WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1838
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is to expire on the 31st day of December, 1838. The clothes are to be paid immediately thereafter. Witness our hands and seals, City of Houston, 7th Jany, 1838.
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A. C. Allen [Seal] Sam Houston [Seal]
Witness, James S. Holman. [Endorsed] : Agreement between A. C. Allen and Sam Hous- ton. To the care of Jas. S. Holman by the parties, 7th Jany, 1838. 1 V. 0. King Pa1iers, Texas State Library. ~Augustus Chapman Allen (July 4, 1806-June 11, 1864), son of Roland and Sarah (Chapman) Allen, was born at Canasareaugh, New York. At the age of seventeen he graduated from the Polytechnic Institute of Chit- tenango, New York, and was immediately elected professor of mathematics in that institution. Ambitious for a broader field of activity, he resigned this professorship after a few years to accept a position as bookkeeper for H. & H. Canfield, New Yo1·k City. Shortly after he went to New York, his brother, John IC Allen joined him, and they bought an interest in the Canfield business. On May 3, 1831, Augustus C. Allen married Charlotte M. Baldwin, daughter of Dr. Jonas C. Baldwin, the financier and scientist who had founded Baldwinville, New York. In the summer of 1832 the Allen brothers withdrew from the firm of H. & H. Canfield to go to Texas. They settled first at San Augustine, but remained there only a few months. They moved to Nacogdoches in 1833. There they joined the coterie of land speculators at Nacogdoches, and soon became interested in a variety of enterprises, the chief of which was traffic in land certificates. When the Texas revolution broke out, neither brother joined the Texas army, but both were active in securing funds and supplies of all kinds for the Texas Government and for the Army. See William C. Binkley (ed.), Official Co1·respondence of the Texan Revolutfon, 1835-1836, 7, 8, 43, 49, 124, 179, 221, 222, 233, 831, etc. Also, see John K. Allen to Thomas J. Rusk, May 20, 1836, Houston Public Library. In the latter months of 1836, these partner brothers bought the John Austin half league of land from Mrs. T. F. L. Parrott, the former widow of John Austin. This land lay along the Buffalo Bayou not far from Harrisburg. Upon investigation the brothers found that the bayou carl'ied sufficient water to float vessels of fairly heavy draft, and that the site was beautiful, so they decided to establish a town. Subsequently, the town was laid out (see the original plans for the town in the Houston Public Library), and named Houston in honor of the hero of San Jacinto, who was a warm friend of the Allens. By the first of the New Year (1837) the father, mother, four brothers and a sister of the Allens had arrived in Texas to make it their future home. These six Allen brothers-Augustus C., Samuel L., George, John K., Henry R., and Hat'vey H.-were destined to become prominent figures in the economic and socinl life of South Texas for several decades. (See sketches of the Allens in John Henry Brown,
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