Grave of Gustavus Watts Allen, Sr.
Pecan Grove Cemetery
McKinney, Collin County, Texas
Photo taken Easter, 1999.
Gustavus Watts Allen, Sr., was born in Moscow, Fayette C., Tennessee, on December 2, 1840, the son of Edmund Lilly Allen I and Rebecca Magdalene Smith. He served in the Confederate Army, fighting in the 13th Tennessee Infantry. Alas, the marker put up at the grave by the Sons of Confederate Veterans has him listed as serving with the 13th Tennessee Cavalry, but that is an error. he and his older brother Samuel Houston Allen were both infantrymen in the 13th Tennessee Infantry, C. S. A.
He married Mary Virginia Dowdy ("Jennie") in 1870 and they had seven children, one of whom was my grandfather, Gustavus Watts Allen, Jr. In 1882 the Allen family pulled up stakes and moved from West Tennessee to North Central Texas, settling in Collin County. According to family lore, they came "in a covered wagon."
Because he was the first in a line of 3 "Gus Allens," I nicknamed him "Confederate Gus" or "The Original Gus," to distinguish between him, my grandfather, and my father, when I was talking to my young sons about their Allen ancestors.
The Original Gus Allen died in McKinney, Texas on March 1, 1901, of pneumonia.
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