The Backstory: Ann Arbor's founding mother, Ann Allen

Ann Allen and I have a few things in common — we are both women and have resided in Ann Arbor. But there is one major thing that we do not share — a love for Ann Arbor. Ann Allen famously did not like the city that would bear her name but, to be fair, she dealt with muddy streets, roaming hogs, and the inability to vote. Much is known about city co-founder John Allen, but what else do we know about Ann Isabella Barry McCue Allen?
 
When she was born in Staunton, Va. on January 22, 1797, Ann Arbor's future founding mother was named Agnes Barry. Nine days after her birth, her mother died from complications stemming from childbirth. Agnes’ father was overwhelmed by his wife’s death, and reportedly begged his family to come over from Ireland to help him. After they declined, he hired a local young woman to care for his daughter. When Agnes was three years old, two major things happened to her: her father passed away, and her family began calling her Ann Isabella, after her late mother.
 
Ann’s loving aunt, uncle, and grandmother groomed the only child to be the Southern lady her parents wanted her to be and that her inheritance made possible. At age 16, Ann married a gentleman farmer and doctor named William McCue. Five years later, McCue was dead and Ann the mother of two sons.
 
At the age of 21, Ann moved in with her deceased husband’s brother and his wife. At age 24, Ann married a second husband: John Allen, a 25-year-old Scotch-Irish widower who also had two children. The marriage was described as one of convenience, partly because of the very different personalities of the people involved in it. John was an extrovert, very self-confident and friendly. Ann, on the other hand, was shy, private, and introverted. Nevertheless, the two wed on June 7, 1821. Ann immediately moved into Allen’s farm; however, her two sons remained with their uncle and aunt.
 
John’s history is much better known than that of his wife. Saddled with debts brought on by his father's unwise financial decisions, John began looking around for other opportunities. Around this time, the government was offering cheap land "out west," the Erie Canal opened, and John decided to take off for greener pastures. (The local tax collector officially listed him as "absconded.")
 
In the fall of 1823, John Allen took off for Baltimore; Buffalo, N.Y.; and finally Michigan, leaving Ann to care for their recently born child, Sarah. The girl was born on May 10, 1823 and named after Ann’s grandmother. After John departed, Ann returned to her former brother-in-law’s home to reside with her new baby and her two older sons. At this point the boys’ uncle, concerned about John Allen’s financial troubles, convinced a court to give him guardianship over them.
 
In August of 1824, Ann received a letter from the Michigan Territory. In it were instructions on how to join John in the new settlement he'd cofounded and named Annarbour. Historians differ as to whether the city was named solely after Ann Allen, or if the name might refer to cofounder Elisha Rumsey's wife Mary Ann Rumsey as well. In any case, John's plan was for Ann, Sarah, John’s two children from his first marriage, and John’s parents to travel to Annarbour by covered wagon. But what of Ann’s two sons from her first marriage? Heartbreakingly, Ann’s wealthy former brother-in-law asserted his guardianship over his nephews and demanded that they remain in Virginia. Ann is reported to have felt extremely guilty, even though she had no control over the situation.
 
Ripped away from the comforts she had grown up with, Ann now faced life as a frontier wife. It is fair to say that she was not prepared for this. Ann grew up in the South. She was wealthy. Her family owned slaves. She received the benefits of slave labor and avoided household chores and tasks. Perhaps because of this, she was not the hearty "pioneer woman" we have grown used to seeing in movies and on television. Not only did she have to deal with a rough frontier town, but also with the misery of having left her two sons behind in Virginia.
 
At first, Ann had some comfort from her husband's increased wealth. She had a pleasant home, servants, and nice clothes; however, the financial panic of 1837 drove the Allens into poverty. Hints of Ann’s depression can be found in a letter she wrote to her son in Virginia around this time. Her words were thus: "When I look back, all that I had is gone to the four winds; when I look forward, all is darkness." At the time, clinical depression was not well understood and there were no services to help Ann.
 
Help finally came in the form of her son, Thomas McCue, who came to Ann Arbor in 1844 and fetched his mother and half-sister. Ann spent the rest of her life in her home state, enduring the Civil War and its devastation. Personal devastation came as well, with the early deaths of her sons. Ann passed away at her daughter’s home in New Hope, Va. on November 27, 1875.

It's impossible to say whether Ann might have enjoyed Ann Arbor more today, what with air conditioning, top-flight restaurants, a university, and the ability to wear pants and speak freely. But in any case, her good name has certainly served the city well.
 
(Special shout-out to the late Professor Russell Bidlack, who painstakingly researched Ms. Allen’s life and was generous enough to share this information with us all in his book "Ann Arbor's First Lady: Events in the Life of Ann I. Allen.")

Patti Smith lives in Ann Arbor, the best city on earth. By day, she is a special education teacher. By night, she writes novels (that she hopes to sell one day) and articles for Mittenbrew, the Ann, Pulp, the Ann Arbor Observer, and Concentrate.