FAMILIES
Families in Allensville, WV were often large and intertwined. It was not uncommon to have several children being taught in the two-room schoolhouse simultaneously.
Pictured at right are Lloyd and Etta Allen with Susie and Big Jim Fink and extended family.
Pictured below left are the sons of Noah and Sallie Olinger, Benjamin Franklin "Frank" (top), Samuel, and Norman (front) about 1908. At right a picture of the extended Olinger family about 1912.
THE FINK FAMILY
The French Families
The French family was one of the earlies land owners in Allensville, WV. One of those early landowners is Jacob French (1835-1918), son of Jacob French and grandson of Henry and Mary Lefever French. He married Elizabeth A. Gletner, (1863-1921). Jacob and Elizabeth bore James Hamilton French (1864-1935) who later married Rebecca Jane Allen (1862-1939). Rebecca was the daughter of Oliver Allen after whom Allensville is named.
Charles William "Will" French was another early Allensville resident worked as a railroad engineer on the B&O Railroad. According to Our Neck of the Woods author William D. Moore, "Will married Anna Bell “Annie” Wharton after meeting her in Vanclesville where his train would stop. Will built her a brand new house in Allensville in the early 1900s and equipped it with the latest items from the Sears catalog." Will and Annie had four children: Charles Raymond “Pete”, William Edgar “Poss”, Valley B. “Golden”, and Bertha Virginia. Bertha Virginia was Moore's grandmother. She married Lloyd Sampson and had three children: Beulah (Moore's mother), Gloria Sue, and Lloyd Rudolph. Sadly, Will died of tuberculosis at 57. Two of Will's sons, Pete and Poss were telegraph operators on the B&O Railroad. Poss never married.
As in many small communities, families often blended. Shields and Frenches, Finks and Frenches, Finks and Allens. At right, a wedding photo from the wedding of Bruce French and Linda Fink. Left to right are Linda's brother Larry, her mother Eileen Olinger Fink, brother James, the bride, and brother Alvin Fink. The couple wed at Allensville Church of the Brethren.
