Thomas Allen (August 29, 1813 – April 8, 1882) was an American railroad builder and a member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

from

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

. Allen was born in

Pittsfield, Massachusetts Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfield� ...

, to Jonathan and Eunice Larned Allen, and was a grandson of Rev. Thomas Allen, a noted American revolutionary. He attended Pittsfield Academy and Berkshire Gymnasium. He graduated from

Union College Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...

in 1832, where he obtained his degree with

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

honors and was an early member of The

Kappa Alpha Society The Kappa Alpha Society (), founded in 1825, was the progenitor of the modern fraternity system in North America. It is considered to be the oldest national, secret, Greek-letter social fraternity and was the first of the fraternities which would ...

. He then studied law and was admitted to the New York bar in 1835. In 1837, he moved to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, where he founded the newspaper ''The Madisonian'', a Democratic newspaper. He was the printer of the United States House of Representatives from 1837 to 1839, and printer to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

from 1839 to 1842. In 1842 Allen married Ann Russell and moved to

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

. His father-in-law, William Russell, gave him land in south St. Louis, which he developed as residential property attractive for working-class immigrants. It was the largest tract in St. Louis developed by a single person. He was a slave owner; an advertisement for a reward for the return of escaped slaves by a "Thomas Allen, Esq." of St. Louis, Missouri, was published in newspapers in 1847. He was elected to the

Missouri State Senate The Missouri Senate is the upper chamber of the Missouri General Assembly. It has 34 members, representing districts with an average population of 174,000. Its members serve four-year terms, with half the seats being up for election every two yea ...

in 1850, remaining a member of that body through 1854. Also in 1850, Allen was elected president of the

Pacific Railroad The Pacific Railroad (not to be confused with Union Pacific Railroad) was a railroad based in Missouri. It was a predecessor of both the Missouri Pacific Railroad and St. Louis-San Francisco Railway. The Pacific was chartered by Missouri in 184 ...

with the support of Thomas Hart Benton. With his political connections, he arranged for loan guarantees and land grants that helped to start the company. In 1852 he took the first steam locomotive to cross the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. Following a series of financial crises for the railroad, Allen resigned from the company and returned to land-development. In 1858 he was the organizer of the banking house Allen, Copp & Nisbet. He subsequently sold his railway interests and retired from business. After an unsuccessful run for Congress in 1862, he returned to the railroad business in 1867 with the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway. He was the founder of the Allen professorship of Mining and Metallurgy at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

and in 1876 he donated the

Berkshire Athenaeum The Berkshire Athenaeum is a public library (1872) based on a previously private athenaeum, and now at 1 Wendell Avenue, Pittsfield, Massachusetts in the Berkshires, United States. Like many New England libraries, the Berkshire Athenaeum started a ...

to his hometown of

. Allen was elected to the

from Missouri in 1881. He sold railroad holdings to fellow railroad developer

Jay Gould Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made hi ...

. In April 1882, Allen died in Washington, D.C., before his first and only term as a member of Congress was complete.Thomas Allen
from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress He was buried in Pittsfield Cemetery,

Allenville, Missouri Allenville is a village in Hubble Township in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, United States. The population was 95 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Cape Girardeau–Jackson, MO- IL Metropolitan Statistical Area. History and Industry A ...

is named after him.Cape Girardeau County Place Names, 1928-1945
, from the State Historical Society of Missouri.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Thomas 1813 births 1882 deaths Politicians from Pittsfield, Massachusetts Union College (New York) alumni New York (state) lawyers 19th-century American newspaper publishers (people) Politicians from Washington, D.C. Politicians from St. Louis Democratic Party Missouri state senators 19th-century American railroad executives Banking in the United States St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Missouri 19th-century American journalists American male journalists 19th-century American male writers 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American lawyers Washington University in St. Louis people

See also

References