April 7, 1878 – Frank Allen and Nettie Shuman were married by Rev. W. R. Stewart at the Mendocino Presbyterian Church. Their wedding announcement in the Mendocino Beacon ended with: “May their wedded life be happy; may they live long and prosper.”
Frank Allen, his wife Nettie, and their two children Nettie and Warren, posing in front of the Carroll House in Mendocino, about 1898. They are standing in front of a decorative picket fence enclosing the corner lot. Notice the windmill on top of the water tower visible above the roof of the house. (Gift of Jacqueline Leslie Trott-Bally)
Frank was born in Finland in 1851, arrived in the United States around 1869, and became a U. S. citizen in 1875. He was a sawyer at the Mendocino Mill for many years. Nettie was born in Maine in 1857 and came to Mendocino in the 1870s.
In 1888, the Allen family bought the Carroll House on the northeast corner of Ford and Covelo Streets from Horace Milliken. At the time of their purchase, the house was described as having seven rooms, good outbuildings, a splendid water system, and a small orchard of fine bearing trees. Frank, Nellie, and 7-year-old daughter Ethel moved into this home that year. The Allen’s youngest two children, Nettie (born in 1891) and Warren Francis (born in 1893), were born in the Carroll House.
In 1901, the Allen family sold the Carroll House to Fred Jarvis and moved to a home on south Franklin Street in Fort Bragg, where Frank was employed as a sawyer in the mill.
Frank retired from the Union Lumber Company in 1913, and he and his wife moved to San Jose. The couple enjoyed their garden there, taking photographs of themselves posing with their roses and pumpkins. Sadly, they were killed in an automobile accident in 1923, when the car Frank was driving collided with an electric street car on Clifton Avenue in San Jose.
Walking Tours of Historic Mendocino – Join our expert docents for a stroll and lively commentary. You’ll pass by early pioneer homes, historic meeting places, and buildings that make up the the Mendocino Historic District.