ALLEN, MARTIN (1780–1837). Martin Allen, early settler and a
member of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred, was born in
Kentucky in what is now Newport on November 28, 1780, son of
Benjamin Allen. He married Elizabeth Vice in Campbell County,
Kentucky, on September 24, 1804; the couple had ten children. By
1810 he, his wife, and three children were living in Old
Attakapas District, Louisiana, and in 1811 he was appointed
justice of the peace in Opelousas Parish, Louisiana. In 1812
Allen, his father, a brother Hiram, and a nephew joined the
Gutiérrez-Magee expedition in an unsuccessful effort to wrest
Texas from Spain. Allen's father, brother, and nephew were
killed at the battle of Medina the following year, but Allen,
who was in Louisiana on a recruiting mission, survived. By 1817
he and his family were living in Arkansas Territory. A year or
two later he settled at Flat Lick in northwest Louisiana. He was
living in Allen's Settlement, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, in
1821, when be joined Stephen F. Aust