30 Facts About Allen Allensworth

Allen Allensworth was an American chaplain, colonel, city founder, and theologian.

Allen Allensworth served in the Army for 20 years, retiring in 1906.

Allen Allensworth's lectures included Five Manly Virtues Exemplified, The Battle of Life and How to Fight It, and Character and How to Read It.

Mrs Talbot, a Quaker, was kind to Allen Allensworth and continued to teach him to read and write; she took him to a Sunday school for slave children.

Allen Allensworth spent two weeks hiding at a neighboring farm before returning to the Smiths for punishment.

Allen Allensworth found that she had recently gone to New Orleans with a Union man to look for her sons.

Allen Allensworth had self-liberated by purchasing her freedom in 1849.

Allen Allensworth was promoted to Captain's steward and clerk, and served on the Tawah and Pittsburgh for two years.

Allen Allensworth worked while putting himself through the Ely Normal School, one of several new schools in the South established by the American Missionary Association.

Allen Allensworth was ordained as a preacher by the Baptists in 1871.

In 1875, Allensworth started working as a teacher in Georgetown, Kentucky.

Allen Allensworth served as the financial agent of the General Association of the Colored Baptists in Kentucky.

Allen Allensworth returned to Louisville when called to be pastor of the Harney Street Baptist Church, which he reorganized, attracting many new members.

The year of his marriage, Allensworth invited his mother to live with him and Josephine.

Allen Allensworth had always worked to build up the Sunday Schools at his churches, and this gave him the chance to continue to work on education around the state.

In 1886, when he was 44, Allensworth gained support by both southern and northern politicians for appointment as a chaplain in the US Army; his appointment was confirmed by the Senate, as necessary at the time, and approved by President Grover Cleveland.

Allen Allensworth was assigned to the 24th Infantry Regiment, known as the Buffalo Soldiers.

Allen Allensworth was the second Black man in the United States Army to be a commanding officer.

Allen Allensworth's family accompanied him on assignments in the West, ranging from Fort Bayard, New Mexico Territory to Fort Supply, Indian Territory, and Fort Harrison, near Helena, Montana.

In 1887, Allensworth was featured in Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising, an anthology of African-American biographies by William J Simmons.

In 1889, while at Fort Bayard, Allensworth published the pamphlet Outline of Course of Study, and The Rules Governing Post Schools of Ft.

Allen Allensworth was inspired by the idea of establishing a self-sufficient, all-black California community where African Americans could live free of the racial discrimination that pervaded post-Reconstruction America.

The black settlers of Allensworth built homes, laid out streets, and put up public buildings.

The Allensworth colony became a member of the county school district and the regional library system and a voting precinct.

In 1914, the California Eagle reported that the Allensworth community consisted of 900 acres of deeded land worth more than US$112,500.

Allen Allensworth, who was the leader of the town, died in an accident in 1914.

About 240 acres from Allensworth was used to create the California State Historic Park, Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, which became part of the state park system in 1973.

Allen Allensworth died at the age of 72, on September 14,1914.

Allen Allensworth was hit by a motorcyclist in Monrovia, California.

Colonel Allensworth was buried at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.