Augustus Chapman Allen

Not long after turning 17, Augustus graduated from the Polytechnic Institute at Chittenango, New York, and started teaching mathematics there. In 1827, he changed careers and resigned his professorship. Allen then went to work as a bookkeeper for the H. and H. Canfield Company in New York. After two years, he and his brother John bought an interest in the business. In the summer of 1832, the Allen brothers left Canfield to move to Texas, where they settled in San Augustine. By June 1833, the brothers had moved to Nacogdoches.

Soon, Allen's health began to fail, and he decided to leave Houston, signing over to his wife, whom he had never divorced, most of what remained of his many enterprises. Augustus Allen relocated to Mexico to tend to his health and a new start in life.

In 1852, Augustus was appointed United States consul for the port of Tehuantepec on the Pacific Ocean, and in 1858, he was given the same position for the port of Minotitlán. These offices gave him control of the consular affairs of the United States for the entire Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a commercially important position.

In partnership with an Englishman named Welsh, Allen developed an extensive private shipping business. He was never able to recover his health, however, and realized, in 1864, that he was critically ill. Augustus then closed his business and went to Washington, D.C., to resign his consulships. Soon after arriving there, he contracted pneumonia, and died on Monday, January 11, 1864, aged 58 in Washington, D.C., and was buried in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. Several Houston landmarks, including Allen Parkway and Allen Center, as well as Allen's Landing Park, commemorate Augustus and his brother, the city's two founders.

New York Times (New York, NY), Fri., 15 Jan 1864, p. 5, c. 3

New York Herald (New York, NY), Fri., 15 Jan 1864, p. 8, c. 3

DIED - ALLEN - In Washington, D.C., on Monday, Jan. 11, Augustus C. Allen. His friends are invited to attend his funeral, which will occur at the Church of the Transfiguration, 29th St., this day (Friday) 15th inst., at 10 A.M.