Lieutenant Colonel Allen_Allensworth?
?and 

Allensworth,-Galifbrnia?

The following report was written mainly as a source of
information for the Ranger at the Allensworth Unit.
compiled
Informatign in this report was .' ~/' . by interviewing
former residents o·f the town and going through the little
written material on the town and Colonel Allen Allensworth.
Much of the information gathered covered home locations
and other features of the town's physieal make-up.
Gathering thistype of information is a very slow adve- .
nture.

The time spent and information gathered on the

town's physical make-up will not be reflected in this
report.
However from this report I feel you as a reader will be
brought closer to the town of Allensworth, California,
it's residents and the problems both experienced.

As a

reader you must keep in mind the time period in America's
history which the town lived, (190ff';'1914) ..
This report is far from having all of the information
on the town or the Colonel.

Approximately two

and twelve (212) hours went into this report.
also done under ample limitations.

ii

hun~red

It was

 LIEUTENANT.COL0NEL.ALLEN ALLENSWORTH .

by
Alfred Griffin, Jr., SPR I

1975



Mr. Allen Allensworth was born in
on April 7, 1842.
Allensworth.

Kentucky,.

Louisvill~,

His parents were Phyllis and Levi

They named Allen Allensworth after Bishop

Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Both parents were slaves, thus making Allen

a born slave.

Mrs. Phyllis AllensVlorth gave young Allen

to her Master's son, Thomas Starbird, as a personal slave.
Mrs. Allensworth had thirteen children in all.

With

young Allen being the only one of the thirteen who hadn't
been sold dovm the river.
Allen was instructed to play school with Tommy Starbird.
Thus Allen was able to learn to read and write.
reading and writing came trouble.
Allen could read and

v~ite

With

The Master learned that

and he was sold down the river.

For it was against the,law for a slave to read and write.
He had also acquired a Webster's Spelling
him in his learning.

~

to assit

This book was considered as the ba-

ses of all learning, by the slaves.
He was sold to Jim Ficklin, and he escaped.

When he was

discovered he was sold to a slave dealer in Kentucky, for
$960.00.

The slave dealer placed him in a slave pen with

many other slaves.
accustomed to.

This being something Allen was not

The selling price was $1200.00.

However

no One purchased him so into another pen he went, in New
Orleans.

Soon Fred Scruggs purchased him for a race-horse

rider.

1

 When Scruggs took Allen to Louisville for an up coming
race Allen escaped to the Union,r.:ines.
his first break. away from slavery.

This proved to be

In doing so he worked

as a medical helper with the 44 th Illinois.
Allen didn't get on free soil until 1862, December.
was in Georgetown, Ohio.

He

He received his first job as a

free man, with pay in 1863 when he joined the Navy.
time was served on board the Queen City.

His

He received an

honorable discharge on April 4, 1865.
Once out he and a broth,er opened two restaurants in Saint
Louis.

However this was a shortly lived dream.

sold out and Allen returned to Louisville.

Far

they

Vfuile there

he worked with the iron firm of W.B. Belknap & Company.
Then he joined the Fifth Street Baptist Church.

Where he

improved his education and began his ministry.
On April 9, 1871, he was ordained as a Christian Hinister.
After which he returned to SChool.
several churches.

He also pastored at

Vnule at. most of these churches. he

built the congregation tremendously.
September 20, 1877, he ma.rried Josephine

Leavell.·~

They.

had met Roger Williams University.

There she studied

music •

Mrs. Allensworth was

She Vias of German desc·ent.

fifteen (15) years younger than her husband.
until l{a.rch 27, 1939.

She lived

Mrs.. Allensworth gave birth to

three children, one boy and two girlZ?

However only the

two girls lived, (I have been unable to determine the cause

\

2

 of death for the only boy).
ssful in live.

The girls were'very succe-

As a child their social life was limited.

This was due to their father's position in the

~ilitary.

In the military it is an unwritten law that commissioned
officers and their families have little or nothing to do
with enlisted personnel.

Thus during that time in our

nation's history Vfuites refused to have anything to do
with Blacks.

Therefore making it hard on Colonel Alle-

nsworth and his family.
in 1884 Mr. Allensworth was elected by the Third Congressional District as its .representative at the National
Concention in Chicago.

He also maintained a membership

in the Odd Fellows and the Masons.
After four years of letter vlriting Allensworth entered
the Army in 1886, as a captain and chaplain.
command of the twenty-fourth infantry.

He was in

Some of the

twenty-fourth's duty stations were:
Fort Supply, Indian Territory

~

,,!.-~

World's Columbian Exposition, Jackson Park, Chicago
Fort Douglas, Salt Lake City
New Mexico
Spanish American War 1898
Fort Huachuca, Arizona 1896
Battle of San Juan Hill
Philipphire Insurrection 1899
I

Presidio in San Francisco

3

0---"

 Records indicate that the Colonel had perfect respect and
control of his men at all times.
Colonel Allensworth was a educator in many of the places
he traveled.

He established a grade system in Bowling

Green, Kentucky, and a school system in New Mexico,
Allensworth, and the Philippines.
Officer Allensworth had his leg broken by a horse and buggy, in 1900.
1901.

Thus he was given an absence of leave in

Upon retirement he was honored with the rank. of

Army Lieutenant-Colonel Retired.

Thus making him the fi-

rst Black man in the nation to achieve so high a rank.
Once again in 1914 the streets proved to be unsafe for

Mr. Allen Allensworth, for he was struck dovm by a motorcycle in Honrovia, California.

However this vras not

before he founded the town of Allensworth in Tulare County, California, 1908.

4

 The Town of Allensworth? California -
by 
Alfred-Griffin, SPR. I  
1975 

There are only a few scattered houses in tne nearly ghost
town of Allensworth.

The person responsible for the town's

placement on the map was Lieutenant Colonel Allensworth.
His home is still standing, research has proved that the
house has been modified since the Colonel's departure.
In an interview with }1rs. Gomez, (a former resident of
the town, she came to the town in 1911), she recalls the
Colonels house being a two story house.
of the Colonel as a gentle person.

She also speaks

She remembers that

on different occasions he would come to the school and
talk to the class.

Mrs. Gomez states that during the

days of the Colonel the town was a busy one.

It had it's

own government and supporting businesses.
When I questioned Mrs. Gomez, now seventy (70) years old,
about the things the children Vlould do for recreation.
Her reply was Sing, take walks and have picnics.

She

appeared to be very proud of her life in Allensworth.
The people were very helpful and kind tQ each other she ~

.... ~~-- ..

~.' ~ ~

recalls.

She explains, if you needed something from outsi-

de of town and someone was going out of town you simply
made a list and they would bring it back for you.

Inte-

resting to note this practice still is going on in the
ghostly town today.

I choose to determine why the Colonel

wanted to build the town.

So I had the pleasure of spe-

aking with Hri. Broiles, who came to the town in 1909
and her husband soldiered vdth the Colonel.

2

She relayed

 to me that he addressed himself to attracting retired veterans and their families.

He wanted a town for Blacks

where they could be productive and free of large influence by whites.
Allensworth, Professor W.A Payne, former principal of
Grant County School in West Virginia, Dr. Peck of Los Angeles, J.W. Palmer, a Nevada miner, and Harvey Mitchell,
a real estate man, joined together to form the California
Colony and Home Promotion Association.

On August 3, 1908,

the township site plan was filed in L@s Angeles County.
The association originally purchased twenty (20) acres
of land in Tulare County, midway between Corcoran and
Wasco.

It soon comprised eighty (80) acres.

expanded on both sides of Highway # 43.

The town

Individuals,

several of the aSSociation members purchased land and
divided it up into smaller lots and sold it.
Most of the one hundred (100) original settlers came from.
Oklahoma, Mississippi and Kentucky, the Colonel's

~ome

:

•

~.- ~

town.

~~

They were agressive, hard working and hungry people

for freedom and peace.

However, others were very well

equipped to fill the rolls as leaders.
As told tome by several of the interviewees, Mn Payne was
the first teacher-principal of the town.

Also Mr. Oveer,

one of the persons who originally surveyed the land, was
the justice of the peace, and the first black person in
California to hold that position.

3

There was also George

._-. .

 Johnson, a carpenter who built the school, Mr. Hinsman,
.r-.

a graduate of the NabionalCu·o..,perati...ve ReaJ.ty· Co._, who
owned a general store, and who was appointed notary public
for Tulare County by Governor Hiram Johnson.
was the town's libranian.

His wife

None of the original settlers,

or their des.cendantslive in the town today.

The great

depression forced most of the townsfolk out.

The present

population is

appro~mate~

half Black and half

Mexican~

American.
Sources have it that by 1914 two hundred (200) Negroes
were living in the town with a average capital worth of
$682.25.

More than nine hundred (900) acres of land deethe
ded, to ·:)\residents vTith an valuation of $112,500, this

excluded land not deaded, townsite properties, buildings
and improvements

another $20,000, overall it would
be fair to say the tqwn was vi7'Ysuccessful in its operation.

wor~h

In my interviews I also learned that the

government was controlled by the Allensworth Board. of
Trade, \vhich recommez;ded people for office, and dealt
with town improvements.
operated by

}~.

Also there was a post office

Singleton for about four years, a hotel,

managed by John Morrj;s, telegraph and grain warehruse.
The barber shop was operated by Frank Milmer.

Other

businesses included a laundry (dunlap), railroad station,
drugstoreMts. Grosse), and ice hou se.

4

 The women's Improvement Club, Girl's Glee Club, and the
Siagleton . Orchestra i(brass band) would provide various
forms of entertainmen)t for the towns people.
~vhere-by

was a annual picnic,

There also

all the uTown' s Folk ll

would bring food and leveryone would have a feast.
Go~ez

I questioned Mrs.
then pulled from a
artesian well.
sian wells.

All

The

three resevoirs

for water.

By

s~ack

of pictures a picture showing a

~he

water was supplied by three arte-

wat~r

pumped by the vlells was stored in
a mjaor flood the banks broke lose

afte~

on the resevoirs.

on the town's water supply, she

Thus, the community found a new source
a electric water pump to the

estab~ishing

rear of Mrs. Mackey' ~ home.

Hrs. Mackey served as the

collector of pay for the water company.
ni ty vIas able to

is interesting to

Thus the commu-

water through pipe system. It
some
that like :-.1.'\ of the other things

rec~ive
no~e

accomplished in the Qommunity, the laying of the pipe
system from which eaOh member receives

~ater

was a, cOmmU-

unity effort. Once ~gain a fine display of the unity
the
withinn community. Huch of this same unity still exsist
in the ghostly town

~oday.

the water mains \Vas 11912.

By th way the first laying of
There were limitations placed

on the water main SY$tem, (it was refinded to those within
the immediate

vicini~

Amazing how clpse

th~

of the town, Palmer to Sotourna).
pa.st and the present are.

For there

,I

are sti.ll limitation$ on the water company.

5

The main

 li.mi.tation being on
Land irrigation is

~he

amount of water a member may use.

~most,

l'orbidden ..

Mrs. Gomez who was a jyoung child during the days of the
Colonel, recollects

school in a little house.

~tarting

After an inspection qf the maps we found this to be the
I

Hackett house.

She

stated that after about a

~urther

year they moved into la little one-room school, (located
,
,

north of the present ischool).

Thus converting the Hackett

In 1914 the large school was co-

house into a librarYf

mpleted and the thir1Y (30) children moved into it.
was a very

remarkabl~

day ftor Hrs. Gomez.

This

For as she

i

reminises she explai*s that they (children) all came to
I

school One day and t,ey along with their instructor,
Pro fessor Payne, piclf.ed up their books and papers and Vla!

lked over to the new sch 001.

Little did they knowtha t

I

I

only twenty (20) ye~s later this same operation would be
.
abandoned
repeated. Once agaiIjl the . , ". '. school was us ed :fh)r a
library.

As one wou:J..d expe c t in a town of it' s

si~e,

the
t;

!

"

-··'0·~"·

school was and stilliis used for all community happenings.
,

The Methodist serVic,s were held in the school.

Sources

i

have it that the firft graduation ceremoney was in 1917,
With six pupils grad~ating.
Let me point out

rig~t

here that the Allensworth library

was apart of the

Tul~e

County Free Library, it closed
Mary

!

down in 1943.

It

vra~

named·

I,

Dickinson Memoria.l Library

I

(after Mrs. Allensvl~rth 's mother).

6

The library became a

 first by using

~he

U*iversity of

Californi~'s

extension

I

library program.

Mafority of the books dealt with gove-

rnment or some form ~f colony living.
!

Through research it tas learned that Professor Payne,
(first instructor-prtnciPal of Allensworth), brought the
I

first waves of resentment from the whi,te population to
Allensworth.

He bec~e a ,advocate for the building of a
I

black student COllegr, of which Vlould be located in Allensworth.

He debatedlhis idea through states.

It finally

I

got to the point thar Assemblyman Fr,es Scott wrote a bill
supporting the idea.

However we must understand that Sco-

tt, (a white man), If.ke Tulare and Fresno Counties was
advocating segregatipn.

There by advocating segregation

the idea and plan Wh~Ch Professor Payne had were underminded and distorted.

I

This caused other Blacks to rebel

I

against Payne's ideal of a Black Student College.

Because

as it took the form rf segregation Blacks saw it as,
seperate

meant Uneqral, and there were those tha t

.

belif~~". __

ved white was best. ,Also many of them had been slaves,
and had experienced regregation.
Professor Payne cont~nued to debate in support of his idea.
However only to gainlmore opposition from the other influI

entia! Blacks.

Several religious leaders came together

in Los Angeles and
idea.

This was a

s~oke

PU~liC

out agains t the Black College
gathering.

From the meeting,

pressure was placed ion Governor Hiram Johnson, opposing

7

.

 As I see it it Vlould have

the establishing of
been disasterious fo
se the school.

Governor

Hiram Johnson not to oppo-

Look at it like this, \nth approximately

seventy thousand (70,000) Blacks in California, of which
apprOximately sixty

housand (60,000) lived in the Los

Angeles area.

heir opinions and view paints carried

Thus

a lot of weight in

vernment.

government was the

ct that Blacks Vlere united.

This episode

The real threat to the

Payne's marked the first stage

of continued

for the town.

Even as we look at

the community today

ere is still evidence of continued

problems (from

e the tovm).

rts to dis troy

ity in the town was introduced when

the to'l.'tn had financi 1 difficulty.

One of the major

Help was asked of the

Pacific Farming Comp ny of Los Angeles.
mpt to set themselve
filed (1909) to inco

effo~

The company atte-

up as a land agent.

Also when they

the water company they were

unable to pay the re

taxes.

cles Qf incorporatio

were suspended.

Thus.in 1913 tb.e ArtiTherefore Pacific

Farming Company took adVantage of the Situation.

All

monies owed were pai

and the Pacific Company took control

of the water company.

Immediately they issued a statement

that no more land COfld be sold to Black's in Allensworth.
After a tough, and h'storical battle the township forced,
(through

lega~
I

15), Pacific Farming Company to

return it's stock in the water company and depart the tovm.

8

 It was interesting t
Farming Company was

learn that shortly after the Pacific
town
orced to leave . A· the water supply

began to disappear.

Irrigation ditches and dykes sipho-

ned off the town's n cessary water.
wells went dry.

Thu

The three artesian

with the lack of irrigation came

alkali to the surfac •

Shortly there after, test proved

that a high level of arsenic exsisted in the remaining
water.

Unfortunatel

has changed.

For th

very little of the above situation
water is still a major issue in

the town.

It is brought to my
newspaper exsisted
Through this paper

ttention by a interviewee that a
Allensworth, The Sentiment-Haker.
tempts were made to improve the white

folk's sentiments to

Mrs. Gomez informed me

that she recalls rea ing the newspaper as part of her required school assig

Also members of the all Black

military companies r ad the Sentiment often.
red them a place to

For it offe-

free of white influence. , This

,.-,

~

st attempted to recruit or influence

people into coming

the town ·of Allensworth.

of information has

that the Colonel only tried to esta-

One source

blish a retirement to

the Homecoming soliders.

However we must keep

mind that the majority of the

residents were from

south, and not the military.

Another factor which contributed to the towns down fall

9

..- .

~"'" .~

is how the Colonel

 was World War II.
men.

Fir it drained the town of it's young

With many of t e remaining residents departing yo

larger towns, to wor

in the factories.

 ·r

Bibliography
Beasley, Delilah, Th~ Negro Trail Blazers .2f California,
Los Angeles, 1919.
Alexander, Charles, attles and Victories of Allen
Allensworth, Sherman French and Co., BostoD: 1914.
Goode, Kenneth, Blac
Santa Barbara, 1973.

Pioneers in California's HistoEY,

Tulare County Tax Of
Tulare County Planni g Office
Interviews;

• Mrs. Gomez, for1reSidellt, Tulare, California
Mrs. Broiles, f rmer res. iden t, Portersville, California
Smith, gra ddaughter of Allensworth, Los Angeles,
California

~~s.

Mr. Jones, resi

0

Mrs. Hackey, fo
Tulare, CE!lifor 'a

resident of Allensworth, California,

Mr. and Mrs.

AllensVlorth,

f Allensworth, California

rice Cotton, former residents of
ifornia, Lathrop, Californma .

Mr. Ed Pope, fo

of Allensworth, California,

Sacrame n to, Ca

1£! Angeles Californ a Eagle
The Sentiment-Haker, May 15, 1912
~

Tulare ReFaister, 1908

11