Allen Ranch

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of the Allen Ranch. Now, take a look around at all this commercial bustle, because what you're seein' used to be something else entirely. Something older, and a whole lot quieter.

This busy stretch of southeast Texas was once part of one of the oldest and largest ranches in the whole region. And it starts, as so many Texas stories do, with a land grant. Back in 1824, Mexico granted a portion of this land to a man named Morris Callahan.

That grant would eventually pass, by inheritance, to his niece, Rebecca Jane Thomas. She married Samuel William Allen in 1844, and between the land she brought to the union and the land Allen went out and acquired, something substantial began to take shape. Allen bought additional acreage, including a thirteen-hundred-acre tract that had belonged to his friend Governor Francis R.

Lubbock, and he set about building a prosperous cattle ranch. He helped organize the firm of Allen and Poole to ship cattle east and to foreign markets. Now that's range ambition, right there.

Samuel William Allen was born in 1826 and died in 1888, and in 1881, before he was gone, he handed the operation over to his son, Samuel Ezekiel Allen, born in 1848. The younger Allen and his wife Rosa Lum built a large home near the junction of Buffalo Bayou and Sims Bayou, about a mile north of where you're standing. Samuel Ezekiel carried on as a leading Houston businessman and cattleman both.

By the time he died in 1913, the ranch had grown to thirteen thousand acres in Harris County and another ten thousand acres over in Brazoria County. Twenty-three thousand acres. Let that settle a moment.

Then Rosa Allen, who would live until 1931, made a decision that marked the turning of the page. In 1917, she sold seven hundred acres to the Sinclair Oil Company, the outfit now known as Atlantic Richfield Corporation, as a refinery site. The rest of the land was divided up, piece by piece, for industrial, commercial, and residential use, until the ranch existed mostly in memory.

Mostly. Because that big home the Allens built near the bayous, it didn't just disappear. It was moved, all the way to Galveston Bay, where it became Camp Allen of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas.

The land changed hands, changed face, changed everything. But the house found one more life to live.

What the marker says

This busy commercial area was once part of the Allen Ranch, one of the oldest and largest ranches in southeast Texas. A portion of the land was granted to Morris Callahan in 1824 by Mexico and inherited by his niece Rebecca Jane Thomas (d. 1919), who married Samuel William Allen (1826-1888) in 1844. Allen bought additional land, including a 1300-acre tract belonging to his friend Governor Francis R. Lubbock, and began operation of a prosperous cattle ranch. He helped organize the firm of Allen & Poole to ship cattle to eastern and foreign markets. Samuel Ezekiel Allen (1848-1913) took over operation of the ranch from his father in 1881. He and his wife Rosa Lum (d. 1931) built a large home near the junction of Buffalo Bayou and Sims Bayou (1 mi. N). Allen was a leading Houston businessman as well as a cattleman. At the time he died, Allen's property included 13,000 acres in Harris County and 10,000 acres in Brazoria County. In 1917, Rosa Allen sold 700 acres to the Sinclair Oil Company (now Atlantic Richfield Corporation) as a refinery site. The remaining land was later divided for industrial, commercial, and residential use. The ranch house was moved to Galveston Bay, where it became Camp Allen of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. (1976)