Ella Clarinda Pitkin

Ella Clarinda Pitkin was born on the Pitkin Farm in South Windsor, Connecticut, on 16 April 1860. The farmhouse still stands on the east side of what becomes the Main Street of East Windsor Hill. Ella's parents were Evelyn Riley Pitkin and Esther Jeanettte Stiles. He descended from William Pitkin, who settled in Hartford in 1659. The family was prominent in the East Precinct, which became East Hartford.

Ella Pitkin became a seamstress and took up dressmaking as a young woman. She may have had a shop on Main Street in Hartford for a time, although her name is not found in the City Registers of the period. She met her future husband, Edward C. Allen, of Hazardville, who had the agency for Singer sewing machines and Estey organs. (Ella was also organist at the Congregational Church.)

Ella Pitkin and Edward C. Allen were married in South Windsor, Connecticut, on 12 September 1888. They had at least one son, Herbert W. Allen. They lived upstairs over the E. C. Allen general store on Hazard Avenue in Enfield, Connecticut, but when the Greek Revival Olmsted house became available across the street from the store, Edward C. Allen purchased it.

Ella Pitkin Allen began losing her sight in 1917, and was blind until her death in 1949. A fiercely independent person, she kept up her handiwork skills by piecing quilts. Her grandchildren would help by arranging the fabric so as not to duplicate patterns.