Border State Quandaries: The Complicated Life of Dr. Samuel Allen During the Civil War

By Tim Scherrer

Dr. Samuel Allen was at the epicenter of the American Civil War, Missouri. As a slave-owning native Virginian that lived in the shadows of pro-Union Columbia and a Union occupied Jefferson City, he was challenged at every turn with the new state of affairs after the outbreak of the Civil War.

His southern Boone County home in a township, country and state was split on the issue of slavery. An old veteran’s simple suggestion caused this respected doctor to end up imprisoned. This is the saga of his life, imprisonment and release in southern Boone County Missouri.

Dr. Allen found himself not only in a situation of local complications, but one of national implications. President Lincoln wanted to rejoin the Union and pushed for a policy that benefited Dr. Allen. The intervention of a Congressman and this new policy returned Dr. Allen to his home and practice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9781794799288

Book preview

Border State Quandries

The Complicated Life of Dr. Samuel Allen during the Civil War

Tim Scherrer

Copyright © 2019 by Tim Allen Scherrer

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

First Printing: 2019

ISBN 978-1-79479-928-8

Tim Allen Scherrer

835 Oak Lawn Drive

Columbia, Missouri 65203

Copies of this book may be ordered through Lulu Publishing www.lulu.com. The author can be reached by email at [e-mail].

Contents

Dedication

Foreword

Abraham Lincoln

Introduction

Virginia Roots

Samuel V. Allen in Missouri

Allen appears in Cedar Township

The Allen Family in 1860

Cedar Township during the Civil War

Union Reactions in Boone County and Missouri toward Secessionist Activity

Dr. Allen’s Imbroglio

Arrest, Imprisonment and Statements

Union Policy Shifts

Life inside Gratiot

Dr. Allen after the War, Economic Success and Loss of Family Members

Conclusion

Notes

Sources

About the Author

Dedication

To my relatives who gave twelve years of their lives for the Union cause during the Civil War:

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Private John Simeon, Company C, 111 th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment

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Corporal John P. Randall, Company B, 119 th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment and Company I, 14 th Illinois Veterans Battalion, Reserve Corps

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First Lieutenant James Fulton Crawford, Company I, 129 th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment

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Corporal Alfred Bloyd, Company I, 129 th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment

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Private John Bell, Mexican and Civil War service, Civil War service with Company I, 28 th Illinois Infantry Regiment, Company K, 10 th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, and Company D, 10 th (Reorganized) Illinois Cavalry Regiment

Foreword

This book began as a research seminar class at the University of Missouri-Columbia. A series of primary source pages were passed out in the class and we could select one and use it as the basis for a project. That is where I first met Dr. Samuel Allen.

While the documents relating to Dr. Allen’s imprisonment were a really compelling story, there wasn’t a trove of information either. What I had was a really interesting story about a faceless physician whose way of life was being challenged. He lived in Missouri, a very contested border state where loyalties were divided by county, city, township and even property line. He lived in the shadow of an occupied state capital, Jefferson City, and a strongly pro-union University town, Columbia.

As the world changed before his eyes, this Virginia native and slave owner found himself on the front lines of a guerilla war that was more about shades of grey than clear black and white. Within these shades of grey he found himself embroiled in the war due to a simple act. As a veteran, he was willing to show others how to drill and this entangled him in the larger struggle of the boundaries he straddled daily.

One issue I quickly discovered was how little information I had on Dr. Allen. I needed to make a mountain out of a molehill. With this deficit I started digging into different resources that were locally available. I threw myself into various county property and plat records, census and population records and I visited the sites mentioned in the book. I’ve always thought going to the land of an event always gives you a better sense of the historical events. With Dr. Allen’s story, it did.

Through all of this, I was able to add detail and character to the life of Dr. Allen. While I never found a picture of him, I did get a broader sense of his life as a physician in Cedar Township. Dr. Allen was a staple of his community which grew and eventually became Ashland, MO.

This project would not have been possible without the support of several groups. The Boone County Historical Society’s staff, and especially the volunteer staff of the Wilson-Wulff Boone County History and Genealogical Library, who managed to break this project wide open in a matter of minutes. Ken Elfrink, the City Manager of Ashland provided valuable information on the location of Dr. Allen’s land today. The Stegeman family, who are the present owners of the Allen homestead,