Ritchey and I were in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in mid December.  Just can’t imagine visiting a city and not stopping by a cemetery.  Mr. Joseph D. Allen, who died March 25, 1891, is buried in Fairview Cemetery, along with his wife, Louisa W. Allen, born December 3, 1823.  Hattie Allen must be a child of the couple.  She died at the age of 2 years.  Martha Wilcox is undoubtedly Joseph Allen’s mother – her last name gives the clue that she remarried after her first husband died at such a young age.

from Warren County, Kentucky – Biographies

Joseph D. Allen, retired merchant, was born at Barre, Massachusetts, May 1, 1821, is a son of Samuel and Martha (Dinnis) Allen, and is of English-Irish extraction.  The father was born in Barre, Massachusetts, in 1794; and the mother in the same city in 1799.  The former died in 1829, and the latter now resides with her son in Bowling Green.  The paternal grandfather was Samuel Allen, also a native of Massachusetts.  Joseph D. Allen was educated at the public schools of his native town.  From seven until fourteen years of age he was a bound boy, and then for two years he worked on the farm for wages.  Subsequently he learned the carriage-maker’s trade.  In 1847 he came to Bowling Green, and for five years worked in a foundry.  About 1852 he engaged in the stove and tin business in Bowling Green; sometime afterward changed to agricultural implements.  He introduced and sold the first reaper and sewing machine in southern Kentucky.  The marriage of Mr. Allen occurred in 1846, with Louisa W. Stowe, a native of Princeton, Massachusetts, born in 1823, daughter of Freeman and Pesit (Wilson) Stowe.  They have two children, viz.:  Charlie S. and Cora.  Mr. Allen is a Republican, and a member of the Baptist church, of which Mrs. Allen is also a member.  He became a member of the I. O. O. F. at Barre, Massachusetts, in 1842.  He is an earnest temperance advocate and a true Christian gentleman.