Handwritten on the back of the photo: "Florence Ellinwood Allen when 2(?) years old. The dress has red embroidery. […] of EA (Esther Allen) Gaw June, 1952"

1886 was a year of change for the Allen family. Clarence Allen, Florence’s father, left his teaching job in Salt Lake City due to health reasons and Florence’s sister Kate was born and would pass away less than a year later.

Handwritten on the back of photo: "Florence Ellinwood Allen Aged 6 yrs E.A.G. (Esther Allen Gaw)"

At the time when this photo was taken, Clarence Allen, Florence’s father, had recently left a mining position in Bingham, Utah and took a position as clerk for Salt Lake County, which required the family to move back to Salt Lake City. A few years later he started working as an attorney for the law offices of Pence and Allen in Salt Lake City.

The Tuckerman and Allen families on the front porch of the Tuckerman home in New Lyme, Ohio. This historical home still stands on Brownsville Road on its original location.

Esther Allen Gaw is leaning against the far right column of the porch. Clarence “Emir” Allen Jr. is wearing a hat and sitting on the second step from the bottom, in front of Esther Allen Gaw. Helen Allen Shockey is sitting in the middle to the right of the center column, next to a set of guns. To right of the guns, Lois Tuckerman Mook is sitting to the side on the third stair with her leg stretched out. Corrine Tuckerman Allen is standing on the other side of the center column and John "Jack" Alban Allen is sitting in front of her with his arms wrapped around one of his bent knees. Elizabeth Ellinwood Tuckerman is in a chair directly to the right of Corrine. Elizabeth Allen Sloane is sitting next to John, immediately to his left. Florence Ellinwood Allen is sitting toward the front row on the third step.

According to Florence Allen, Jacob Tuckerman “was, in a considerable degree, a feminist. He had been in Oberlin when Lucy Stone, (a prominent American abolitionist and suffragist), was a student there. Oberlin was the first college in American history to admit women to its classes on the same terms as men, so grandfather had a conception of the possible intellectuality of women. He sent my mother one year to Mt. Holyoke and in the first year that Smith was established my mother went to Smith. She was in fact the first girl examined for Smith. My Aunt Lillian and my Aunt Florence graduated at Smith, and this was in an age when too often the women who went to college had to work their way in spite of the opposition of their fathers.”

As noted by Carl Feather, “Tuckerman attended the Kingsville Academy and Oberlin, became a superintendent of schools by the age of 26 and organized the Orwell Academy. The Tuckerman years are often referred to as the Grand River Institute’s golden era — during that time, he was principal to more than 3,100 students from most parts of the United States. After leaving Grand River Institute, Tuckerman continued his success at New Lyme Institute.”

Sources: Rough draft of Florence Allen’s autobiography “To Do Justly” sent to Esther Allen Gaw and others (1956) and Carl Feather's “The Legacy of Education” (2011).

Florence Allen attended the New Lyme Institute in Ashtabula County from 1895-1897, while Clarence Allen, her father, served as Utah's first representative in Congress.

Pictured is the class of 1898.

Back row left to right: Jay Covert, Karl Ayers, Verne Mann, Guy Wright, and Burdette Eddy

Middle row left to right: Ethel Smith, Edith Morgan, Jessie Sperry, Marne Jones, Mammie Dial, Grace Russell, Vida Pinney, Florence Allen, and Lydia Hurlburt

Front row left to right: Ina Howes, Bessie Coleman, Belle, Bernice Johnston, and Edith Root

Theatre production participants on the campus of Western Reserve University. Standing in the middle of the back row is Esther Allen Gaw and sitting immediately in front of her holding a donkey’s head is her sister Helen Allen Shockey.

Growing up surrounded by the performing arts, especially music, had a major impact on Florence, Esther, and Helen. Florence’s mother Corinne Tuckerman Allen, in particular, was a gifted pianist who had played the organ when she was a student at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. After graduation Esther taught music for Salt Lake City schools for 13 years and later became the dean of women at Ohio State University.

Front row left to right: Clarence Allen (1852-1932), Esther Allen Gaw (1879-1973), and Corinne Tuckerman Allen (1856-1931)

Middle row left to right: Clarence “Emir” Allen (1891-1918) and John “Jack” Allen (1894-1924)

Top row left to right: Elizabeth Allen Sloane (1889-1970), Florence Allen (1884-1966), and Helen Allen Shockey (1881-1953)

A family together but divided. It was during this period that Clarence Allen moved back to Salt Lake City to serve as a superintendent and mine manager for the United States Mining Company, while Helen and Esther enrolled at Western Reserve University (Case Western Reserve University) in Cleveland. Florence lived with the Tuckerman family and attended the New Lyme Institute, a co-educational preparatory school in Ashtabula County. Jacob Tuckerman, Florence’s grandfather, was the first President of the school from 1882 till his death in 1897.

Florence Allen is standing outside of the Centennial-Eureka Mine dressed in working attire and holding the tools used to do work in the mine.

Florence’s father, Clarence, over the years worked for several Utah mines including the Old Jordan and South Galena located in the Oquirrh Mountains, and Centennial-Eureka situated in the East Tintic Mountains.

According to the August 1932 issue of AX-I-DENT-AX dedicated to the memory of Clarence Emir Allen and Florence Allen's personal recollections in her biography To Do Justly, the miners and her father had a great working relationship. He not only brought prosperity to the mine by finding valuable resources but also stood up for the miner’s rights. In particular, he pushed for laws that improved the miners pay and provided free education.

After graduating with her undergraduate degree, Florence Allen, her mother, and siblings lived in Berlin, Germany from 1904-1906 to further their studies, tour the area, and visit with friends. Florence is sitting at the far end of the table enjoying tea and refreshments. Esther Allen Gaw is standing at the front the table and Elizabeth Allen Sloane is sitting across from her.