Sarah R. Allen (maiden name: Boyle) was born around 1828 in Keene, New Hampshire, to William and Elizabeth Boyle. Her father was a painter who owned $1,000 of real estate by 1850. The family moved to Bernardston, Massachusetts, around 1843. She married Paul J. Allen in Bernardston on May 13, 1851, and they had at least three children: Elizabeth, born around 1854; Sarah, born around 1859; and Grace, born around 1861. By 1860, the family was living in New Haven, Connecticut, and her husband was working as a blacksmith. They returned to Bernardston sometime in the 1860s, and by 1870, they owned $1,200 of real estate and $300 of personal property. Her husband died there on March 20, 1909. She applied for a widow’s pension two weeks later and eventually secured one. By 1910, she was living in her daughter Grace’s household in Bernardston. She died there on November 9, 1916.

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