Email From Gary Aden to Gary Aden
Email Dated 5/27/2001

     Two of the children became medical doctors, Robert Abner and George
Washington, the latter to practice near home in Thrifty, Texas. Two
became Methodist ministers, John Wesley and Beverly Park, though the
latter listed himself as a farmer in the 1910 census. Four of his sons,
John Wesley, Richard Glenn, James Russell and Robert Abner, were in
Meyers Regiment of COH Wallers Regimental Line Brigade which was ordered
from Texas to Louisiana to repulse Banks raid on the Red River.

      Reverend Allen along with the other movers and shakers of a now
defunct frontier Texas town will soon be honored by a Memorial to be
constructed at the site of Thrifty, Texas approved by the Texas
Historical Commission.  An annual reunion of the descendants of
Allen-Mullins-Baker-Cross at Bangs, Texas near Brownwood celebrates a
time when families worked and lived together as a community, serving as
a bulwark against Indian attacks, desperadoes, economic privation and
illness. By way of background, stockmen and settlers were drawn to the
cheap grazing land afforded by the ever-westward push when Brown County
was established in 1856 and Camp Colorado in 1857. A site for   the new
town of Thrifty was chosen seven miles from Camp Colorado near the
Coleman County line on Jim Ned Creek. The town flourished, and is  best
visualized as a typical town of the period when the large cattle drives
would begin in Texas and head northward. Eventually, the town had a
hotel, two saloons, blacksmith  shop, cotton gin, a large mercantile
store, a sorghum mill, two doctors and a post office. Camp Colorado
provided some protection from the indians so it became safe to consruct
churches, schools and the first Masonic facility in Brown County. The
leaders in the latter efforts were Reverend Allen and Charles Mullins, a
wealthy, Yale-educated stockman and rancher. The two families became
quite close and inter-married.  It is not clear whether Reverend Allen
ever resided in Thrifty or whether he was frequently there as part of
his itinerant, ministerial circuit via horseback or horse and buggy.
However, two of his sons, Reverend Beverly Parks Allen and George
Washington Allen, MD settled there. All that remains today is a stucco
building with a mini-mart and a gas station. The town might have
survived had the railroad design routes not bypassed the town. 

      Martha CAMP Allen's obituary in the Texas Christian Advocate
extols her virtues as the wife of a Methodist preacher for 62 years and
states that she died March 26, 1906. Her tombstone at Oak Hill Cemetery,
Flatonia, Fayette County, Texas reads OUR MOTHER<MARTHA ALLEN<BORN
1814<DIED 1907<AGE 93 YRS  I will settle the disparity by turning to the
death certificate(cause due to "paralysis") which gives the date as
March 19(nineteen) 1906(one thousand nine hundred and six). Her husband
is buried alongside her with the epitaph: SERVANT OF GOD WELL DONE<REST
FROM THY LOVE EMPLOY<THE BATTLE FOUGHT, THE VICTORY WON<ENTER THY
MASTER'S JOY

      Allied Sections on JWB Allen and the Camp family are the Camp,
Barclay, Olliver, Tarpley, Ragsdale, and Oldham twigs. Other twigs with
undeveloped sections are Brassieur, Howe, Biddlecombe, Mosley, Harwood,
Wise, Marshall, Ewens, Clement, Charlton, Starling, Jones, Barron, Grey,
Sherwood, Williamson, and Heathcote twigs. The description of  the
Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780 near Gastonia, North Carolina(fought on
Nathaniel Camp's property-son of Thos. Camp II and brotther of John
Camp) and the Battle of Cowpens in 1781 near Spartanburg, South Carolina
are in the CAMP section. By marriage, JWB and his wife also have a
pedigree relationship with the Burleson twig. See also John William
Barkley Allen Memorial Sites and Literary References.