Who is the namesake of Allen Street in Tombstone, Arizona?

Erica Moore

Mesa, Arizona

John B. Allen is considered one of the founders of Tombstone. He came to Arizona in 1857, twenty years before prospector Ed Schieffelin’s famous silver strike. Allen was drawn to the territory by a gold strike in Gila City; when that didn’t pan out, he headed to Tucson, penniless.

His first enterprise was making dried apple pies and selling them for a dollar apiece; that earned him the nickname “Pie.” Eventually, he owned a series of stores in various southwest Arizona towns, including Tombstone, where he set up shop in the late 1870s.

His entrepreneurial fortunes ebbed and flowed as he made and lost several fortunes; he died in poverty in 1899.