John Kirby Allen
Houston, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Born in Canasareaugh, New York 1810. Came to Texas in 1832. Died in Houston August 18, 1838. John K. Allen was a member of the first Congress of the Republic (1836-1837) from Nacogdoches County. He and his brother, Augustus C. Allen, on August 25, 1836 purchased a league of land from Mrs. T. F. L. Parrott for five thousand dollars, on which on August 29, 1836 they founded the town of Houston named in honor of the hero of San Jacinto.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
John Kirby Allen came to Texas from New York in 1832 and quickly threw himself into the affairs of the new republic, serving in its first Congress. In August 1836, just weeks after Texas won independence, he and his brother Augustus bought a league of land for five thousand dollars and laid out a new town on it, naming it Houston for Sam Houston, the victor of San Jacinto. Allen died young, in 1838, but the city the brothers founded endured.
Why it matters
It commemorates one of the two brothers whose speculative gamble founded Houston in the earliest days of the Republic of Texas — a town named for a revolutionary hero that would grow into a great American city.
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Related people
- · John Kirby Allen
- · Augustus C. Allen
- · Sam Houston
Related events
- · Founding of Houston (1836)
- · Battle of San Jacinto
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
George Allen
Houston, TX
Born in New York in 1812, George Allen came to Texas in the 1830s and fought in the war for independence, later joining the Somervell Expedition. In 1838 he settled in Houston to help his brothers Augustus and John Kirby Allen establish the new city, and in 1839 became the first committeeman charged with improving Buffalo Bayou, its vital shipping artery. His work helped set Houston on its course as a commercial port.
John R. Reid
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John R. Reid served the young Republic of Texas at its highest levels, sitting as an Associate Justice of its Supreme Court in 1839 and as a member of its Congress in 1840 and 1841. He died in Houston on Christmas Day of 1841 and was buried under the auspices of Holland Lodge No. 1, the pioneering Masonic lodge of Texas. His brief public life unfolded during the Republic's earliest years of self-government.
James Collinsworth
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James Collinsworth (1806–1838), Tennessee-born, packed an extraordinary public career into a few short years of the Texas Republic. A delegate to the 1835 Consultation and a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, he "bore himself as a chief" at San Jacinto, then served as Secretary of State, senator, and the first Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court. After he drowned at Galveston in 1838, his remains were carried up Buffalo Bayou for the first Masonic funeral held in Texas.
David Porter Richardson
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