Allen Depot was established in 1876 in the central ward of

Allen, Texas Allen is a city in Collin County in the U.S. state of Texas, and a northern suburb of Dallas. According to the 2020 U.S. census its population was 104,627, up from 84,246 in 2010. Allen is located approximately twenty miles (32.2 km) north ...

. The train depot served as a water stop for the Galveston and Red River Railway chartered by

Ebenezer Allen Ebenezer Allen may refer to: * Ebenezer Allen (Vermont politician) (1743–1806) * Ebenezer Allen (Texas politician) (1804–1863) * Eben Allen Ebenezer "Eben" Allen (15 November 1868 – 20 May 1931) was an Australian businessman and politicia ...

in 1848. By 1856, the Southeast Texas to Red River railroad would transition to the

Houston and Texas Central Railway The Houston and Texas Central Railway (H&TC), was an 872-mile (1403-km) railway system chartered in Texas in 1848, with construction beginning in 1856. The line eventually stretched from Houston northward to Dallas and Denison, Texas. with branch ...

. By 1872, the Allen township began to acknowledge the progression of the track rail with the completion of the railway to

Red River City, Texas In the early 1870s Red River City was a settlement in North Texas, just south of the Red River, which forms the border with the state of Oklahoma. With a population of about 50, it was served by a post office in 1873 and 1874. In 1873 the Housto ...

by 1873. By the 1950s, the Allen Depot began to observe a significant regression in steam locomotive railway traffic due to the progression of the American automobile industry in the 1950s and the United States interstate highway system.

Allen Water Station

In 1874, the Houston and Texas Central Railway purchased a sector of land from

Collin County Collin County is located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is part of the Dallas- Fort Worth- Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and a small portion of the city of Dallas is in the county. At the 2020 United States census, the county's popula ...

resident J.W. Franklin to construct a water station to meet the water source demand as required by steam locomotives. The Allen Water Station was recognized as a Texas historic site receiving a historical marker in 2015.

History of Allen Depot

Sam Bass and Black Hill Bandits in Texas
The Old West

outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...

Sam Bass and the Black Hill Bandits organized the first successful

train robbery Train robbery is a type of robbery, in which the goal is to steal money or other valuables being carried aboard trains. History Train robberies were more common in the past when trains were slower, and often occurred in the American Old West. Tr ...

in the State of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

within the vicinity of the Allen Depot on February 22, 1878. United States President Theodore Roosevelt Train Caravan of 1905
On April 5, 1905, President

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

visited the Allen Train Depot while enroute to

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

for a Rough Riders reunion at the

Menger Hotel The Menger Hotel is a historic hotel located in downtown San Antonio, Texas, USA, on the site of the Battle of the Alamo. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 as a contributing building in the Alamo Plaza Historic Dist ...

. The

26th President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

was cordially received by a vast jubilation who traveled one hundred miles or more by buckboard, buggy, and

horseback Equestrianism (from Latin , , , 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding (Commonwealth English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, driving, and vaulting. This broad description includes the ...

across North Texas as President Roosevelt delivered speeches concerning his domestic

Square Deal The Square Deal was Theodore Roosevelt's domestic program, which reflected his three major goals: conservation of natural resources, control of corporations, and consumer protection. These three demands are often referred to as the "three Cs" ...

program. In remembrance of President Theodore Roosevelt's 1905 appearances in

Denison, Texas Denison is a city in Grayson County, Texas, Grayson County, Texas, United States. It is south of the Texas–Oklahoma border. The population was 22,682 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. Denison is part of the Texoma region and is one ...

and Sherman, Texas, the Texas Historical Commission established a State of Texas historical marker in 1971 in Grayson County, Texas serving as a neighbor to the north of Collin County, Texas.

Epidemic of 1860s and Texas Railways

In 1860s, the southern

Texas counties The U.S. state of Texas is divided into 254 counties, more than any other U.S. state. Over 20% of Texas counties are generally located within the Houston-Dallas—San Antonio—Austin areas, serving about 20,000,000 people, the majority of the ...

confronted the predatorial

Aedes aegypti ''Aedes aegypti'', the yellow fever mosquito, is a mosquito that can spread dengue fever, chikungunya, Zika fever, Mayaro and yellow fever viruses, and other disease agents. The mosquito can be recognized by black and white markings on its legs ...

or an

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

ultimately arriving through

trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...

ports along the

Texas Gulf Coast Texas Gulf Coast is an intertidal zone which borders the coastal region of South Texas, Southeast Texas, and the Texas Coastal Bend. The Texas coastal geography boundaries the Gulf of Mexico encompassing a geographical distance relative bearing ...

. The

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

infectious mosquito served as an

asymptomatic carrier An asymptomatic carrier is a person or other organism that has become infected with a pathogen, but shows no signs or symptoms. Although unaffected by the pathogen, carriers can transmit it to others or develop symptoms in later stages of the d ...

of an arbovirus progressively inflicting the symptoms of

yellow fever Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...

on the

South Texas South Texas is a region of the U.S. state of Texas that lies roughly south of—and includes—San Antonio. The southern and western boundary is the Rio Grande, and to the east it is the Gulf of Mexico. The population of this region is about 4.96 ...

civil parishes. During the

Gilded Age In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Weste ...

, the Texas railways established mounted regiments of health officers drawn on

to conduct quarantines of steam locomotives transporting rail travelers. The passenger railroad cars or Pullman coaches could potentially be hazardous providing conditions for a pathogen transmission of the

mosquito-borne disease Mosquito-borne diseases or mosquito-borne illnesses are diseases caused by bacteria, viruses or parasites transmitted by mosquitoes. Nearly 700 million people get a mosquito-borne illness each year resulting in over 725,000 deaths. Diseases tra ...

scientifically known as a

flavivirus ''Flavivirus'' is a genus of positive-strand RNA viruses in the family ''Flaviviridae''. The genus includes the West Nile virus, dengue virus, tick-borne encephalitis virus, yellow fever virus, Zika virus and several other viruses which may caus ...

Orphan Train Movement of 1854-1929

By the early 1850s, the

U.S. states In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

began to acknowledge over-crowding in the Eastern Seaboard cities. The Eastern United States instituted the guardianship of an Orphan Train movement for

youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. You ...

dependants determined as abandoned, homeless, orphaned, and

street children Street children are poor or homeless children who live on the streets of a city, town, or village. Homeless youth are often called street kids or street child; the definition of street children is contested, but many practitioners and policym ...

in an American

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

. The American youth were missioned by the ideology of

manifest destiny Manifest destiny was a cultural belief in the 19th century in the United States, 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand across North America. There were three basic tenets to the concept: * The special vir ...

to an

agrarian society An agrarian society, or agricultural society, is any community whose economy is based on producing and maintaining crops and farmland. Another way to define an agrarian society is by seeing how much of a nation's total production is in agriculture ...

in the

American frontier The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of United States territorial acquisitions, American expansion in mainland North Amer ...

. The social welfare initiative sustained seventy-five years enduring from 1854 to 1929 in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. On May 31, 1929, an orphan train departed

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

for a final

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

journey with a terminative destination at Sulphur Springs, Texas.

Bibliography Pictorial

References

Historical Video Archive

External links

* * {{Portal bar, Texas, Trains, Transport Buildings and structures in Allen, Texas History of Allen, Texas Former railway stations in Texas