The Daily Chronical
Centralia, Washington
13 Sep 1975, Page 17

Washington Marriage Records online at
Ancestry.com

Stories of Jesse Lane Allred
as remembered by his Great Grandson:  Charles Clinton Allred  
as told by his son, Grant Allred

Lineage:  Grant, Charles Clinton, Carl Harvey, Isaac Washington, Jesse Lane, John, Thomas, Solomon born 1680 Lancashire, England

Jesse's son Solomon Allred 1832-1928 sold the farm in 1914

Jessie Lane Allred was born 12 Feb 1799, probably born in Tennessee as the history of Centralis Washington calls him "The Man from Tennessee".  He had four sisters shows as numbers on the Kentucky or Tennessee 1810 Census in Russellville, Kentucky, Logan County.  Other records show their names as:

Elizabeth Allred, born about 1801
spouse Daniel Redman.  Married 23 Apr 1823

Sarah Lane Allred, born abt 1803 Logan County, KY
spouse Jessie Harper.  Married 8 Aug 1832

Mary Allred, born abt 1805, Logan County, KY
spouse Thomas Smith.  Married 20 May 1835

Nancy Allred, born abt 1808, Logan County, KY
spouse Peter Fisher.  Married abt 1822 of Tennessee and of Allen County, KY

Jessie's father was John Allred, son of Thomas Allred.  Jessie Lane Allred married Margaret Redmond in Russellville, Logan County, Kentucky in 1822.  They had their first child in Kentucky in 1825, Thomas Allred.  They had 11 more in different state and ended up with three or four settling with them in Lewis County, Washington.  They traveled Indian style, mother with child in arms, on the back of the horse who was pulling two poles with all their worldly goods tied thereto.  They went to Illinois first, then westward to become among the first settlers in Missouri.  Their baby, Isaac Washington Allred, was born in Sangamon County, Illinois, 22 Jan 1852.  (He was my grandfather.)  They then settled in Centralia, Lewis County, Washington.

Jessie Lane Allred has stories that should be told.  There are two names that are repeated a lot in Jessie's family:  Redmond and Lane.  Why?  There is a point in Virginia that pokes in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee.  One is named Lane Ridge and the other is named Redmond Ridge.  Coincidence?

This is a story my uncle Clyde Allred told me.  Heresay stories should be regarded as such - heresay - but I'll tell you anyway.

This happened in Missouri, probably about 1835.  The settlers and the Indians did not mix well.   The west was young and men were rough and sometimes thoughtless and Jessie must have been from Tennessee because he loved to fight.  (They called Wrestling fighting back then.)  Grandmother Margaret Redmond Allred fixed a good dinner and called the boys to come eat.  But they did not come.  She went to see why and found they were fighting (wrestling) and didn't want to stop for dinner.  Thus came the saying "They would rather Fight than Eat".

One day down at the friendly tavern (about the only building in town), Jessie came in and there was this Indian who probably had drank too much "fire water".  He had created plenty of trouble in the settlement.  He drew a line across the bar room floor and challenged anyone to come and fight him and told them how he would kill them the way he had killed whites before.  Nobody dared to do it and no one had a gun to protect themselves.  The Indian stood there like Goliath taunting them and all of a sudden Jessie jumped across the line like a cat and disarmed him.  Jessie wrestled him to the floor, caught him by the ears and stuck his thumbs into his eyes blinding him.  That ended the Indian's fighting days.

Jessie went on about living and raising his family, traveling and making new farms between Missouri, Texas, Illinois, Iowa and Kansas.

Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, was said to be a very good wrestler and that very few men could pin him down.  There is said to be one who did pin him and that was Jessie Allred.  To my knowledge, Jessie was not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints, but before he died he "got religion" and wanted to make amends for past years, so he went to find the old Indian whose eyes he had put out.  He found him on the banks of the Missouri River in an Indian village.  He asked him to forgive him and the Indian said "Me never forgive".

Details of how he traveled to Washington state during the Civil War are sketchy.  But it appears that the family left Illinois in a covered wagon pulled by an ox team.  My grandfather, Isaac Washington Allred, told me that he was about 10 years old at the time (1862) and remembered walking all the way to Lewis County, Washington where they arrived in 1865.  They are on a census for Washington territory in 1865.

My grandfather was the youngest child of Jessie and told me how they caught cat fish as they traveled by the rivers.  As soon as the camp was set, he and his older brother, Jasper, would set a line and bait a hook and throw it into the river.  They had the line attached to a bell that would ring if something took the bait.  One time in the morning, they found a fish so big it took tow of them to lift it.  They got a pole and stuck it through the gills to carry it back to the camp.

The family fell in with a band of Missourians headed for Washington Territory and traveled with them as far as Salt Lake City, Utah.  About a day out of Salt Lake City, they were camped over night when they noticed their oxen were missing.  They looked everywhere, but couldn't find them.  The Missourians decided that being in Mormon country wasn't safe since the oxen were missing and they moved on to a safer place leaving Jessie's family behind.  Solomon Allred left his family and went into town to inquire around and heard that someone had bought a team of oxen recently.  So Solomon went to look and sure enough, it was Jessie's oxen.  He tapped on the door of the house and when the door opened, he thanked them for "keeping his oxen safe".  "Your Oxen!!  My husband just bought them!" the woman exclaimed!  He said "I'm sorry, but I need them back to pull my wagon." and he took them as the woman yelled "My husband will be after you!"

Needless to say, the Allreds didn't stay long and quickly moved along to catch up with the Missourians.   They parted at Raft River, Idaho.  Solomon's family went to Eastern Oregon for a couple of years to mine gold (about 1867).  Then they moved on to Centralia, Lewis County, Washington.

Jessie's family went to Marsville, California and traveled up the coast until they reached Washington Territory.  Many of the details and stories of this trip are lost in time now.