Allison family: Difference between revisions
Restored a section that is continually removed by an over zealous "editor" who clearly has no concept of history. |
|||
| Line 51: | Line 51: | ||
== What really happened to Loraine?== |
== What really happened to Loraine?== |
||
In 1940, a woman named Helen Loraine Kramer claimed that she was Helen Loraine Allison<ref>{{cite news|title=Child Feared Lost On Titanic Reported Living In Michigan|url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/466748012.html?FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI&type=historic&date=Sep+5%2C+1940&author=&pub=Chicago+Daily+Tribune+(1923-1963)&edition=&startpage=18&desc=CHILD+FEARED+LOST+ON+TITANIC+REPORTED+LIVING+IN+MICHIGAN}}</ref> and that, at the last minute, her parents gave her up to a man named Hyde (whose identity she said to be that of shipbuilder [[Thomas Andrews (shipbuilder)|Thomas Andrews]]) who raised her on a farm in the American Midwest. Her claim, however, was not accepted by the Allison family. Eventually, Ms. Kramer moved to the western United States and the Allison family never heard from her again.<ref>{{cite book|last=Geller|first=Judith B.|authorlink=|title=Titanic: Women and Children First|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|month=October | year=1998|location=|page=224|url=|doi=|id=|isbn=978-0-393-04666-3}}</ref> |
In 1940, a woman named Helen Loraine Kramer claimed that she was Helen Loraine Allison<ref>{{cite news|title=Child Feared Lost On Titanic Reported Living In Michigan|url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/466748012.html?FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI&type=historic&date=Sep+5%2C+1940&author=&pub=Chicago+Daily+Tribune+(1923-1963)&edition=&startpage=18&desc=CHILD+FEARED+LOST+ON+TITANIC+REPORTED+LIVING+IN+MICHIGAN}}</ref> and that, at the last minute, her parents gave her up to a man named Hyde (whose identity she said to be that of shipbuilder [[Thomas Andrews (shipbuilder)|Thomas Andrews]]) who raised her on a farm in the American Midwest. Her claim, however, was not accepted by the Allison family. Eventually, Ms. Kramer moved to the western United States and the Allison family never heard from her again.<ref>{{cite book|last=Geller|first=Judith B.|authorlink=|title=Titanic: Women and Children First|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|month=October | year=1998|location=|page=224|url=|doi=|id=|isbn=978-0-393-04666-3}}</ref> |
||
==ADDITIONAL NEW INFORMATION 2012== |
|||
On April 15th 2012 a suitcase belonging to Mrs Kramer that had been stored away for over 70 years was opened to discover hundreds of letters documents and DETAILED REPORTS from the Attorney on this case to Mrs Kramer substanciating her claim. NOTE: DNA testing will be conducted soon to settle this unique identity claim once and for all. The details will be posted at: '''www.titanicslastmystery.com''' |
|||
'''Helen Loraine Kramer:''' In 1940, she was a 31-year-old woman, former registered nurse and married with 5 children, living in a nice suburb of Detroit, Michigan as Evangeline Kramer, who wanted to go across the river to Windsor, Ontario-Canada to shop. |
|||
She believed herself to be an English woman married to an American but still requiring an alien registration card and a copy of a birth certificate was needed to obtain one. She wrote to the man she thought was her father (a Mr. James Hyde) and he wrote back: |
|||
Dearest Loraine, Your story begins back in 1912, when I set sail for America on the S.S. TITANIC. On the boat I met a Mr. & Mrs. Hudson J. Allison. They had two small children with them - a 3-year-old little girl and her baby brother. Then one night it happened. The ship struck and iceberg. Hundreds of people, many still in their nightclothes were being hurried into lifeboats. I looked up toward the rail. I saw Mr. Allison holding his little daughter in his arms. I tried to get out of the lifeboat to give him my seat but was shoved back. He told me his wife and baby son were in another lifeboat. He leaned far out over the rail and handed the little girl to me. He begged me to take care of her. Before I could reply the lifeboat was lowered hurriedly into the water. As I sat there in the boat with her in my arms, I looked back just in time to see the ship roll over on its side and sink. |
|||
Weeks later, I read the list of survivors. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Allison’s names were on those lists. I took that little girl back home to England and raised her as my own daughter. You are that little girl. Born Helen Loraine Allison June 5th 1909. So you see, I am not your father. I know you will want to find your birthplace. That, I imagine you will need for your registration card. Your mother was an American. Your father Hudson Joshua Creighton Allison was either an American or Canadian. He was listed on the passenger lists from both countries. With all the love in the world – Your Foster Father, James Hyde” |
|||
This was of course starling and life altering information for her to receive. She hired an Attorney (Arthur Flynn/Morrisburg Ontario) to investigate these claims and assist her with obtaining a birth certificate and to guide her through the rest of the alien registration process. |
|||
She then went on the popular Grape Nuts cereal sponsored: We the People Radio show and pleaded with its audience to assist her with locating any remaining relatives with whom she could reunite. She was flooded with responses. From this information she & Mr. Flynn were able to contact a Mrs. G.B (Lillian) Allison the widow of one of Hudson’s brothers, Percy Allison the youngest of Hudson’s brothers and his wife…as well as Hudson’s fathers sister Maybelle Nieman (Aunt Maybelle) Dr. Blake & Ethel Allison, Aunt Ida, Creighton Johnson Hudson’s Fathers brother and so many members of the Allison clan, friends and business associates. |
|||
NOTE: At the time of Hudson Allison’s death he had amassed quite a substantial fortune…. |
|||
“In a bizarre twist, Mrs. Kramer stated that on the rescue ship Carpathia, she shared a room with none other than Thomas Andrews, the designer of the Titanic who himself had perished in the sinking. She further stated that the director of the White Star Line, J. Bruce Ismay (who was later severely criticized for serious structural problems on the ship as a means of cost efficiency, ordering Captain E.J. Smith to pick up speed in icy waters, and then entering into a lifeboat when so many others died) |
|||
And George, the brother of Hudson Allison, together with his wife Lillian, (both of whom stood to gain financially as the caretakers of baby Trevor) persuaded Andrews to go into hiding along with Loraine by offering him periodic bribery payments as a means to buy his silence" |
|||
The events came to a head when the lawyer representing Mrs. Kramer died in the midst of the proceedings, and when asked about the earth shattering evidence (such as the original of the first letter, letters from Ismay and a diary from Hyde/Andrews) that he had been ready to produce, Mrs. Kramer said that these papers had been lost just recently in a fire. To add to the cloak and dagger scenario, young Trevor himself had died from ptomaine poisoning in 1929 at the age of eighteen on the eve of his inheritance...so when Mrs. Kramer released her story eleven years later, it was the youngest brother of Hudson Allison, Percival (Percy) and his own family who had reaped the financial benefits of the estate. |
|||
'''NOTE:''' As mentioned IMPORTANT documentation was lost in the fire at the atty's office, what was not known was that within the suitcase and stored out of the public domain for over 70 years... were all the Lawyers detailed status reports to Mrs Kramer and from which the whole tale is told, evidence described and all details pertaining to the cases on her behalf that he was preparing to take to trial as both an immigration proceeding and separate probate case shortly before his, death. |
|||
<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.titanicslastmystery.com|title=Titanic's Last Mystery|publisher=Debrina Woods|accessdate=2012-05-14}}</ref> |
|||
/* References */ |
|||
Arthur Flynn/Lawyer depositions & briefs and detailed lawyer to client status reports circa 1940-1942. Papers held in a private collection. |
|||
==The Allisons in film== |
==The Allisons in film== |
||
Revision as of 03:27, 22 May 2012
Hudson Allison | |
|---|---|
| Born | Hudson Joshua Creighton December 9, 1881 |
| Died | April 15, 1912 (aged 30) |
| Spouse(s) | Bessie Allison (1886-1912), 2 children |
Bessie Allison | |
|---|---|
| Born | Bessie Waldo Daniels November 14, 1886 |
| Died | April 15, 1912 (aged 25) |
| Spouse(s) | Hudson Allison (1881-1912), 2 children |
Loraine Allison | |
|---|---|
| Born | Helen Loraine Allison June 5, 1909 |
| Died | April 15, 1912 (aged 2) |
Trevor Allison | |
|---|---|
| Born | Hudson Trevor Allison May 7, 1911 |
| Died | August 7, 1929 (aged 18) New York City, U.S. |
Hudson Joshua Creighton (December 9, 1881[1] – April 15, 1912), his wife, Bessie Waldo Allison (née Daniels) (November 14, 1886[2] – April 15, 1912), their daughter Helen Loraine Allison (June 5, 1909[3] – April 15, 1912) and their son, Hudson Trevor Allison (May 7, 1911[4] – August 7, 1929) were 1st class passengers on board the RMS Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912. Of the family, only baby Trevor survived.
The Canadian family booked first class passage on board the Titanic, bound for Montreal. Hudson, Bessie and their children, Loraine, 2, and Trevor, 11 months, boarded the ship in Southampton along with four servants: a maid, Sarah Daniels (no relation to Bessie); a nurse, Alice Cleaver;[5] a cook, Mildred Brown; and a chauffeur, George Swane. Hudson and Bessie occupied cabin C-22, Sarah and Loraine occupied C-24, and Alice and Trevor occupied C-26. Two second-class cabins were also booked for Swane and Brown.
Mr. and Mrs. Allison were dining companions with Major Arthur Godfrey Peuchen. At dinner on 14 April, they brought Loraine to the dining room with them so she could see how pretty it was.
After the ship struck the iceberg, Mr. Allison left to find out what was going on. While he was gone, Alice took baby Trevor and went to get the rest of the servants in second class. Mr. Allison returned to his cabin to find Alice and Trevor gone. Hudson delivered his wife and daughter to Boat 6, and apparently left before the boat was launched. Major Peuchen recalled how Bessie and Loraine were almost rescued:
"Mrs Allison could have gotten away in perfect safety, but somebody told her Mr. Allison was in a boat being lowered on the opposite side of the deck, and with her little daughter she rushed away from the boat. Apparently she reached the other side to find that Mr. Allison was not there. Meanwhile our boat had put off.
George Swane saw Alice, Mildred and Trevor safely into Boat 11, which left the ship at around 1:45am, nearly an hour after Boat 6 had already left the ship. Varying stories claim that Alice panicked and grabbed Trevor, without informing Mrs. Allison that she was leaving, and that Mrs. Allison refused to leave the ship without her baby, though it is possible that the entire group went up to the boat deck together, and that Alice and the baby were lost in the crowd.[6]
Hudson, Bessie and Loraine Alison, as well as George Swane, were also lost in the sinking. Whether or not Swane found his employers and informed them that their son was safely off the ship is unknown, but if he did, it is likely the information came too late for any of them to leave the ship. Hudson, Bessie and Loraine were last seen on deck smiling, Bessie was one of only four first-class women (including Ida Straus) who perished, while Loraine was the only child of first and second class to die in the disaster. Hudson Allison's body was the 135th recovered by the CS Mackay-Bennett; George Swane's was 294th. Hudson's body was brought to be buried in the family plot in Maple Ridge Cemetery near Winchester, Ontario.
Alice and Trevor were met in New York City by Hudson's brother George, who, along with his wife Lillian, took custody of the now orphaned Trevor. The media initially treated Alice as a hero, but later accusations emerged that she had killed her illegitimate child in 1909.[citation needed] Eventually these claims were shown to be false: the real murderer was one Alice Mary Cleaver, who was already in prison at the time.[citation needed] Trevor died on August 7, 1929, at the age of 18 of food poisoning. He was buried beside his father.
What really happened to Loraine?
In 1940, a woman named Helen Loraine Kramer claimed that she was Helen Loraine Allison[7] and that, at the last minute, her parents gave her up to a man named Hyde (whose identity she said to be that of shipbuilder Thomas Andrews) who raised her on a farm in the American Midwest. Her claim, however, was not accepted by the Allison family. Eventually, Ms. Kramer moved to the western United States and the Allison family never heard from her again.[8]
ADDITIONAL NEW INFORMATION 2012
On April 15th 2012 a suitcase belonging to Mrs Kramer that had been stored away for over 70 years was opened to discover hundreds of letters documents and DETAILED REPORTS from the Attorney on this case to Mrs Kramer substanciating her claim. NOTE: DNA testing will be conducted soon to settle this unique identity claim once and for all. The details will be posted at: www.titanicslastmystery.com
Helen Loraine Kramer: In 1940, she was a 31-year-old woman, former registered nurse and married with 5 children, living in a nice suburb of Detroit, Michigan as Evangeline Kramer, who wanted to go across the river to Windsor, Ontario-Canada to shop.
She believed herself to be an English woman married to an American but still requiring an alien registration card and a copy of a birth certificate was needed to obtain one. She wrote to the man she thought was her father (a Mr. James Hyde) and he wrote back:
Dearest Loraine, Your story begins back in 1912, when I set sail for America on the S.S. TITANIC. On the boat I met a Mr. & Mrs. Hudson J. Allison. They had two small children with them - a 3-year-old little girl and her baby brother. Then one night it happened. The ship struck and iceberg. Hundreds of people, many still in their nightclothes were being hurried into lifeboats. I looked up toward the rail. I saw Mr. Allison holding his little daughter in his arms. I tried to get out of the lifeboat to give him my seat but was shoved back. He told me his wife and baby son were in another lifeboat. He leaned far out over the rail and handed the little girl to me. He begged me to take care of her. Before I could reply the lifeboat was lowered hurriedly into the water. As I sat there in the boat with her in my arms, I looked back just in time to see the ship roll over on its side and sink.
Weeks later, I read the list of survivors. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Allison’s names were on those lists. I took that little girl back home to England and raised her as my own daughter. You are that little girl. Born Helen Loraine Allison June 5th 1909. So you see, I am not your father. I know you will want to find your birthplace. That, I imagine you will need for your registration card. Your mother was an American. Your father Hudson Joshua Creighton Allison was either an American or Canadian. He was listed on the passenger lists from both countries. With all the love in the world – Your Foster Father, James Hyde”
This was of course starling and life altering information for her to receive. She hired an Attorney (Arthur Flynn/Morrisburg Ontario) to investigate these claims and assist her with obtaining a birth certificate and to guide her through the rest of the alien registration process.
She then went on the popular Grape Nuts cereal sponsored: We the People Radio show and pleaded with its audience to assist her with locating any remaining relatives with whom she could reunite. She was flooded with responses. From this information she & Mr. Flynn were able to contact a Mrs. G.B (Lillian) Allison the widow of one of Hudson’s brothers, Percy Allison the youngest of Hudson’s brothers and his wife…as well as Hudson’s fathers sister Maybelle Nieman (Aunt Maybelle) Dr. Blake & Ethel Allison, Aunt Ida, Creighton Johnson Hudson’s Fathers brother and so many members of the Allison clan, friends and business associates.
NOTE: At the time of Hudson Allison’s death he had amassed quite a substantial fortune….
“In a bizarre twist, Mrs. Kramer stated that on the rescue ship Carpathia, she shared a room with none other than Thomas Andrews, the designer of the Titanic who himself had perished in the sinking. She further stated that the director of the White Star Line, J. Bruce Ismay (who was later severely criticized for serious structural problems on the ship as a means of cost efficiency, ordering Captain E.J. Smith to pick up speed in icy waters, and then entering into a lifeboat when so many others died)
And George, the brother of Hudson Allison, together with his wife Lillian, (both of whom stood to gain financially as the caretakers of baby Trevor) persuaded Andrews to go into hiding along with Loraine by offering him periodic bribery payments as a means to buy his silence"
The events came to a head when the lawyer representing Mrs. Kramer died in the midst of the proceedings, and when asked about the earth shattering evidence (such as the original of the first letter, letters from Ismay and a diary from Hyde/Andrews) that he had been ready to produce, Mrs. Kramer said that these papers had been lost just recently in a fire. To add to the cloak and dagger scenario, young Trevor himself had died from ptomaine poisoning in 1929 at the age of eighteen on the eve of his inheritance...so when Mrs. Kramer released her story eleven years later, it was the youngest brother of Hudson Allison, Percival (Percy) and his own family who had reaped the financial benefits of the estate.
NOTE: As mentioned IMPORTANT documentation was lost in the fire at the atty's office, what was not known was that within the suitcase and stored out of the public domain for over 70 years... were all the Lawyers detailed status reports to Mrs Kramer and from which the whole tale is told, evidence described and all details pertaining to the cases on her behalf that he was preparing to take to trial as both an immigration proceeding and separate probate case shortly before his, death.
/* References */
Arthur Flynn/Lawyer depositions & briefs and detailed lawyer to client status reports circa 1940-1942. Papers held in a private collection.
The Allisons in film
The Allisons were major characters in the 1996 miniseries Titanic. Mr. Allison was portrayed by Kevin Conway, while Harley Jane Kozak played his wife Bess. Loraine was portrayed by Devon Hoholuk. The part of baby Trevor was uncredited. The miniseries' subplot regarding the family was highly fictionalized and filled with historical inaccuracies: for example, they added to the story of the long-standing myth that Alice Cleaver (played by Felicity Waterman) was a child murderess who stole Trevor in a fit of panic, thus forcing the Allisons to remain on the ship looking for him until it was too late. The Allisons' other servants (Sarah Daniels, Mildred Brown and George Swane) did not feature in the series – the only servant travelling with them was Alice Cleaver.
The Allisons are also featured in the 2012 miniseries Titanic, with Olivia Darnley as Bess and Izabella Urbanowicz as Alice Cleaver, this time in a more historically accurate fashion and with the servants omitted from the previous series present within the story.
References
- ^ "Mr Hudson Joshua Creighton Allison". Encyclopedia Titanica. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ^ "Mrs Bessie Waldo Allison". Encyclopedia Titanica. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ^ "Miss Helen Loraine Allison". Encyclopedia Titanica. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ^ "Master Hudson Trevor Allison". Encyclopedia Titanica. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ^ "Miss Alice Catherine Clever". Encyclopedia Titanica. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ^ Titanic Passengers | Genealogical and Biographical Information on Titanic's passengers and Crew
- ^ "Child Feared Lost On Titanic Reported Living In Michigan".
- ^ Geller, Judith B. (1998). Titanic: Women and Children First. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 224. ISBN 978-0-393-04666-3.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ "Titanic's Last Mystery". Debrina Woods. Retrieved 2012-05-14.