Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. On the heels of the Texas Revolution, two New York real estate promoters, John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen were seeking a location where they could begin building "a great center of government and commerce." In August 1836, they purchased 6,642 acres of land from T. F. L. Parrot, John Austin''s widow for $9,428. The Allen brothers first landed in the area where the confluence of White Oak Bayou and Buffalo Bayou served as a natural turning basin, now known as Allen''s Landing. The "city to be" was named after Sam Houston, the hero of San Jacinto, whom the Allen brothers admired and anticipated to be the first President of the Republic of Texas. Gail Borden, Jr., a publisher and surveyor, who would later found Borden, Inc., exercised foresight when he laid out wide streets for the town. After it was established, it started out as a hamlet. Its population later swelled into the thousands. The Laura, the first ship ever to visit Houston and Galveston, arrived on January 1837.