Allen Mesch

Ebenezer Allen - Statesman, Entrepreneur, and Spy Allen Mesch

Ebenezer Allen - Statesman, Entrepreneur, and Spy is the long-overdue biography of Texas attorney Ebenezer Allen. After graduating from Dartmouth College, Allen relocated to Texas and became involved with the nation's politics. He served as attorney general and secretary of state for Anson Jones and helped coordinate the state's annexation by the United States. After statehood, Allen became the state's first elected attorney general. As an attorney in Galveston, he obtained a charter for a rail line from the Gulf Coast to the Red River. When the Civil War broke out, Allen served as a civilian in the Confederate Torpedo Bureau and represented engineers and inventors in their dealings with the Richmond government. He died under mysterious circumstances in Richmond.