According to the Allen Heritage Guild, immigrants began to move into the Allen area in the 1840s, drawn to its free land and water. The immigrants replaced Caddo, Kiowa and Comanche Indian tribes in the region.

In 1874, the Houston & Texas Central Railroad built train tracks through Allen and constructed the stone dam, water tower and pump house on Cottonwood Creek. The water storage tank was used to refill the steam engines of trains.

“There is always water in Cottonwood Creek, even in a drought,” said Anne Gifford, Allen Heritage Guild board vice president and volunteer.

Gifford said the water stop served as a catalyst for the development of a nearby town, which provided a center for commerce for farmers. It also provided for better equipment and broader markets for agricultural production.

In 1876, the railroad filed documents to create the town of Allen, which was named after Ebenezer Allen, a former Republic of Texas attorney general and a railroad supporter.

The town had a population of 350 people by 1884 and included three churches and a flour mill. In 1908 the Texas Traction Company built an electric railroad through town named the Interurban, which was separate from the Houston & Texas Central Railroad. The electric train—operating in a capacity similar to the way Dallas Area Rapid Transit operates today, Gifford said—ran to cities including McKinney, Denison and Dallas.

“For example, teachers who lived in McKinney would ride the Interurban to Allen and walk to the school house,” Gifford said.

Allen incorporated as a city in 1953 with only 400 residents. The guild attributes the small population to the decline in agriculture production and the ending of the interurban service in 1948 after a wreck and subsequent fire.

However, when construction began on US 75 in 1960, population began to grow rapidly in Allen again.