Allcorn, Elijah (ca. 1769–1844)

Elijah Allcorn (Alcorn), early settler, was born about 1769 in the area of present York County, South Carolina. He may have been the son of James and Catherine Allcorn. Early in life he moved to Georgia, and between 1793 and 1800 he served in the Georgia State Militia as an infantryman under Capt. John Hodge. Sometime in the 1790s he married Nancy (Hodge?); they had six children. Allcorn resided in Georgia as late as 1816 and was listed in the Illinois state census in 1818. He took his family to Texas in December 1821 as one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred. On January 1, 1822, Allcorn was with the group that camped on a stream they named New Year Creek, in an area between the sites of present Independence and Brenham. Allcorn received title to 1½ sitios and a labor of land now in Fort Bend, Washington, and Waller counties on July 10, 1824. He brought in freight for the settlers at San Felipe de Austin, participated in local elections, served on a jury in 1825, and acted as road supervisor. The census of Austin's colony in March 1826 indicated that he was a farmer and stock raiser aged over fifty, with a household including his wife, four sons, a daughter, and two servants. In 1835 he signed a petition requesting the organization of Washington Municipality. In May 1840 he filed a mortgage-foreclosure suit in Harris County. Allcorn died on March 21, 1844, in Washington County.