Who We Are and Where We Came From: Chastina Hadlock Allen

1828-1913

How we relate:

Mother of Emeline Clarissa Allen (wife to Erastus Perry Bingham)
who was Leonard Bingham’s mother
who was Ella Mae Bingham McKinnon’s father
who is Don McKinnon’s mother

Chastina Hadlock was born on April 2, 1828 in Jay, Vermont. She was the sixth child of ten children to Stephen Hadlock and Sally Alton. The Hadlock ancestors had immigrated to America from England some time before the year 1650.

In 1831, 3 year old Chastina and her family moved to Welsby County, Ohio. Her family learned of the gospel in 1833 and her parents were baptized that same year. Chastina was baptized on April 10, 1838. In 1840, the family moved to Illinois to be with the rest of the saints. She heard the prophet Joseph Smith speak many times and remembered when he was killed in 1844.

Chastina's father, Stephen Hadlock, was a hard worker and had prepared to travel west to Zion. He had built two fine wagons and had two yoke of oxen for each wagon with all the necessary equipment ready when he got sick and died. Cholera was spreading among the saints at that time, and that could have been what he died from. He died at Council Bluffs on September 9, 1847.

Chastina’s mother, Sally, along with her two sons and six daughters were to make the trip alone. The wagon train left in 1849 and Chastina was 22 years old at the time. They started out with the two boys driving the oxen. They hadn't gone far when Chastina’s brother, Orin, fell ill – leaving Chastina to drive the one of the wagons. When Orin got better and was able to drive the oxen, Chastina rode horseback most of the time. She was a very good horsewoman and no one but her was able to ride her horse.

They spent one winter at Winter Quarters. The saints settled here for a while before heading west. Chastina was helping her brothers build a small house for them to stay in, when one day when she was helping; a log fell and struck her in the head, knocking her unconscious. This caused her to be sick for a long time. While she was unconscious, her father came to her in a dream and told her she would get well and come to the valley in the mountains to live. This gave her courage and helped her heal.

Chastina talked of enjoying many of the evenings they had on the plains. She loved dancing and especially enjoyed the square dances. She was a happy sort of person and when there was a little deviation from hard work or other hardships, she took advantage of it.

They arrived in Utah in 1849. In the summer of 1850 she met Alanson David Allen. On a lovely moonlit night he asked her to go for a ride on horseback with him. She accepted willingly. When they had ridden for awhile out here on what they called the Sand Ridge, he asked her if she would marry him and she said yes. He said, "Why? you hardly know me." She told him, "Well my father had once said to me that Alanson Allen was such a fine, honest, trustworthy young man," and she had said, "Well father, someday I'll marry him."

Alanson and Chastina were married in September of 1850. They lived in Ogden for the first year of their marriage when Brigham Young, the Prophet, called them to go to Willard, Utah to help settle the area. In 1860, they moved to Hyrum to help settle the community there and they remained there for 6 years and had a farm. They had cotton plants which Chastina would pick, and make them into clothing. The house they lived in was a log cabin with dirt floors.

In 1866, they moved to Huntsville where they remained the rest of their lives. She was a member of the first relief society that was organized in Huntsville. The first house they had in Huntsville was a log cabin with a dirt roof and a dirt floor and later building a nice frame house.

Chastina seemed to be unusually strong. After her babies were born, she would usually be up and around on the third or fourth day cooking meals and caring for the rest of her family. When her ninth child, Samuel, was born, her husband Alanson had been gone to the canyon for a load of wood and was not there for the birth. When he came home she was getting supper ready and told him to go look in the bed and see what they had. He was very much surprised to find a new son.

Chastina was known as being a hard worker. There was a big family to feed and care for and she helped Alanson shoulder to shoulder on the farm. Alanson and Chastina usually had at least 20 head of sheep, she and her husband would shear them, wash the wool and make it into yarn so that clothing and socks could be made from it. Many nights she would stay up until early morning working hard to get new stockings, a pair of jeans, a coat for one of the boys, or a dress for one of the girls, ready for them for Christmas.

Their dresses and jeans would be worn for best for a year, then, the second year they would take them for next best. They would only get one new pair of shoes a year and, if they wore them out, they had to go barefoot until the crops were ready in the fall. Then they could sell the crops and buy more. They were among the first people to get a nice new pump from which to get water. This was quite a luxury because they were used to getting water from the ditch or a spring and, just before the pump, a well.

Alanson and Chastina were good to people passing through the valley, and many times would give them a lodging, food and shelter and feed for their animals.

Chastina could handle her own. There is a story of a time, a man lodging at their home tried to kiss her. She disliked him very much so she just grabbed him and turned him over her knee and gave him a spanking. She could lift 100 pounds easier than her husband, who was not so strong physically.When she was about 50 years old, there was a man who had hurt his leg and couldn't put weight on it, Chastina picked him up and put him on the horse so that he could go home.

She loved to ride horseback and nearly always had her own horse. When she was 72 years old she had her picture taken on her horse, Old Bell. She rode winter and summer until she was very old.

Chastina on Old Bell

Alanson died on Mar 3, 1887. Chastina lived alone in the old home for many years until she finally decided to live with her then, she decided live with her daughter and her family.

4 generation picture
Chastina is on the left

Chastina was always active and enjoyed life. Even to the last years of her life, she stayed active by making many quilts - most of them by hand. She died on Mar 13, 1913 when she was 84. She is buried by her husband in the Ogden, Utah Cemetery.