The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991 Page: 4
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Southwestern Hzstorical Quarterly
The Allen family home, called "Allendale," was a two-storied, Federal-
style frame house on a bend of the Cumberland River, near Gallatin.
An inventory of John Allen's estate dated 1833 claims ownership of
thirty-nine slaves, marking him as one of the wealthier Sumner County
citizens. Through mutual connections with Gen. Andrew Jackson of
neighboring Davidson County and with John's brother Robert Allen
who served with Houston as a Tennessee congressman from 1823 to
1827, Houston came to know John Allen and his family.
In November 1828, Governor Houston wrote from Nashville to his
cousin John Houston, " ... I am not married but it may be the case in a
few weeks .. ." The following month he wrote to Congressman John
Marable about his "small blow up" and his difficulty in discerning "what
the devil is the matter with the gals." Perhaps Eliza was the "gal" to
whom he referred. Apparently his closing sentence to Marable did con-
cern her: "May God bless you, & it may be that I will splice myself with a
rib." These are his only known written comments about her previous to
their wedding. An acquaintance recorded that the governor "blushed
like a school boy" when he spoke of Eliza: "He was one of those rare
men who are in earnest. He was so sincere that he was not conscious
how profoundly sincere he was . . . Then he told me his secret. He was
to marry her soon and she had told him she loved him. But he had a
doubt that made him miserable." Another acquaintance, Henry Alexan-
der Wise, assessed the situation differently. "Houston, then advanced in
life, spent in dissipation . . . sought to strengthen himself and insure
his election" by marrying into a "popular" family. "Her family was
sought by Samuel Houston from which to select a victim, not of his love,
but of his selfish electioneering for influence to save him in office.""
was the second of nine (hildren, Irish by blood, born in Virginia in 1776 He art ived in Gallatln
mi 1807 and engaged in merchandising, banking, and farming. In 18o8 he married Laetitia
Saunders. Information on these families can be found in. Tennessee, Smith County, Bible and
Tombstone Records, Historkial Records Project, 1938, pp. 6-1 1, Silas Emmett Lucas, Jr., Iltory
of Tennessee (Easley, S C : Southern Historical Press, 1978), 850; Willie McGee Ellis, Iltstor
Rock Castle (Nashville, Tenn.: Parthenon Press, 1973), 1 4, Robert McBride and Dan M Robin-
son, Biographical Dnecrtoy of the Tennessee Genetal Assembly, Vol I, 1796- 86i (Nashville- Ten-
nessee State Library and Archives and Tennessee I storical Commission, 1975); and J W L.
Matlock, IIntory of the Methodit Church at lleudersonville, Tenm (Hendersonville- Hendersonville
First Methodist Church, 196o), 3, 19, 27 M. B H , "General Sam Houston. Curious Fact in His
Personal Experience," New Orleans Republican, Sept 14, 1871 (quotation).
7'Tennessee State Library and Archives, Sumnei County, Roll no. 68, Book 1831--1836,
pp. 257-259. The county elite had a penchant for blooded horses, it was pec haps by this pas-
time that Allen was acquainted with Andrew Jackson ( James, The Raven, 73). Herbert Weaver
and Paul H Bergeron (eds.), Coresiondence of James K Polk (7 vols , Nashville, Tenn Vander-
bilt University Piess, 1969-1989), 1, 148 Robclt Allen is identified here as Eliza Allen's
brother, a mistake made even m some contemporary accounts He was in fact her uncle
"Houston to John Houston, Nov. lo, 1828, Wrtings, 11II, io (Ist quotation), James, The Raven,
72 (2-4 quotations), D)allas Morntng News, Apr. 4, 1892 (5th and 6th quotations); Henry A.
Wise, Seven Decades of the Union (Philadelphia, Penn J. B. Lippinuott and Co, 1881), 148
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991, periodical, 1991; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101214/m1/28/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.