ALLEN, EBENEZER (?-1863). Ebenezer Allen, early state official and railroad promoter, a native of Maine, migrated to Texas in the 1830s. He became attorney general of Texas under Anson Jones in December 1844, served a while as secretary of state, and assisted Jones in framing the terms of annexation to the United States. He was attorney general under Governor Peter Hansbrough Bell from 1849 to 1853. In 1848 Allen was instrumental in securing the charter for the Galveston and Red River Railroad Company, and in the 1850s he was a promoter and manager of the Houston and Texas Central Railway. He supported secession and entered the Confederate service at the outbreak of the Civil War. He died in Virginia in 1863.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: S. G. Reed, A History of the Texas Railroads (Houston: St. Clair, 1941; rpt., New York: Arno, 1981). Amelia W. Williams and Eugene C. Barker, eds., The Writings of Sam Houston, 1813-1863 (8 vols., Austin: University of Texas Press, 1938-43; rpt., Austin and New York: Pemberton Press, 1970).
