Allen, OK

Allen's most revealing historical detail is a railroad that missed town by half a mile. The Missouri, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway reached the area in 1909, while the town itself had grown from settlers who gathered at Cold Springs after coming from Gainesville, Texas. Dr. John Trigg Gilmore, George and William McCall, and their families built the first log cabin in 1883; it served as both school and church. Allen was named for Allen McCall, and its post office opened in 1892 with Gilmore as postmaster. The town sits on State Highway 1, nineteen miles northeast of Ada in the northeastern corner of Pontotoc County.

That early school-and-church cabin has a present-day echo in Allen Public Schools, whose elementary, middle, and high school campuses keep education at the center of town. Agriculture, ranching, and the petroleum industry have all shaped the local economy; an oil well drilled west of Allen in 1913 brought a short-lived boom. State Highway 1 carries the practical connection to Ada, while Allen's streets hold the post office, school district, churches, and civic buildings that grew after the rail line established a new townsite nearby. Allen is a town that expected the railroad, missed it, and built a durable school-centered community around the routes it had.