Henry Dexter Allred – The Allred Family

Henry Dexter & Cynthia Louisa Zabriskie Allred

by Clara Hazel Stevenson Goodrich
submitted by: Floyd Allred

Lineage: Henry Dexter, Green Warren, William, William, Thomas, Solomon born 1680 Lancashire, England

Henry Dexter Allred was born 24 July 1865, the seventh of nine children born to Green Warren and Anna Howes Allred. The family was living in Spring City, Utah, at the time, but due to a threatened Indian uprising, the residents fled to Fort Ephraim. Henry was born during the journey through the sagebrush. Cynthia Louisa Zabriskie was born 10 October 1862, in a dugout home at Spring City, the seventh of ten children born to Lewis Curtis and Sarah Ann
Park Zabriskie.

Both the Allred and Zabriskie families had been called from their comfortable homes in Provo and Lehi to help colonize Spring City, Sanpete County, a town first settled in 1852 by James Allred, then vacated in 1853, resettled in
1859. When Louisa was ten years of age her father passed away, leaving his wife with 10 children. Louisa told of doing laundry for well-to-do families such as that of Orson Hyde, scrubbing on the washboard, being paid 25 cents then later, 50 cents a day, but she said, “I could wash all day and dance all night.”

She was married 31 July 1884 to John Hillary Allred at Wellington, Carbon County, Utah. He was born at Spring City, 7 October, 1855. The marriage was later solemnized in the Salt Lake Endowment House. Four children were born to them:

Sarah Anna, born 14 May, 1885; Wellington, Carbon, Utah, died 1 Mar. 1902;
Clara Arinda, born 12 Feb. 1887,Wellington, Carbon, Utah, died 2 Mar. 1920;
Marlin Floyd, born 31 Aug. 1889, Spring City, Sanpete, Utah, died 4 Oct.1924:
Claude Hillary, born 16 Nov. 1894, Wellington, Carbon, Utah, died 18 Feb. 1982.

John became ill and was disabled for several years before his death, 22 May 1896. His great worry was in leaving his wife and children. His only comfort was in knowing his brother Henry Dexter would care for them. Henry had come to help care for John and to earn a living for the family during John’s long illness. Henry and Louisa were married 19 December 1896. Three children were born to them:

Eunice Effie, born 2 Sept. 1898, died 20 Mar., 1965;
Henry Austin, born 30 May 1900, died 23 Aug., 1913;
Mary Edith, born 14 Nov. 1902, died 2 Mar., 1904.

All the seven children were born at Wellington, except Marlin Floyd who was born at Spring City. Henry truly loved his children and John’s children equally. They were his and Louisa’s family. The family continued pioneering, moving to Desert Lake in Emery County to help build the reservoir, which proved to be more Desert than Lake in the drought years that followed. They moved to Green River, Utah, but after a few years returned to Carbon County. In 1907 they came to the Uintah Basin, first settling in Boneta, then moving on to the area which later would be called Bluebell.

After the deaths of their daughter Clara and her husband, Andrew Stevenson, they took the five small children into their home. This they did willingly, taking upon themselves what I now realize was a tremendous task for people nearing 60 years of age, but they couldn’t bear seeing the children divided among relatives. Losing our parents was a sad blow for us and the agony would have been compounded by losing brothers and sisters also.

Both Henry and Louisa worked to help build up the community. Hard working and honest, they exemplified the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would be done by.” Henry plowed the first furrow for the Bluebell irrigation canal and he and other settlers worked very hard to establish a water system, roads, ditches and fences. There was a lot of sagebrush to be grubbed out and trees to be cleared and land to be leveled.