Mary Julia Tysen Allen's Letters

black and white photograph of a frame house with two chimneys and a large group of people gathered on the porch.
The American Camp Commanding Officer's House as it appeared while Maj. and Mrs. Harvey A. Allen and their three sons lived in it. The photograph is from English Camp Commanderm Captain William Addis Delacombe's family album, English Camp commander from 1867 to 1872. The photo is undated, but could have been during the Allens' tenure.

Delacombe Family, UK

 

Mary Julia Tysen Allen's letters offer a glimpse of life for an officer’s wife on San Juan Island.

Mary Julia was married to Major Harvey Abner Allen,commanding officer of Camp Steele (American Camp) from June 1867 through July 1868. Allen was married to her sister, Susan Antoinette Tysen, who died after bearing three sons: Albert, Anson and Carleton. Mary Julia married him in New York and became step-mother, as well as an aunt, to the boys.

Officer’s wives lived better than the post laundresses—she had a housekeeper and cook—but they still faced considerable challenges on this isolated island. Transportation, on land or water, was risky, food quality was uneven, and she was isolated from family and life-long friends who lived more than six weeks away by steamship. She was resonsible for raising three rambunctious boys, seeing to her family’s mending and needlework, and maintaining a sense of decorum with her counterparts at
English Camp and on officers’ row.

 

Mary Julia was never entirely comfortable on San Juan, where her husband enforced martial law on American citizens and maintained international relations with his counterparts at English Camp.

A letter Major Allen wrote from San Juan Island on Aug. 27, 1867 sets the San Juan island scene: He describes himself as "…sort of a Justice of the Peace here for all American citizens, fine them or imprison them when necessary or banish them from the islands.. It is not a grateful office and difficult to do justice as many of these frontier men are bad and dishonest…"

He characterized the "English" as "very agreeable. There are four officers and two ladies; and as there is a doctor’s wife here, we have an agreeable society so far. We expect some tomorrow to stay a day or two."

 

Allen’s brief term at the American camp lacked the major incidents that characterized some of his predecessors' tenure. Allen’s rank of major caused some consternation with the British, because the joint military occupation convention stated that each garrison would have no more than a company (100) of soldiers/marines under the command of a captain. Delacombe contacted the provincial governor requesting a temporary promotion to major's rank. The governor agreed, but the admiral vetoed the request as he believed it would not be well received by other military officers.

Allen was strict about his soldiers' military bearing. One order stated: "The wearing of civilian clothing or having it in their possession, by the enlisted men of this command is strictly prohibited." The soldiers also were forbidden from wearing waistcoats as well. Presumably this was to discourage desertion, which was not all uncommon at frontier posts where the men could go months without being paid and were enticed by gold strikes, free land and other attractions of civillian life.

The attached document contains then only two San Juan Island letters that survive, written in March 1868. By then the boys were 18, 16 and nine respectively. A daughter, Maud, would be born in January 1870 while Allen was in command of Fort Canby, also in Washington Territory.

The letters reflect boredom, uncertainty, and some of the pettiness bred by an idle mind far from home. Readers should be aware that they also reveal racial and class bias common to the era.

Click here to read the letters.

 
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Last updated: November 12, 2022

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