Their first child, Richard, was born a year after their marriage, followed by more sons; James, John, Peter, and Edward, and a daughter, whom they named Maggie.
But then tragedy struck the young family. Edward had an attack of appendicitis, and the appendix ruptured. According to family stories, the country doctor, who had no anesthesia, attempted to remove it while five men held Edward down. He survived the surgery only to die a painful death from infection days later. (1)
He was buried in Sacred Heart Cemetery, in Burchard Nebraska, his gravestone reading “Born in Summerhill Parish, County Meath, Ireland.”
Now Mary Bryan Allen was left a young widow with six children to raise on her own. The youngest, Edward, was only a few weeks old. Mary stayed on their farm in Plum Creek, Nebraska, raising her family.
Mary Bryan Allen never remarried. When she grew older, she left the farm and lived in a house with her son John and daughter Margaret. She died there in 1932, aged 79. Her gravestone reads “Wife of Edward, born in County Meath, Ireland.”
Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.
Find A Grave. Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi.
1-Note on Ancestry.com by Mary Dillard, descendant of Edward Allen
Year: 1900; Census Place: Plum Creek, Pawnee, Nebraska; Page: 4; Enumeration District: 0131; FHL microfilm: 1240935
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