Agnes Lydia Allman

I have previously posted about William Allman and Emily Rachel Davis. Their daughter was my 2nd-great-grandmother, Agnes Lydia Allman.

On 15 February, I posted a photo of Agnes Lydia Allman and Charles John Oyler (very likely a wedding picture, they were married on 24 May 1882) in Fairmount, Vermilion County, Illinois. Agnes was born on 24 May 1864, so she was married on her 18th birthday. Here's a close-up of Agnes from that photo [my parents have the original photo in Indiana]:

We have the story of how Agnes met her future husband Charles. He was born in Ohio, but grew up separated from his parents from the age of 7, living on the farm of his aunt Elizabeth Oyler Wright and her husband Charles Wright in Clarkshill, Tippecanoe County, Indiana. Charles moved in with them when his father Samuel Oyler died in 1863 (I will have much more on Samuel Oyler in a future post). Agnes went to visit family living in Clarkshill during the fall of 1881. She met Charles when she was visiting, and they must have made a connection because they were married six months later.

Their son, Joe Oyler, wrote this passage about Charles and Agnes: "As a young man he learned to know a young Methodist minister whom he promised to have marry him. Sometime in late 1881 father met Agnes Allman of Fairmount, Illinois who was visiting relatives in Clarkshill. After a courtship of about six months they were married in her farm home two miles north of town on her eighteenth birthday, May 24, 1882. Father’s minister friend, William H. Broomfield, performed the ceremony."

Fairmount, IL to Clarks Hill to Sugar Creek Twp, IN

I have a photocopy of notes passed to me from Robert P Jones as transcribed by Joe Oyler. The notes were titled A Partial Biography of Agnes Oyler, 1864-1916:

Our mother was born on the home farm north of Fairmount, Ill. May 24, 1864.

Parents were William Allman and Emily Rachel Davis. Grandmother Allman was left a widow before the birth of Ura J. Allman in 1875. Other children who reached maturity were: Eli, Dora, and Agnes. One little girl, Addie, died in infancy. Grandfather Allman lived only 36 years, dying of pneumonia brought on by ditching in cold, wet spring weather.

Eli Allman married late in life and is buried near Little Rock, Ark. His widow, Bess Short Allman, visited in Thorntown after Eli’s death in 1911.

Ura Allman helped my parents a year or more during their move to Thorntown from Clarkshill. He later farmed and went into dairying (Page 2) and made hundreds of gallons of gallons of ice cream and operated a restaurant in Thorntown.

Aunt Dora married Eli Runyon. They lived in the Fairmount community and later moved to their farm home 4 miles northwest of Danville, Ill. They were parents of three daughters – Ethel, Ada and Dewey.

Uncle Eli and family drove their 1913 Ford touring car and visited us 2 or 3 times during 1913-1918. The trip was 75 miles and it took about 4 hours to drive it. Our parents told of some of the family having driven a horse and buggy from Thorntown to Danville, taking 2 days and putting up in Crawfordsville for one night.

Our mother was blessed with good health and was an excellent cook and good house keeper. Most of her (Page 3) cooking was on a wood stove. When she got a new Mallable steel range in 1909 she was very proud of it. All her laundry was done on a wash board with wooden tubs. Churning was done with a dash churn and later a Bent Wood, with a crank to operate a paddle. She had a Domestic sewing machine used for 30 years or more.

Mother told us she became pretty home sick after her marriage. It was 6 years before her first visit back home at Fairmount. The farm house where dad and mother started house keeping stood near Clarkshill until about 1958 when it was razed and replaced by a modern limestone ranch type house.

While I was in Purdue University I came home on Monday evening to vote on Tuesday morning in 1916 and rode my bicycle into town, voted and took the train back to Lafayette.

(Page 4) That evening word came to me that mother had been stricken at the dinner table and was seriously ill. I boarded an Interurban car from Lafayette to Lebanon and then to Thorntown, arriving home about 11:00 o’clock. Marley Riley met me and took me out home. Mother never regained consciousness and passed away on Thursday Nov. 9, 1916 at age 52. Mabel, Emily and Murrell were home to keep dad during our great and very sudden loss. Internment was in Maple Lawn Cemetery, Thorntown.

By Joe Oyler
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Charles, Agnes Oyler and family appear in the 1900 US Census in Sugar Creek Township, Boone County, Indiana.

In the 1910 US Census, the family was in Washington Township, Boone County, Indiana.

Charles John Oyler and Agnes Lydia Allman had the following children:
1. Mabel Blanche Oyler - born 8 October 1886, died 8 April 1966
2. Joseph (Joe) Bidwell Oyler - born 19 November 1892, died 3 March 1976
3. Mary Emily Oyler - born 30 October 1895, died 17 February 1972
4. Alma Maude Oyler (my great-grandmother) - born 25 November 1897, died 23 December 1976
5. Marley Wree Oyler - born 2 November 1900, died 19 September 1903
6. Samuel Murrell Oyler - born 9 February 1903, died 11 June 1973