Dallas County, TX - Biographies -  Samuel A. Allen

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John Henry Brown's History of Dallas County, 1892, pp. 482-483

SAMUEL A. ALLEN, of the hardware firm of Allen & Halsell, and also a member of 
the firm of Halsell & Allen, lumber merchants, was born in Kentucky, August 9, 1859, 
the second child of John M. and Bettie (Shannon) Allen, natives of Kentucky. The 
father was a farmer and stock-raiser by occupation. He came to Texas in 1859, 
settling two miles west of where Richardson now stands, in the northwest corner 
of the county, on the Huffhines farm, which was the only settled place in that 
section of the county. He rented this place three years, and then bought 257 acres 
of land eight and a half miles northeast of this place, and moved his family into a 
small house on the farm, of which only twenty acres were under cultivation. Mr. Allen 
then joined Captain Stratton's company of cavalry, of the Confederate army, and served 
west of the Mississippi river. He served in a number of battles and skirmishes, and at 
the close of the war he had nearly lost his eyesight from exposure, never having been 
able to see well until his death, which occurred in June, 1871. After the war he 
immediately commenced to improve his farm and fortune, and again entered the arena 
of life as a farmer, supplementing it with trading in and the rearing of live-stock, 
in which he was quite successful. He added to his original purchase one mile west of 
where Richardson now stands, buying one and a half sections of fine land, for which he 
paid $1.50 per acre, but a short time afterward sold one half of this purchase for a 
slight advance in price. The remainder of this land he uses as a pasture for his stock, 
and has also 150 acres under a flue state of cultivation, also a handsome country 
residence, and all the necessary outbuildings for stock, etc. In 1870 he took his f
amily to Kentucky on a visit, making the trip in a wagon drawn by horses, and 
returned to this county toward the latter part of the same year. He died in 
June, 1871, when comparatively a young man. Mt. and Mrs. Allen were the parents of 
seven children, viz.: 

Finis E., a farmer of Precinct No. 2; 
Samuel A., our subject; 
Sallie, wife of E. A. Skiles, of Plano; 
James A., a farmer of Precinct No. 2; 
Kattie and 
John M. 
One child died in infancy. 

Mr. Allen was a member of the A. F. & A. M., and also of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
Church. Mrs. Allen resides near Richardson with her youngest son and daughter, and 
is now in her fifty-seventh year. She is also a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
Church.
Samuel A. Allen, the subject of this sketch, received his education in the common 
schools of this county, and at the age of twenty years commenced life for himself. 
The first year he put in a cotton crop on a portion of his father's old homestead, 
and later bought another small farm, on which he farmed until 1886, when he came to 
Garland. Mr. Allen has one of the handsomest residences in the village, and is also 
the owner of the lumber yard. He has served the village of his adoption as Alderman, 
which office he still holds. He is doing a fine business in both his hardware and 
lumber interest, doing a lumber business of some $50,000, and his hardware is also 
in a prosperous condition.

September 4, 1881, he was married to Miss Rachel Halsell. (See sketch of E. M. Halsell.) 
Both Mr. and Mrs. Allen are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and the 
former is a member of the I.0.0.F., Duck Creek Lodge, No. 440, and also of the K. of H., 
of this place.