Tulare County Biographies

Lieutenant Colonel Allen Allensworth

Transcribed by Jeannie Miyama

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
When Lieutenant Colonel Allen Allensworth passed away one more name was added to 
the list of honored dead whose earthly records closed with the words, �Well 
done, thou good and faithful servant,� but so long as memory remains to hose who 
knew him the influence of his noble life will remain as a source of 
encouragement and inspiration.
 
Allen Allensworth was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in slavery, on the 7th day 
of April, 1842, and was therefore in the seventy-third year of his age at the 
time of his tragic death.  In his youth he was twice sold on the slave block, 
and during the Civil war he served with the northern forces, in both the army 
and the navy.  After the close of the war which gave him his freedom, he and his 
brother, William Allensworth, returned to St. Louis and ran a restaurant for a 
short time.  He then returned to Louisville and worked at manual labor.  Joining 
the First Baptist church and being intensely ambitious to secure an education, 
he entered and worked his way through the American Missionary School, near 
Louisville, and on April 9, 1871, he was ordained to preach.  For a while he 
taught school, filled pulpits and lectured in many states.  On April 1, 1886, he 
joined the United States regular army and was sent to Fort Supply, Oklahoma 
(then Indian Territory) as chaplain of the Twenty-fourth Regiment, colored 
troops, and he remained with that regiment until his retirement with the rank of 
lieutenant colonel.  During his eventful service he was located at different 
forts in the southwest and the middle and Rocky mountain west, much of the time 
at Fort Douglas, Salt Lake City.  At the outbreak of the Spanish-American war he 
was ordered to Kentucky and Tennessee to recruit soldiers for the Twenty-fourth 
Regiment, which later performed such heroic service at the battle of San Juan 
Hill, Cuba.  In 1889 he was sent with the regiment to the Philippines and in 
1900 was severely injured by being run into by a horse and buggy there, which 
resulted in his being given a leave of absence.  He returned to the United 
States by way of Japan and was stationed at Fort McDowell, where he remained 
until April 1, 1902, when he went to Fort Harrison, near Helena, Montana.  Then, 
having reached the age limit, he was retired with the rank of lieutenant 
colonel.  He was one of the most noted negro chaplains in the American army and 
at the time of his retirement he was ranking commissioned officer among the 
colored military officials.  
 
After his retirement from the army, in order to do something of real value for 
his race, he prompted the townsite of Allensworth, Tulare county, and lived to 
see it become a thriving community of several hundred souls.  Colonel 
Allensworth was a brilliant orator and his lectures were well received by all 
classes who heard him.  He was the author of a book, �The Battles and Victories 
of Allen Allensworth, � which was in press at the time of his death and which 
contains many vitally interesting accounts of events in his extraordinary life.  
The introduction to this work was written by John Stephen McGroarty, the well 
known author of southern California and founder of the �Mission Play.�  Colonel 
Allensworth met with injuries in an accident in Los Angeles on September 14, 
1914, being run over by a motorcycle, which caused his death on the following 
day.
 
Colonel Allensworth was connected with a number of fraternal organizations, the 
Grand Army of the Republic and the Spanish War Veterans.  On September 20, 1877, 
Allen Allensworth was married to Josephine Leavell, of Trenton, Kentucky, and 
they became the parents of two daughters:  Eva, now the wife of H.P. Shanks, a 
clerk in the postoffice at Los Angeles; and Nellie, who is the wife of L.M. 
Blodgett, a contractor and builder in Los Angeles.
 
History of Tulare County and Kings County, California � Kathleen Edwards Small & 
J. Larry Smith, Vol. I, Chicago, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1926, Page 
454