Aunt Alle

Allegra Ickes, 9 May 1873 - 9 June 1976

Aunt (actually my great aunt, but we all just called her "aunt") Alle's genealogy work was a HUGE asset to me.  I know I've mentioned her before, but I really thought she deserved her own post. Because of the research she did, the records she kept, the photos she preserved, and the military insignia she maintained I really think she needs to be noticed - and appreciated.

Allegra Ickes was born in Pleasantville, Bedford County, PA in 1873 to Adam Ickes and Elizabeth Ellen Harbaugh Ickes.  She had three older [living] brothers: John, Conrad, and Horace.  Two other older brothers, Sheldon and Henry, born one year and two years prior to her birth, both died in infancy.  Alle was the youngest in the family and the only daughter.

In 1884, when she was about 11 years old, she moved to Sidney, Nebraska with her parents and brother, Horace.This would have been quite a culture shock for her coming from a small, quiet, church-centered community brimming with extended family.  Sidney, Nebraska was the closest shipping point to the gold discovered in the Black Hills and Deadwood. It was nicknamed "Sinful Sidney", home to gold-seekers, cowboys, soldiers, and desperadoes.  Its streets were lined with saloons, gaming halls, and brothels. There were no churches. (She was eleven. Seriously, what was her dad thinking?)

Alle lived with her mother on a homestead near Potter, Nebraska while her dad and brother, Horace, spent most of their time in the town of Sidney engaged in business. She was able to complete the 8th grade. She worked as a stenographer for the Union Pacific Railroad.

Sometime during the 1890s Adam, Ellen, and Alle moved to Lincoln, Nebraska. They may have also lived in Genoa, Nebraska. Their last residence in Nebraska was in Wahoo where her father was the proprietor of the LaGrande Hotel. Prior to 1917 Horace returned to live with the family after a divorce and an illness. Horace's son, William, also came to Wahoo for a time following his service in the Navy.

Alle's father, Adam, died in February of 1917 and Horace died in September of the same year.  Alle and her mother, Ellen, moved to Los Angeles, California, probably to be with John's former wife, Annie, and their two children, Harry and Georgia, who were all living there together. Ellen died in Los Angeles in August of 1919.

Alle's remaining brothers, John and Conrad, had both relocated to Fort Collins, CO.  Alle moved to Colorado as well.  There, in 1922, she married William H. Schreiber.  She was 50 years old.  He died within a few years of their marriage.  She lived with her divorced brother, John, in Fort Collins until his death in 1935, at which point she was on her own.  In a letter she wrote in 1958 she talked about having lived in Salt Lake City, UT under the care of Agnes.  Agnes was probably her niece, the daughter of her brother Horace and Agnes Loftus Ickes.  Agnes had arranged for a room for her at "Hillside Manor".  Alle hated it.  She wrote, "There was no window in my room, very small, curtains where window on wall should have been.  I would have gone crazy if I had had to stay there any longer.  I was out of my mind for a while.  The Dr. said it was the best he could find.  If I hadn't gotten phlebitis in my right leg I would have been out of there before I was."  

According to the letter, she had returned to Fort Collins in 1956 and was very glad to be back with her friends.  Her last remaining sibling, Conrad, died in 1955. Shortly after returning to Fort Collins she moved into the newly built Eventide Rest Home.  There she remained until she died, more than 20 years later.  She died 9 June 1977 at the age of 104.

Aunt Alle at age 94

Alle on her 100th birthday

Let the birthday festivities begin!

That's some cake!  (and hair)

Party guests ready to "get down" 

My dad would visit her from time to time.  He was there for her 100th birthday celebration.  A few months following her 100th birthday he received a letter from the Activities Director at Alle's nursing home (probably the same young lady in the cake picture).  She wrote, "Alle is much the same as she was when you were here, happy and gay one day - grumpy and gloomy the next but all in all just sweet Alle."

I remember visiting her once with my family, probably sometime in the 1960s.  At that time I never would have thought that I would be the one to pick up the genealogy work she started.  I mean, yeah, when I was still in my single digits and she was quickly approaching triple digits I had no idea we would end up having so much in common.

Allegra. . . .h-m-m-m.  As a pianist and a piano teacher, I am quite familiar with the Italian musical term "allegro", but I had no idea what "allegra" meant.  So I Googled it.

Wow.

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All original content, images, commentary, etc. copyright © by Joy Denison 2015-2016.  All rights reserved. All writings, poems, speeches, essays, images, scans, likenesses, etc. by Adam Ickes (b 1845) as well as personal histories, images, and all other content by all persons referenced and discussed within the pages and posts in this blog may not be copied, shared, or reproduced in any way without expressed permission by the owner unless included here from other referenced sources or are historical records already considered to be in the public domain.