A Fall through the Ice

This post was inspired by the view out my window this morning. There is a large pond in my backyard, and two young men were testing the ice for ice fishing. Seeing them on the ice made me very nervous!

14 March 1879
Cape Ann Advertiser

"Essex Jottings.
Rescued from Drowning- Last Saturday, Percy,
aged six years, son of Mr. Hervey Allen, came
near being drowned while playing on the ice
in the river. He was caught by the arms, and was res-
cued by Annie Burnham, a young miss of eleven
years."

Percy Eugene Allen was born 10 September 1873 in Marblehead, Massachusetts and died 3 March 1942 in Beverly, Massachusetts. He was the son of Hervey Allen (1841 – 1905) and Adeline Jane Andrews (1839 – 1886) of Essex, Massachusetts. Hervey was the brother to my 2x Great Grandfather, Joseph Gilman Allen (1830 – 1908). Essex Massachusetts is located on the coast, with marshland and the winding, tidal Essex River runs through the center of town, right near where the Allens lived. No doubt this is where little Percy fell through the ice.

In the 1910 Federal Census of Beverly he is listed as a laborer, for the city Street Department, living alone. On his World War 1 Draft registration he was living at 257 Cabot Street, Beverly, alone, and was an employee of the city of Beverly as a laborer. He listed his next of kin as Adeline Leighton, a cousin, of Beverly. In the 1920 census he is living in Oakland, Kennebec County, Maine, as a farmer, with a wife named May and a mother in law, Ellen M. McCartney. By the 1930 census of Oakland, he is a widower, no children, living alone again as an RFD currier for the Post Office.

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo