In December 1912 in the Wythe County Circuit Court, Sidna Allen, brother of Floyd Allen, was sentenced to 35 years in the Virginia Penitentiary for the crimes of first, second and third degree murder.  Allen was admitted to the penitentiary on 14 December 1912.  An anonymous fellow prisoner, writing in the 27 April 1922 issue of the inmate-run penitentiary newspaper, The Beacon, shared his observations of Sidna Allen:

“I at last had an opportunity to go through the carpenter shop where I saw Sidna Allen…I stopped and watched him for a while at his work, before I went over and talked with him.  He was working with as much zeal as any man who owned and operated a manufacturing plant.  His hair was a silvery gray, though tinted with the yellow saw-dust, and his face pale, though it had the illuminated appearance of a pure Christian man….After talking with him a little while I found that the expression on his face was only revealing the man as he was; a true Christian man.  Sunday morning and any time he had a spare, you could see him sitting around reading the Bible and enjoying the words he was daily living.”

Allen’s petition for a conditional pardon was denied on 6 October 1922 by Governor E. Lee Trinkle on grounds that he had only served a small portion of his 35-year sentence.  In 1926, Allen again applied for a pardon.  Governor Harry F. Byrd granted the pardon on 29 April 1926.  “Upon the application of thousands of citizens,” Byrd wrote, “this man [Sidna Allen] having served about thirteen and one-half years and made an excellent prisoner, and feeling that under the circumstances and also by reason of the peculiar conditions surrounding the case that he has probably been sufficiently punished as to warrant giving him another chance, granted conditional pardon.”

After his release from prison, Allen moved to North Carolina.  In bad health, Allen came back to Carroll County to live with his daughter.  He died on 26 September 1941.

Tomorrow:  Wesley Edwards, No. 11218

-Roger Christman, Senior State Records Archivist

*Update – 21 March 2012*

The Library of Virginia is pleased to announce a new blog, Fit to Print:  Dispatches from the Virginia Newspaper Project @ The Library of Virginia.  The first post, 100 Years Ago – Law and Disorder, is about the Allen’s and the Carroll County Courthouse shooting.

On 13 March 1912, in the Carroll County Circuit Court, Floyd Allen was tried for attacking two deputies who had arrested two of his nephews for fighting and disturbing a religious meeting. The jury found Allen guilty of assault on 14 March and sentenced him to one year in the penitentiary.  Allen stood up and stated, “Gentlemen, I ain’t going” and shots erupted in the courthouse leaving several county officials and a spectator dead.  The Allen family claimed that several court officials opened fire on Floyd Allen, while other witnesses contended that Claude Swanson Allen, the defendant’s son, began the shooting. Nevertheless, Floyd Allen, Claude Swanson Allen, and other members of the Allen family were tried for murder in the Wythe County Circuit Court from April-December 1912.  Floyd Allen was convicted of first degree murder on 16 May 1912.  Claude S. Allen was also found guilty of first degree murder.  Father and son were executed on 28 March 1913.

Sidna Allen, Floyd’s brother, was sentenced to 35 years in the penitentiary for second degree murder and voluntary manslaughter.  Sidna Edwards, nephew of Floyd and Sidna Allen, plead guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to 15 years in the penitentiary.  Friel Allen, Floyd’s nephew, confessed to shooting the commonwealth’s attorney and was sentenced to 18 years in the penitentiary for second degree murder.  Wesley Edwards, brother of Sidna Edwards, received a 27-year prison sentence, 18 years for two counts of first degree murder and 9 years for second degree murder.

Over the next week, Out of the Box will post a daily entry on each member of the Allen family.  The schedule is:

• Thursday, March 8 – Friel Allen, No. 10994
• Friday, March 9 – Sidna Edwards, No. 10995
• Monday, March 12 – Sidna Allen, No. 11217
• Tuesday, March 13 – Wesley Edwards, No. 11218
• Wednesday, March 14 – Floyd and Claude Allen, executed 28 March 1913

Each entry, where applicable, will include a photograph and prisoner register entry from the records of the Virginia Penitentiary, clemency documents from the Secretary of the Commonwealth and excerpts from an anonymous article published in The Beacon, the prisoner-run Virginia Penitentiary newspaper, that describes one inmate’s observations on the Allen family.

-Roger Christman, Senior State Records Archivist

*Update – 21 March 2012*

The Library of Virginia is pleased to announce a new blog, Fit to Print:  Dispatches from the Virginia Newspaper Project @ The Library of Virginia.  The first post, 100 Years Ago – Law and Disorder, is about the Allen’s and the Carroll County Courthouse shooting.