Lorrie and I have a common ancestor, James Allred. In reading one of his histories, we discovered that in October 1830 he moved his family from Tennessee to Ralls County Missouri (now Monroe County) and purchased two sections of land (1280 acres), sections 15 and 10 of Township 55 in Range 8 of that county. He and other relatives and friends (particularly the Ivie family) settled in the general vicinity. In 1831, James Allred and the other families in the area came in contact with missionaries from the Mormon Church, Hyrum Smith and John Murdock, who were traveling across the state to Western Missouri. Unfortunately, or fortunately, these missionaries fell ill in this vicinity and the Ivie family took them in and heard for the first time the message of the restoration of the church of Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith. In the following year, many of the Allred Family and of the Ivie family were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. A branch of the church was organized and named the Salt River Branch. The Salt River Branch at the Allred Settlement was to figure prominently in the Zion's Camp March made by the prophet Joseph Smith and a large band of volunteers set out from their homes in Ohio and Wisconsin to give assistance to their persecuted brethren in Western Missouri. It was at the Allred Settlement that the Zion's Camp march paused for a week to receive the recruits coming from Wisconsin under the leadership of Hyrum Smith and prepare for the last leg of the march into Western Missouri. Perhaps, they camped on the James Allred property or upon the property owned by the Ivy family near Paris, Missouri. James Allred became a prominent figure in the Church as he moved from his Eastern Missouri property in 1834 to Western Missouri; was driven out of Missouri to Nauvoo, Illinois and later to the Salt Lake Valley in Utah and finally to Sanpete County in Utah.
With this knowledge of James Allred, on Labor Day, Lorrie and I were determined to drive to Monroe County from the St. Louis area to locate the James Allred property. We drove to Hannibal, Missouri and then west to Monroe City and then to the small town of Indian Creek, Missouri. Just outside of Indian Creek on highway 24 we found highway HH that we determined went right through the property once owned by James Allred. It was quite an experience to be upon the land owned by such a revered ancestor and experience a part of our heritage.
The following picture show some of the scenes of the James Allred property as it now developed - farms with farm homes and farm facilities.
