John Kirby Allen

When he was seven years old, John took his first job as a hotel porter in a hotel in Orrville (present-day DeWitt, New York). Three years later, he started working as a clerk in a retail shop. At sixteen, he formed a partnership with a friend operating a hat store at Chittenango, New York, where his brother, Augustus Chapman Allen, was a professor of mathematics. In 1827, John cashed in his interest in the hat store and followed his brother to New York City, where they were investors in H. and H. Canfield Company until 1832. The brothers then moved to Texas.

In politics

On August 30, 1836, John Kirby Allen's candidacy for Representative of Nacogdoches County to the first Congress of the Republic of Texas was announced in the Telegraph and Texas Register. He was elected in September, and officially began his term on October 3. There, he served on the president's staff with the rank of major. During this political service, John and his brother Augustus founded the city of Houston. He also continued to operate a shipping business during this time, along with his partner, James Pinckney Henderson.

In Congress, John Allen successfully lobbied to have the newly founded city of Houston named the Republic's capital. This gave Houston the boost it needed to survive its first years of initial development.

On April 13, 1838, Allen was elected to the board of directors of the Galveston City Company, which was a stock company chartered by the Republic of Texas to found the City of Galveston.