[1]: 9–10  He worked at first for the English revenue service, where he visited ports in British Isles, France, Hamburg, and the Mediterranean.

During the summer of 1858, he spent some time at a ranch in New Mexico on the Cimarron River owned by Lucien Maxwell and Kit Carson.

There was a dispute to the ownership of the land and the four men (including Allen) reinforced their collective stake by erecting a large log house with firing ports in each wall.

The land dispute progressed to the point where a company of 80 armed men were dispatched to remove Allen and his co-claimants.

Allen allowed one of the armed men to step forward and revealed the defenses placed on the land.

Oddly enough, the land in what is now downtown Denver was eventually sold for a meager amount of money to Francis J.

This option ultimately failed and Allen offered to solve the dispute either "according to the rules of the ring" or through "rough-and-tumble."

The Terror chose the latter, which allowed for the use of fighting techniques such as eye-gouging, biting, stomping, and head butting.

[1]: 10 Many merchants in Denver employed Allen and two of his land co-claimants, Jack Menzies and David Thompson,[2]: 534  to explore the Colorado River.

[1]: 10–11 [2]: 535 During the American Civil War, Allen enlisted in the Union Army as a scout in the eastern states.

[1]: 11  He served with St. Clair and "Red Clark", riding through Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee.

[1]: 11 After the war and until 1871, he came to Junction City and had contracts to supply meat to the military and railroad construction crews.

Various brothels and saloons elicited rabble rousing troops from Fort Riley, as well as travelers coming from intersecting railway lines.

One evening a couple of years ago six men came from a hay camp at Riley with the purpose of having a time.

In all his service he has never killed a man, although suffering at times great aggravation and taking desperate chances.

When the captain learned that Allen was present, he stated: "Great Scott, that's the man who licked my sergeant!

[1]: 12  In another incident, a drunk which Allen imprisoned multiple times started a quarrel in a local pub and according to the Junction City Union, "stood out in the street with a rock in each hand when Tom arrived.

As a result, Allen was irate, thrashed the man in a bloody fight, disarmed his Colt, and threw him in a prison cell.