DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Elisha Allen — and friend, this one's worth the listen. Now, December 16, 1813 is when Elisha Allen came into this world, born a son of Louisiana. He wasn't there long, though.
In 1827, still a boy, he moved with his parents to what is now Orange County — out on the edge of things, the kind of place that shapes a person whether they ask to be shaped or not. Then came 1835, and Texas was on fire with revolution. Elisha Allen didn't sit that one out.
He joined the army, and when December rolled around — the fifth and sixth — he was right there in the thick of it at the Siege of Bexar. That's San Antonio, for those keepin' up at home. Two days of fighting, and Elisha Allen was part of it.
He wasn't done movin', either. By 1838 he was out riding the Texas frontier with a survey party — the kind of work where you see country nobody's mapped yet, where every ridge is a question and every creek a first introduction. Life settled some in 1849.
That's the year he married Margaret Wood, and together they'd go on to raise eight children. Eight. You let that number sit a minute.
By 1850, Elisha Allen had planted himself in Williamson County, and he'd stay a pioneer there all the way through 1870. Then he made one more move — west to Indian Creek in Bell County, where he didn't just arrive, he got to work. He helped build a community church and a schoolhouse.
A man who'd fought at Bexar and surveyed wild frontier ended his days helping raise up the kind of places that turn a raw country into a home. Elisha Allen died March 6, 1893. The marker's out there in Williamson County, and now you know the full measure of the man it's rememberin'.
What the marker says
(December 16, 1813 - March 6, 1893) A native of Louisiana, Elisha Allen moved with his parents in 1827 to what is now Orange County. When the Texas Revolution began, Allen joined the army and fought at the Siege of Bexar, Dec. 5-6, 1835. He explored the Texas frontier with a survey party in 1838. In 1849 he married Margaret Wood; they had 8 children. A Williamson County pioneer, 1850-1870, Allen settled on Indian Creek in Bell County in 1870 and helped build a community church and schoolhouse.