Finnetta Ann Williams Allen

  

Finnetta Ann Williams Allen

Contributed By Marjean A Tew · 2013-03-19

Finnetta Ann Williams Allen was born August 30, 1860, in Hyrum, Utah, to William Williams, Jr. and Margaret Pettigreen Hope Williams. She was the first white child born in Hyrum after it was founded, and was the third of 9 children. Her father was a polygamist and had one other wife, so Finnetta had other half-brothers and sisters.

Finnetta received very little formal education in her life. As a child, she and her sister alternated attending school after paying a single tuition, because her family had very little money. Although her education was meager, she did much to educate herself by reading good books and acquainting herself with current events. As a child, she worked hard to help her parents by gleaning wheat, digging sego roots for meals, and making lye from ashes that was used to make soap. She also gathered wool from off the brush and fences, which was then washed, dried and spun into yarn.

Finnetta married Albert J. Allen on Feb. 5, 1877, at the age of 16, in the Salt Lake Endowment House. They had 9 children:

1)Albert "Silas" Allen (1878)

2)Ivy May Allen Liljenquist (1881)

3)Victor J. Allen (1883)

4)Truman Allen (1886)

5)Sylvia Floss Allen Peterson (1888)

6)Asael Lucian Allen (1891)

7)Pearl Keziah Allen Hughes (1894)

8)Russell Gale Allen (1897)

9)Fern Hope Allen (1901)

Finnetta was a petite woman and always cheerful and pleasant to be around. She has been described as being loving, modest and charitable. She loved flowers and gardening and often shared her flowers with her friends or with someone sick or lonely. As a young woman, she learned many homemaking skills from her mother. She became a beautiful dressmaker and seamstress and also enjoyed making many quilts.

Finnetta was a religious woman and was always willing to do what she was asked to do. Her church callings included Primary President, counselor in the Relief Society presidency twice, and Relief Society President. Finnetta loved to go to the temple. Even with the distance she had to travel to get there in a horse and buggy, and with her large family to care for, she completed 715 endowments in the Logan Temple during her lifetime.

After their 7th child, Pearl, was born, Albert was called to serve a 2-year mission to the Northern States. While he was gone, Finnetta cheerfully and willingly cared for her young family with very little money to live on. After Albert returned from his mission, they had 2 more children.

Finnetta had a beautiful singing voice and sang in her ward choir for more than 55 years. She was also the first president for the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers in Hyrum.

She died on Dec. 22, 1943, at the age of 83. Her last words to her children, who were at her bedside when she died, were "God bless you, and always keep the faith." At her funeral, one of the speakers said, "No cleaner hands ever entered into death, and no sweeter woman ever lay down in final sleep."