Russell settled when they first
married and most of their family of seven children were born there.
When the Revolutionary war came, John Allred shouldered his flintlock
rifle and fought for the freedom of the American colonies to the end of the
war. As a resident of Randolph County, NC, he enlisted in the spring of 1781
as a private and volunteer in the cavalry under Capt. Thomas Doogan for the
purpose of subduing and putting down one Colonel David Fanning, a Tory in the
Royal Militia, who, with a band of outlaws, conducted a campaign of guerrilla
warfare against the colonists in and around Randolph County, North Carolina,
burning houses, pillaging and murdering, from 1775 to 1783. Allred served
for approximately 12 months until the spring of 1782. The fact of his
fighting against the British aroused the anger of Col. David Fannen, the
leader of the Tories or British sympathizers, and he and his band of men went
to the homestead in search of John, who happened to be at home. He saw them
coming, snatched up his gun and secreted himself in the attic. It so
happened that they did not go up there to search for him. William Allred
also saw them approaching, took up his gun and ran out northwest of the house
and lay down behind a large rock. He could see Fannen and his men from his
hiding place when they went out to his crib, later opened the crib door and
let many barrels of corn run out, did the same at another log crib, then
turned their horses loose in the lot to eat and trample the corn into the red
mud. When they had eaten all they wanted them to have, they saddled them up
and started on towards the western part of the county. Fanning was
eventually driven out of North Carolina and fled to South Carolina and then
to East Florida, and from there fled with his family to New Brunswick,
Canada, where he died on the island of Nova Scotia in 1825.
William Allred had a sprightly Negro slave by the name of Kiltyre whom
Fannen took with him. The first night they spent at the widow Kindley’s near
the river, who had a good many slaves. Kiltyre seemed so delighted with his
new friends that Fannen told him to go down to the negro cabins and spend the
night; but Kiltyre never got to the cabins, and the next morning was at home,
where he remained until the William’s death about 1825. In the division of
the estate, Kiltyre was given to John Allred, where he spent the balance of
his life. John Allred and all the children thought a great deal of Kiltyre,
and built him a little home in the lane, about 200 yards north of his own
house, and allowed him a great many privileges that he did not allow his
other slaves. Kiltyre spent many of his last years in that little log cabin
in the lane until his death there.
John Allred married Sarah Spencer, and settled about one and a half miles
southeast of his father, William, where he reared a large family and lived
to be about 85 years old. He and his wife and several of his children were
buried in Trogdon graveyard across Deep River and south of his home.
In 1846, when he was 82, John Allred sought to obtain a pension from
the US government under the Act of Congress, 7 June 1832, and filed a
Declaration recounting his service with Capt. Doogan. However, because his
discharge papers had long since been lost, and there was no official record
in the Secretary of State’s office in Raleigh of his service, even though the
records of the Comptroller of Public Accounts showed payments made to “John
Allred” during this period, his application for a pension was denied by Judge
Alfred Dockery on 29 June 1846.”
SOURCE: (1) Family history recollections, written by Rev. Brazilla
Caswell Allred in 1922, and published in “The Searcher”, Vol. VI, No. 2 (So.
Calif. Genealogical Society, 1969) The Reverend was the brother of William
Franklin Allred of Randolph County, North Carolina. (2) Certified Statement
of Mary C. Allred Jones, dated 22 Apr 1929, found among the papers of Dora
Belle Jones Cross on 16 Oct 1977; (3) Rulon Allred, “Allred Family in
America” (1965); (4) Revolutionary war Pension records, National Archives;
(5) DAR Patriot Index, p. 12; Randolph Co. Marriage Bonds, cited in Rand. Co.
Gen. Journal, Vol 1, No. 1 (Spring 1977), p. 30-31.
