Photos by Clarke Davis – Champion fiddler Bill Allen continues to entertain with the treasured family fiddle that’s been handed down in the Allen family for a span of more than 140 years. Bill and Tina Allen routinely appear monthly at half a dozen venues to entertain senior citizens in Topeka with old-time fiddle music.
by Clarke Davis
It doesn’t take long for Bill Allen’s fiddle to get some toes tapping and some people on their feet swaying to the music.
“What do y’all want to hear?” the Valley Falls native asks as he draws the bow across the fiddle that has become a family heirloom.
He soon hears requests for “I’m Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover” and “My Old Kentucky Home.”
Allen and his wife, Tina, perform for an hour every month at Holiday Thornton Place, an independent senior living complex in southwest Topeka. She accompanies him on a keyboard and together they fill the atrium with the sound of old-time fiddle music, bluegrass, and jazz.
Now 72, Allen has been entertaining people most of his life and played professionally on the road for 10 years. But it all began when he was in the eighth grade in Valley Falls and his grandfather, Seth Allen, taught him to play the guitar so he could accompany him as he played the fiddle.
Allen described those as exciting times for a youngster to travel with his grandfather from a local appearance at the threshing bee show in McLouth and then go all the way to Wieser, Idaho, for the national fiddle championship.
That year they would be joined by Bill’s uncle Harold, then living in Oregon, who would become the California state fiddle champion and later a national fiddle champion. As time passed, Bill would add a couple of Kansas state fiddle championships to his accolades as well.
But the fiddle Allen plays today carries a special place in his heart. It’s been in the family for over 140 years starting with his great-grandfather, John Allen.
“He knew a blacksmith who injured his hand and couldn’t play the fiddle and wound up trading him a pocket watch for it,” Bill said. “That fiddle was handed down to Seth and then down to Harold and now I have it.”
John Allen acquired the fiddle in 1883 and it is part of the family lore that during hard times living on an Oklahoma claim, the family could not have survived had it not been for the fiddle.
According to the fiddle’s history written by Harold Allen, John would fiddle and Seth would dance a jig as a young boy and folks would toss a few coins.
“No matter how hard the times were, folks always managed to pay the fiddler,” the late Harold Allen wrote.
John died in 1925 and his son, Seth, played the fiddle until 1955, winning many fiddle contests. Seth passed it to his son Harold in 1955 and he played it for 40 years until passing it to his nephew Bill.
The family history records that before moving to Valley Falls, Seth and his wife, Mable, were raising their family of 13 children in Thurston County, Neb., during the Depression. Seth would always have a dance to play for — even when the roads were blocked with snow.
As the children grew, they too would play for dances and on local radio stations in Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota. The age of the fiddle is unknown, but it’s believed to stretch back to the 1700s.
This large family later settled in Valley Falls and down through the decades the city would close a street or two whenever the family held its annual reunion. All of Seth and Mable’s children are deceased now, but music would always be at the heart of those reunions and the fiddle would be a center attraction.
Bill is the son of the late Roy and Janice Allen and a 1969 graduate of Valley Falls High School. He majored in business at a university in Washburn, Iowa, but entered the business world before completing a degree.
He operated a tavern and pool hall in Valley Falls with his brother, Rob, shortly after getting out of high school and then he toured with a five-member band for 10 years.
When that ended, he spent his years as a small business owner, mostly in Kansas City.
“I’ve owned a number of night clubs, coffee shops, and pool halls,” he said.
Because he’s a pool player, one of his longest running businesses was KC Q Billiards that had over 20 pool tables.
Bill and Tina reside in Topeka. They have two daughters and two grandsons and continue to entertain at a number of senior residences throughout the city.
“We book other engagements and play for special occasions,” he said, “but after hitting a deer one night we don’t play after dark any more.”
After knocking out “Cotton-Eyed Joe” and “Milk Cow Blues,” the couple often finish their performance with a flourish — the sound of that luxury passenger train, “The Orange Blossom Special.”