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Richard once told a family member that our family history didn't need to be researched because it had already been researched. I suspect that Richard or someone in the family had hired a genealogist to do that. A dishonest genealogist may have been the source for Aunt Bess (Skinner) Smith thinking that the maiden name of Lucinda Allen was "Carder" and the idea that our Allen branch came from a Richard who was a son of Charles & Elizabeth (Chambers) Allen. We know now through research that Lucinda's maiden name was "Corder" and that our Richard Allen was born in Maryland, so wouldn't have been a son of Charles & Elizabeth (Chambers) Allen. Also, Lucinda (Corder) Allen was illiterate and smoked a corn cob pipe. There was a class issue involved. A son of Charles & Elizabeth (Chambers) Allen wouldn't have married someone like Lucinda.

The family reunion picture on this memorial is the Richard & Amy Stith "Em" (Powell) Skinner family. In the picture, Richard was wearing felt boots that he'd made himself, according to Vonie Hatch.

According to his daughter Bessie Smith, he was given the middle initial "A." during the Civil War for identification purposes because he was serving with another Richard Skinner. Some people have referred to him as "Richard Allen Skinner," but there is no record of him having a middle name. Both of his grandfathers were named "Richard," so he may have been named "Richard" to honor both of them. Aunt Bess said that he only used the middle initial of "A." when he was in the military and as far as she knew, didn't have a middle name.

Richard was a son of Zebal "Eli" & Amelia (aka Emma or Emily) (Allen) Skinner, who were living in Salt Lick Twp., Perry Co., OH in the 1840 census. Amelia was a dau. of the Richard & Lucinda Allen in that same census. Zebal "Eli" Skinner is thought to have been born in 1815 Fayette Co., PA, although his dau. Margaret (Skinner) Lanning had WV as his birthplace on her 1911 OH death cert. It was thought for awhile that Eli had been given the Biblical name of "Heli," since that's how his given name appeared in the childhood Bible of a great granddaughter, but that was just a child using the Biblical spelling of "Eli." Eli Skinner m. Amelia in Perry Co., but it isn't known where Eli died. It's thought he might have d. in March of 1845, three months before his son Eli Morris Skinner was born. Eli might've been related somehow to Amelia's second husband Reuben Spurgeon because of the way he chose to raise the four Skinner children along with their own children. It was the custom in those days to send children from the first marriage to live with relatives when a widow remarried. Living near Eli & Amelia in that 1840 census were Eli's brother and sister-in-law Ephraim & Tersia (Spurgeon) Skinner, who moved to Monroe Co., MO by 1850. That may have been enough of a relationship for Reuben Spurgeon to want to raise the four Skinner children.

Richard learned violin making sometime before the Civil War. It's thought that he was in Columbus, Ohio in the 1860 census learning that trade. His daughter Bessie Smith has told of him playing the violin he made when they'd make camp on their journey westward. Unfortunately, he left his violin learning against a tree, then by the time the loss was discovered they'd traveled too far to go back to get it. As far as is known, he only made that one violin.

There's a biography of Richard in Shumway's 1921 "History of Western Nebraska." The family first settled in the Grant City, Worth Co., MO area, then moved on to western Nebraska where Richard decided to raise cattle instead of farming.

In the family group picture where Richard is holding a cake, we think that was around 1921, a celebration of his 80th birthday. Donna White ([email protected]) helped with the identification of the family members at the gathering. We think they were:
Eunice (Skinner) Hutchinson, Richard & Amy Skinner, Ray Hutchinson (son of Charles Hutchinson and Margaret (Skinner) Hutchinson, Bern Hutchinson, Velma Hutchinson (daughter of Charles & Margaret), baby Raymond (son of Ray?), Charlie Hutchinson, Margaret (aka Meg) (Skinner) Hutchinson, Omer Smith, Bess (Skinner) Smith, Front: Opal (Hutchinson) Seslar, Perl Hutchinson, Clinton Smith (son of Omar & Bess (Skinner) Smith, and Ted Hutchinson.