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Mary Alice (Manuel) & William T Allen
My great aunt Vera Jones retired in the early 1970s after a decades long career as a nurse and occupational therapist. After she retired she devoted herself to caring for her mother, my great grandmother, Millie Mae Allen Jones, and to extensive genealogy research. She was particularly focused on her mother’s Allen family. That work resulted in major contributions to the book "Allens: Quakers of Shenandoah", which was privately published in 1984 by Rudelle Mills Davis and Peggy Davidson.
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| Vera Jones |
Millie married Clinton Porter Jones in 1913 and they lived on their farm on Ox Road in Fairfax, Virginia for the rest of their lives. Vera, my grandfather and my mother as well as others were born on that farm. In 1980 my parents built a home on the back part of what remains of the Jones farm and have lived there to this day. Vera had moved back to the farm to care for her mother and remained there until her final days, my mom in turn caring for Vera in her last years.
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| Me with Millie Mae (Allen) Jones |
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| Millie Mae (Allen) Jones, Clinton Porter Jones, Allen Jones and Vera Jones at their home ca. 1927 |
I visited with Vera fairly often. She loved to talk about genealogy and various aspects of the family history. Initially as a teenager I didn’t really understand much of what she was talking about. To be honest, some of it caused me to glaze over.
I knew she drove all over the place to visit courthouses, cemeteries, libraries and any other places that might have information useful to a genealogist. She subscribed to multiple newspapers so she could check the obituaries, birth and marriage announcements. She often spoke of “working the census” which I did not understand at the time. Now I realize that meant going to the National Archives or other places and going line by line through huge books of the national census. I can’t imagine how many hours that took. Vera also subscribed to multiple genealogy periodicals and would post ads seeking information on her brick walls. Correspondence with other researchers was done almost entirely via US Mail. She mailed family group sheet forms to anyone and everyone in hopes they would fill them out and send them back. Genealogy was a much different business back in those days. It is amazing she was able to accomplish as much as she did. But she spent countless hours for more than two decades compiling a tremendous amount of information that now resides in dozens of binders and notebooks in my parents’ basement. Her interest in the family history extended back to when she was a little girl constantly asking questions of various family members. I truly appreciate that she could relay firsthand knowledge to me about my great-great grandparents. She would talk to me about her grandparents and their siblings as if they had only been gone a few years. It took me a bit to get used to when she would say Grandpa did such and such, she was talking about someone who was born over 150 years ago and had been gone over 70 years.
Starting around the 1820s to 1830s, many in Virginia began heading west, particularly to Ohio, but also Indiana, Tennessee and Kentucky. This included the rapidly growing Allen and related families in the Shenandoah Valley. Primarily, they needed more land to farm. To make matters worse, decades of extensive tobacco farming had fatally depleted much of the land in Virginia. Our Isaiah headed to La Porte County, Indiana at some point after marrying Mary Jane Henkle in April of 1846. However, he shortly returned to the Valley. We are not sure why. As a farmer, he likely would have faced the same problems that caused him to leave in the first place. Maybe he simply missed his family that still remained there?
I became actively interested in genealogy in the late 1990s. Fortunately, Vera was still alive and could offer me quite a bit of useful guidance. Or course much had changed by that point. She kept handing me blank family group forms, telling me to fill them out and organize them. I would tell her I was entering the information into a computer database, but that was pretty well lost on her. She was still invaluable for understanding the basic concepts. I began with entering in the info she had accumulated after all those years. It took many months to get the core information done. I live in Austin, Texas, so I could only do data entry from her binders when I was visiting. Sometimes I would photocopy her documents so I could enter stuff later. Vera had such a tremendous amount of information on paper, I am still finding new and useful tidbits. Once I got the basic information entered, I started searching via the various online services, which were mostly fairly new at the time. I was able to fill in some gaps and even break through a few of Vera’s brick walls. Our most frustrating brick wall in the Jones line still remains, but that is another story.
As I said, Vera spent much of her time working on her mother’s Allen family. Dwayne and I are Allen descendants and he has asked me to write about the Allen family, Vera’s work and other related items, including the history of Park Gate farm.
The Allens were among the earliest settlers in the Colonies. According to a passenger list, the immigrant ancestor, George Allen, arrived in New England in 1635 or 1636 with his wife, Katherine and sons George, William and Matthew. Ralph Allen is thought to be George’s eldest son and from a previous wife. It is not known when he joined his family in New England. Ralph’s son Joseph ventured out of New England, living in New Jersey, Maryland and possibly elsewhere. Two of Joseph’s sons, Benjamin and Reuben, were the first of the family to settle in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia around the 1730s. They are likely the first to settle in the area now known as Mt. Jackson. It is not known if Benjamin married or had children. The bulk of the book, Allens: Quakers of Shenandoah is made up of 14,000+ descendants of Reuben and his wife Mary [1].
Reuben and Mary’s 4th child was Joseph Allen. The 4th child of Joseph and his wife Ruth was William Allen, who was born in 1762 and lived no later than 1826. William married Rachel Keeran in 1802. Vera was responsible for the research on the descendants of William and Rachel Allen. The 6th child of William and Rachel was Isaiah Allen who is the third great grandfather to both Dwayne and me [1].
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| Isaiah Allen |
Isaiah’s first child was Reuben Ellwood Allen, born 11 March 1847 while Isaiah was still living in La Porte County, Indiana. Reuben is Dwayne’s great-great grandfather. His second child, William Thomas Allen was born 29 November 1848 in Shenandoah County. This is my great-great grandfather [1].
In January 1877 William T Allen married his first wife Henrietta “Nettie” Maphis in Shenandoah County. In October of that year, their first child, Guy Gilbert Allen was born. For the next few years after that, William and his growing family lived in different parts of Virginia. Elzora Allen was born 1880 in Page County. In 1881 William T Allen and his father, Isaiah, moved to a farm they purchased in Linville, Virginia [3]. William’s daughter Bessie Allen was born 1882 in Linville [1]. They sold the farm in Linville in 1883 [2].
In 1884, or possibly late 1883, William T Allen and his family moved to Park Gate Farm in Nokesville, Prince William County, Virginia. In October 1884 Isaiah and his wife Mary Jane joined William T Allen in Nokesville. It is not certain if Isaiah and Mary Jane lived at Park Gate for any part of that time, but evidence points to them having a home across the road from Park Gate. Reuben E Allen’s children came to Nokesville with Isaiah and Mary Jane. Among those children was Dwayne’s great grandfather, Luther. Reuben’s wife, Louisa, had died the year before, presumably in Shenandoah County. Reuben eventually found his way to Prince William County where he married his second wife, Emma Elizabeth Holmes in November 1891. He eventually found his way to Catlett, Virginia, and I will let Dwayne speak more on that at some point [1,2].
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| Detail from the 1901 map of Prince William County (click for larger image) |
Also in October 1884, the Allendale school opened, serving the children of the area farmers. It was built by William T Allen adjacent to Park Gate. William also served a number of years as clerk for the Brentsville District School Board [4, 5].
William T Allen had two more children with his first wife, Henrietta “Nettie”, at Park Gate. After she died he married Mary Alice Manuel in May 1894. With her they had three more children, including my great grandmother, Millie Mae Allen, along with William Jennings Bryan Allen and Nettie Louise Allen [1,2].
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| Allen family at Park Gate circa 1898. Mary Alice (Manuel) Allen is sitting with Millie Mae Allen and William Jennings Bryan Allen. Standing are older sisters Bess, Zora and Lucy Allen (click for larger image) |
It is uncertain why this part of the Allen family found their way to Prince William, Fauquier and other places in that general area when most of the rest of the family either headed west or stayed put in the Shenandoah Valley. It is also not certain if the Allens knew of the historical significance of Park Gate farm when they bought it. Further, it is not known why the Allens left Park Gate in 1904 [2]. They went from owning a large and beautiful farm to renting something much more humble. Whatever happened, William T Allen remained an active and prominent member of the Nokesville community. In 1910 he founded the Bank of Nokesville and served as its president, while his brother in law, Joseph B Manuel served as vice president. He continued to serve on the school board and at some point was also Justice of the Peace [4, 5, 6].
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| Various Obituaries for W. T. Allen in the local newspapers of the time (click for larger image) |
Park Gate Farm
The Park Gate house is on the National Register of Historic Places as well as the local and DAR registries. Despite its historic nature, information about Park Gate and its inhabitants is relatively scarce and sometimes contradictory. The information that follows is accurate as far as I know, but some of it relies on assumptions and taking the word of others without documentation or other evidence. The information I have found in books and newspaper articles I am fairly certain is incorrect.
Park Gate is one of the few remaining colonial era structures in Prince William County, Virginia. In 1686 George Brent and three other men received a land grant of 30,000 acres from King James. A testament to his prestige in the area, the land was called the Brenton Tract. It is thought George Brent built a cabin or some structure on the land in 1691. That structure and/or the one that replaced it became the summer kitchen for Park Gate and may have also served as slave quarters. The chimney still standing is believed to be from the original 1691 structure. After George Brent’s death in or after 1694, the rights to the tract passed to his grandson, also named George. Up until this point, little progress was made on plans to settle the tract [7, 8, 9].
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| This is believed to be the chimney from the original 1691 structure |
In 1737, six years after the formation of Prince William County, the original 30,000 acre tract was divided into four parcels for the families of each of the four original proprietors [7, 8]. At some point after that, George Brent (the grandson) built the Park Gate house on the Brent parcel. The current owner of Park Gate, Tom Russell, believes the house was built in 1738 [9]. Others think it was later, but not likely later than 1750 [12, et al]. Any official documents were likely lost during the Civil War. The house is an example of Tidewater style architecture, which originated out of Maryland. The Brent family had deep roots in Maryland.
The original purpose of the house is uncertain. It seems most likely it was used by the caretaker of the Brent parcel, which was being leased in smaller chunks for tobacco farming [9]. There doesn’t appear to be any indication that any of the Brent family were living there at the time. Further testament to the uncertainty of purpose, Park Gate has been referred to variously as a “tenant house,” “plantation home” and “mansion.” It is far larger and nicer than any typical tenant house of the time. Plantation house or mansion don’t quite sit right either. Tobacco farming continued on the land until the soil was nearly depleted right before the American Revolution. Many farmers started looking to other crops and farming techniques. The war and some other political factors further caused a move away from tobacco farming. George died around 1778 or 1779 and the land passed to his grandson, still yet another George. In, or just prior to 1782, the land transfers to George’s distant cousin, Daniel Carroll Brent [10], who descends from Giles Brent, the uncle of the original George Brent. At that time, he owned 5700 acres of the Brenton Tract. In 1785 he offered that land for sale in 1, 2 and 3 hundred acre lots [11]. Daniel Carroll Brent is of some historical interest, having dealings with Thomas Jefferson and being involved with the development of the city of Washington, DC, as well as being influential in Stafford and Prince William counties [7, 8].
In (or around) 1790, Daniel Carroll Brent sold the parcel with the Park Gate house to Thomas Jesse Lee [9, 12, et al], who had been married to Daniel’s sister Elizabeth “Eliza” Ashton Brent. About five years earlier Eliza died in childbirth, but their daughter Eleanor survived [8, 13,14]. Thomas Lee was the eldest son of Richard Henry Lee, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. His second wife, Mildred, was George Washington’s niece. During the Revolutionary War, Thomas Lee was a courier and aide-de-camp to George Washington. Washington made many trips to Culpepper, Virginia and it is believed he would stop off at Park Gate on the way [9, 12, et al].
Many have listed Eliza as Thomas’ second wife after Mildred. I believe this might be the result of confusing her with her daughter Eleanor. This mistake is found in the application for the National Register for Historic Places, which also lists Eliza as Daniel C Brent’s daughter, rather than his sister. Some have even listed Thomas’ wife as Eleanor.
Mildred and her child died in childbirth at Park Gate in 1796 [9] or as late as 1798. I have found no solid source for a specific date. Thomas Lee died there in 1805 according to the Brent book and other sources [8, et al]. His obituary in the Alexandria Daily Advertiser indicates he died at the home of his brother, Ludwell, in Loudoun County [25]. Thomas and Eliza’s daughter, Eleanor, married Gerard Alexander. She died within weeks of giving birth to her son, Thomas Ludwell Alexander, in October 1807, likely at Park Gate [8]. Thomas, Eleanor, Mildred and her baby, as well as others are thought to be buried at Park Gate, but no grave markers exist. It should also be noted the third George Brent died in 1804 at Woodstock and Daniel C Brent died 1814 at his home in Richland [8].
It appears that Gerard and his son stayed on at Park Gate. It also is likely Gerard remarried and started having more children at Park Gate. His father, Richard Barnes Alexander died at Park Gate in December 1821, although he had been living in Kentucky [18]. They may have been joined by others of the large extended and confusing Alexander family. The name is spelled either Gerard or Gerrard and sometimes Girard. There were multiple men with that name in the area at the time. Two Gerard Alexanders appear on the 1810 census for Prince William County and one appears on the 1820 census. Genealogists know that census workers can easily misspell a name. And unfortunately the early census provided very little details. They do show a few dozen slaves for each listing. My hunch is there were two adult Gerrard Alexanders, father and son that were different from our Gerard at Park Gate with a single rather than double G in the middle of his name. Gerard may have had a young son named Gerard around this time. The Alexander family is also connected to another historic home in the area, Effingham Plantation, built by William Alexander around 1765. They are also the namesake for the city of Alexandria, Virginia.
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| (click for larger image) |
In 1823 Park Gate was listed for sale by authority of Thomas Lee’s only surviving brother, Ludwell, and in accordance with Thomas’ will. Was there some sort of arrangement that Thomas’ son-in-law and grandson could stay there for a certain period of time after his death? Or were they waiting out settlement of the estates involved? The sale listing indicates that Gerard Alexander is living at Park Gate [19].
It appears Park Gate did not sell after the 1823 listing. In 1824 it was listed for sale as the result of a lawsuit between the estate of Daniel Carroll Brent and the estate of Thomas Lee [20]. The assumption is that money was still owed to the Daniel C Brent estate for the mortgage. There were many suits involving the Brent estate [7], which might explain why they dragged on for so long.
Thomas Ludwell Alexander and his father Gerard Alexander, along with their new family headed off to Kentucky at some point prior to about 1829. They may have lived elsewhere in Prince William for a year or so. It is believed Park Gate received some much needed restoration work around this time [9]. It is uncertain if this work was in preparation for the sale or if done by the new owners.
Daniel C. Brent’s widow, Euphan Wallace Washington Brent, moved into Park Gate at some point, along with relatives from her first marriage to Bailey Washington. Her obituary indicates that she died at Park Gate in 1845 and that she had been living there for some time [21]. Did she get Park Gate somehow as a beneficiary of Daniel C Brent’s estate? That seems logical, but there is no evidence and it is not known when she moved there. Or maybe she or one of her children purchased it? Or were they leasing it?
The following evidence is known about the Washington family at Park Gate:
Euphan’s son, James Wallace Washington died there in 1869 [22]. Euphan’s grandchildren (1st cousins) William T Washington and his wife Frances (Fanny) have listings at Park Gate for these children:
- An unnamed daughter, most likely Euphan, born 5 Sept 1857 [16]
- Elizabeth W Washington born 15 Oct 1864 [16]
- Infant daughter, Camelia, died in August 1873 [23]
William’s mother, Euphan Macrae Washington died at Park Gate 17 June 1875 at age 75 [24]. Her husband (and 1st cousin) Col. John Macrae Washington, a career military man, died at sea in 1853. William T Washington had a grandmother, mother, aunt and daughter all named Euphon, which can make things rather confusing. Washington and Macrae cousins marrying also makes for further confusion.
The 1870 census shows William Washington age 38 and his wife Frances with daughters Elizabeth, Euphan and Mary along with son John. It also shows his mother, Euphan Washington, age 70. Also there is a black female listed as domestic servant, three black children, one black female teenager and a black farm laborer.
The 1860 census lists William T Washington and Frances and their daughter Euphan. William’s brother, Dr. Henry William Macrae Washington is also listed along with their mother Euphan. The town for both 1860 and 1870 is Brentsville and it seems likely this was at Park Gate. Unfortunately, these censuses lack details.
By the 1880 census, the Washington family was living in Washington, DC. So, they probably left Park Gate somewhere between 1875 and 1880.
The current owner, Tom Russell has said that Park Gate changed hands many times during the Civil War [9]. The Washington family lived there before and after the war, but it is uncertain if they were there during the war. It is possible they could have come and gone. Crazy things can happen in war time. The house managed to avoid any damage from the war despite general devastation in the rest of Prince William County. It is believed Park Gate was used as a field hospital [9]. A February 1865 Virginia State Journal article mentions “a body of Yankee Calvary near Park Gate.”
As noted above, the Allens lived at Park Gate from 1884 until 1904. In 1910 the new owners installed the first bathroom in the house [9]. Probably in the early 1920s, Isaac Liskey purchased Park Gate. He and his wife, Osceola, remained there for the rest of their lives. He died in 1956 and she died in 1964. The eldest son, Glenn, marries and then later moves out. The only other son, Reuel, remained in the house until 1976. He was there by himself for the last 12 years. He lived at Park Gate for around 50 years, far longer than anyone else. He died in 2006. The house unfortunately fell into serious disrepair. Dean and Gail Niedernhofer purchased the farm in 1976 from Reuel and his sister-in-law, who owned half of the 140 acres of land. It is recommended to the Niedernhofers that the house be demolished. However, they spend a considerable amount of time, effort and money to restore the home, which eventually leads to it getting listed on historic registries.
The Niedernhofers listed Park Gate for sale in 1998. I visited Park Gate in 2009, when it was owned by a fireman raising alpacas. The current owner is Tom Russell, who is maintaining a horse stable on the land.
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| Park Gate in 2009 |
The Park Gate Porch; 120 Years Ago and Today
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| William and Millie Allen circa 1902; Dwayne Lunsford 2022 |
References
1. Davis, Rudelle Mills; Dick, Peggy Davidson. Allen’s: Quakers of Shenandoah. Self published. El Paso, TX. 1984.
2. Jones, Vera C. Personal papers, including Zirkle family documents.
3. Staunton Spectator 29 March 1881
4. Scheel, Eugene M. Crossroads and Corners, A Guided Tour of the Villages, Towns and Post Offices of Prince William County, Virginia Past and Present. Historic Prince William Inc. 1996
5. Breeden, Morgan E. (transcriber). Brentsville District School Board 1908-1922 School Board Minutes. 2014
6. William T Allen obituaries in various papers.
7. Sackett, Pamela Myer. “From Outpost to Courthouse: Plotting Brentsville” Prince William Reliquary, Manassas, VA, Vol. 2, No. 2. April 2003.
8. Brent, Chester Horton. Descendants of Coll Giles Brent, Captain George Brent and Robert Brent, Gentlemen, Immigrants to Maryland and Virginia. Rutland, VT, Tuttle Pub. Co., 1946.
9. Russell, Tom, Interview from YouTube video: History and Haunts of Park Gate Plantation https://youtu.be/K33QqI0R4Ow (Tom Russell is the current [2022] owner of Park Gate Farm.)
10. Prince William County Land Tax Records 1782-1861, Reel 2, Microfilm, 1782B
11. Virginia Journal & Alexandria Advertiser 13 Jan 1785
12. National Register of Historic Places, Inventory-Nomination Form. National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior. June 1986
13. Geiger, Sister M. Virgina. Daniel Carroll II, One Man and His Descendants,1730-1798. College of Notre Dame of Maryland. 1979.
14. French, David M. "The Brent Family" LDS Film #1598283, item #16. References cited therein.
15. United States Federal Census 1810-1950
16. Binning, Margaret B. (compiler). Birth Records of Prince William County Virginia, Prior to 1912. Bull Run Regional Library, Manassas, Virginia. 2021
17. Ratcliffe. This Was Prince William County. Potomac Press. 1978
18. Alexandria Gazette & Daily Advertiser 28 November 1821
19. Public Sale ad in Genius of Liberty 3 June 1823
20. Alexandria Gazette 18 November 1824, et al
21. Richmond Enquirer 11 April 1845
22. Alexandria Gazette 2 February 1869
23. Alexandria Gazette 11 August 1873
24. Staunton Vindicator 2 July 1875
25. Alexandria Daily Advertiser 10 September 1805
26. Prince William County Virginia Map 1901 https://tinyurl.com/mww4dyhb
General information from newspaper articles:
Potomac News, Woodbridge, VA
“Park Gate Mansion, One of the Oldies.” September 19, 1973
“Seven County Landmarks Added to County List.” December 1, 1976
“The Way it Was, Park Gate.” June 6, 1980
Untitled short blurb. October 25, 1990
“Link to Revolutionary War earns Nokesville House Recognition.” October 7, 1993
Journal Messenger, Manassas, VA
“Park Gate Ceremony.” October 13, 1993
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| Michael Kevin Bell Austin Texas |
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