Collections

Allen, Harriet Klein

Last Name: Allen
First Name: Harriet Klein
Dates:
*4.6.1904 (Date of Birth)
4.6.1904 - 6.1.1988 (Life/Active Dates)
Biography/History: Harriet Elizabeth Klein was born 4 Jun 1904 to Allen Chase Klein (1878-1944) and Edith Slee Klein, who married in Spokane in 1903. Allen Klein was a stenographer, and by 1918 worked for real estate insurance company, Clark Bros & Klein. The family was living at 1105 W 8th Avenue in 1928, when on 19 April at All Saint’s Episcopal Cathedral in Spokane, Harriet married Clyde David Allen, an insurance surveyor, born 16 Jun 1900 in Wellpinit WA to David D. Allen and Bertha Rosenburg Allen. Before her marriage, Harriet was a chief dietitian at the Dessert Hotels, active in civic affairs, and did charitable work for the Florence Crittenden Homes. Clyde died on 13 Oct 1984 and Harriet on 6 Jan 1988. Harriet’s paternal grandparents were grocer Eugene Klein and Abbie Allen Klein (1849-1919), married in 1875 in Illinois, where their son Allen Chase Klein was born. By 1900, the Eugene Klein family was living in Spokane and Allen was a stenographer. His father Eugene may have died c.1901 in Mace, Idaho. Abbie died in Spokane in 1919. Harriet’s maternal grandparents, the Slee family were Spokane pioneers. The Eugene Kleins may have followed Abbie’s much younger half-brother Henry (“Harry”) Richmond Allen (1869-1940) to the Inland Northwest. Harry was living in Wallace, ID by 1890 and married Daisie Dean Woods (1868- 1950) there in 1892; two sons were born there. Harry was a mining manager for Finch and Campbell; from 1901 to 1902 the family lived at 2315 W First Avenue across from Amasa Campbell. Harry was a witness for his half-nephew Allan C. Klein’s marriage to Edith Slee, and two families were apparently close. Harriet taped an oral history in 1984 that described playing around Campbell House as a girl.
Related Objects:
3400.184 (Frame, Picture; Photograph; Portrait, Framed Portrait of Harriet Klein Allen at Six Months Old, 1905)
3400.185 (Frame, Picture; Photograph, Framed Photograph of Harriet Klein Allen as a Child, c. 1905)
3400.220 (Quilt, English Flower Garden Quilt, 1930-1960)
OH362 (Harriet Klein Allen Interview, February 13, 1984)