Gravesite of John Kirby Allen
Houston, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1810-1838) Co-founder of Houston) Houston in 1836 was a humid swamp overgrown with sweet gum trees and coffee bean weeds. In this spot, however, two brothers from New York recognized the future "commercial emporium of Texas." John Kirby Allen was born and lived in New York until moving to Texas in 1832 with his older brother Augustus Chapman Allen, a professor of mathematics. A natural leader with a magnetic personality, J. K. Allen was an astute businessman as well. He and his brother soon saw that the area around Buffalo Bayou could readily become a major seaport. Immediately after the Battle of San Jacinto (April 21, 1836), J. K. Allen carefully chose the site of future Huston. On August 24 and 26, the brothers paid $9,428 for 6,642 acres of land originally granted by Mexico to John Austin, a pioneer colonist. Fittingly, they named the town for Sam Houston, leader of the Texas Army. In glowing words, the brothers advertised their infant town all over the United States; and J. K. Allen, who was soon elected representative to the Texas Congress, worked unceasingly to make Houston the capital of Texas, as it became-- 1837 to 1839. At 28, J. K. Allen died of congestive fever, but the town he founded has since become Texas' largest city.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
John Kirby Allen and his brother Augustus were New Yorkers who came to Texas and, just after the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836, chose a humid, weed-choked bend of Buffalo Bayou as the site of a future 'commercial emporium.' They bought more than 6,600 acres, named the town for Sam Houston, and advertised it across the country, and J. K. Allen was soon elected to the Texas Congress and worked to make Houston the Republic's capital. He died of fever at just 28, but the city he founded became the largest in Texas.
Why it matters
As co-founder of Houston, John Kirby Allen shaped one of America's great cities out of a swamp, and his grave marks the ambition that built the Republic's commercial heart.
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Related people
- · John Kirby Allen
- · Augustus Chapman Allen
- · Sam Houston
Related events
- · Battle of San Jacinto (1836)
- · Founding of Houston (1836)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Augustus Chapman Allen
Houston, TX
Augustus Chapman Allen was a New York-born schoolteacher and bookkeeper who came to Texas in the 1830s and threw in with the Texas Revolution, even funding a ship, the Brutus, to move troops and supplies. With his brother John Kirby Allen he bought marshy land along Buffalo Bayou after independence in 1836 and platted a brand-new town, naming it for the victorious general Sam Houston. When the young Republic's Congress accepted their offer and met there in 1837, a speculative real-estate gamble became a capital city.
Darius Gregg
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