NEW LIBERATION IN THE WEST:

Morning view looking East toward Mt. Whitney and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The clouds hang low, bringing much-needed, although brief, light rain showers to the San Joaquin Valley. From left to right: Hindsman House, Hindsman Co. General Store, Howard House, and Johnson Bakery.

Emigrant African Americans from the South made multiple efforts to build racial agricultural colonies in the Midwest and Southwest from the end of Reconstruction until the 1920s. However, only a few were attempted in California. Influential leaders such as Booker T. Washington traveled the country advocating for independent all-Black communities and towns and land development programs for economic self-sufficiency. At the same time, some initiatives were made to attract African Americans to work in agriculture in California. Newspapers such as the Pacific Coast Appeal ran campaigns meant to entice African Americans with the prospects of suitable land and plentiful work. In 1903, it ran a promotion proclaiming, “In the states and territories of the southwest there is room for millions of settlers ... There is work for everyone who wants it. The crying need of California is faithful workers in the fields and orchards.”

The Carter House Livery sits at the Southernmost point of the town at the end of Youngs Road and offers a stunning vista of Allensworth. This was the home and business of Warren and Mariah Carter and their twenty-two-year-old son, Elmer starting in 1910. Elmer ran the livery business until 1915 when the Carters sold it to resident William Dotson. 

However, these appeals for African Americans to resettle in California and take up farm labor were ineffective, as were the various attempts to build racial agricultural colonies. Only one of these, Allensworth, situated only a few miles north of Bakersfield, saw any sustained success.

Colonel Allen Allensworth, the town’s founder, was born into slavery in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1842 and subsequently escaped during the Civil War to join the Union’s cause. After the war, he and his brother established two profitable restaurants in St. Louis, Missouri. Allensworth also secured an appointment as a teacher in the Freedman’s Bureau and later attended Nashville’s Roger Williams University to study theology. After joining the priesthood and serving as a pastor in Ohio and Kentucky, Allensworth returned to the military in 1886 as chaplain of the 24th Army Infantry, an all-African American unit. He retired from the Army in 1906 as the highest-ranking African American officer and chaplain of his time, Lieutenant Colonel.2

The creation of the First Baptist Church of Allensworth was a top priority for the community, even after the Colonel’s tragic death. Construction for the church began in late 1915 under the direction of Reverend J. L. Allen, a missionary for the Baptist group. The First Baptist Church served its congregation for over forty years. Although it was torn down in 1967 to salvage building materials, it was reconstructed in the summer of 2000.

The view from the side porch of the Sockett House on Stowe Avenue looking North provides a sweeping view of Allensworth. Mr. Sockett was known for his carpentry, painting, repair, and mechanic skills. After a fire destroyed the Socketts and their neighbor, James Hackett’s house, in 1932, Abraham and Ida moved to Delano, California.

In 1907, Allensworth, along with William A. Payne and other investors, organized the California Colony and Home Promoting Association. They purchased 800 acres of land in Tulare County in conjunction with three local white-owned real estate companies. Allensworth had selected a property in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley adjacent to the Sante Fe rail stop called Solita that connected San Francisco and Los Angeles for easy transportation access. It was a site where he believed the land was fertile and suitable for farming and good water was plentiful. The town of Allensworth that they were establishing was to be an all-African American agricultural utopia in California, far from a Jim Crow society, and free from discriminatory laws and practices.3 To attract potential homesteaders to their planned community, Allensworth and the Association advertised the colony and its virtues nationwide using the themes of Black independence and upright agrarian ideals.

Late morning looking Northeast, and the rain clouds are finally moving on. From left to right: Phillips House, Scott and Grosse Drug Store, Milner House and Barbershop, Hackett House and Barn, Dotson Barn and Blacksmith, Allensworth House, Hindsman Co. General Store.

Their promotion was initially successful, and, in the beginning, there were signs that the Allensworth colony might achieve the ambitious goals they set out to accomplish. Its proximity to the Santa Fe Railroad offered easy access to markets throughout California. Wells were dug, and an artesian water system was set up with assistance from the Pacific Farming Company, a white-owned land company. Soon, as a road system was laid out for the site and residents began moving in and building houses, the location grew to the size of a town in a few years. Small farms made up its economic foundation, and various African American-owned businesses, such as the Allensworth Hotel, Hindsman Company General Store, Carter Livery, Scott and Grosse Drug Store, and Milner’s Barbershop, supplemented the town’s growing commerce. In 1910, the county built a public school in Allensworth. Four years later, it was reconstructed into a larger building, and the previous structure was transformed into a county library. Allensworth was large enough to hold the status of a voting precinct and a school district by 1912.4 Further progress came when the town became a judicial district of California in 1914, and resident Oscar Overr was chosen as the first African American justice west of the Rocky Mountains.5

In 1913, Mrs. Josephine Allensworth purchased the town’s first school building and had it moved to the corner of Palmer Avenue and Douglas Avenue to be used as a branch of the Tulare County Library system. It was immediately popular within the community, but by 1930 the library books and magazines were moved to the Hindsman General Store when the branch closed in 1943.

Sitting at the corner of Palmer Avenue and Dunbar Road, the Smith House provided a pleasant, shaded retreat for Frank and Laura Smith. Built in 1910, the Smiths raised many types of vegetables in their garden in the back. After Frank’s death a year later, Laura opened the house to boarders, worked within the community belonging to the Women’s Improvement Club and the Cemetery Association, and served as President of the Allensworth Mutual Water Association.

Although Allensworth fared better than other African American independent planned communities, it only managed to attract a limited number of settlers to the town, thereby contributing to its stagnation and eventual decline. Between 1908 and 1920, it had a population of 120 to 200 inhabitants, according to census statistics.6 The community experienced its most considerable setback on September 15, 1914, with the loss of its charismatic leader, Col. Allensworth, who was struck and killed by two men on a motorcycle in Monrovia, California. That same year, the Santa Fe Railroad moved its railway services from the town, further crippling it. The number of residents in Allensworth had dropped to forty-four by 1930, even though the population of African Americans living in Tulare County had increased from 190 in 1910 to 819 by 1930.7 This suggests that the colony may have drawn settlers to the surrounding areas during that time.

Built in 1911, Zebedee and Sarah Hindsman constructed this house along with the General Store at the corner of Palmer Avenue and Grant Drive. Both worked long hours at the General Store serving the community, and many long-time residents recall the well-worn path connecting the two buildings. Zebedee also served as the town’s Justice of the Peace, an insurance agent, a realtor, and a notary public.

Owned by Elizabeth Dougherty of Oakland, California—who never lived in Allensworth—and operated by John and Clara Morris, the Allensworth Hotel served travelers, newly arrived families looking to settle, and workers at the nearby grain warehouse. The happiest memories of the hotel are of young people’s social evenings in the dining room, dancing to the music of a player piano.

However, there were other challenges that Allensworth faced. Water became a concern very quickly after settlement started. Residents assumed management of the area’s water supply from the Pacific Farming Company in 1913 and formed the Allensworth Rural Water Company. Unfortunately, the town’s water table had significantly decreased by 1914, and their inability to raise the finances required to drill more wells or upgrade their current system continued to plague the population, resulting in a lack of irrigation water. Severe drought affected the region in the early 1920s, devastating agriculture. Many in Allensworth had to leave the town in search of employment, frequently as farm laborers. It was also found that rising soil alkalinity and arsenic contaminated the water supply, and many inhabitants were forced to leave the community altogether as jobs continued to disappear. After 1929, when the Santa Fe Railroad stopped service to Allensworth entirely, effectively cutting off commerce and industrial trade, the community eventually sat all but abandoned except for a few steadfast holdouts.

The placement of the original railroad station near the tracks was one of the key factors in establishing Allensworth at this location. Materials, relatives, and mail flowed through this railway spur such that in 1914, there was $4,000 to $5,000 worth of business conducted in Allensworth a month. After fifteen years, the monthly railroad shipment earnings had dropped to only $13.61. In 1930 the station closed.

A Caltrans passenger train speeds along the old AT&SF line heading north, only a few meters from the park entrance. A few times a year, Caltrans opens a private station at this junction for special occasions at the historic park, such as Rededication Day, the Old Time Jubilee, and the annual Juneteenth celebration.

And that is how life continued in Allensworth for several decades: almost all of the residents left, the land sat fallow, and most of the buildings rotted and withered away. That is until April 1968 when Cornelius “Ed” Pope, a former resident of Allensworth who was working in Sacramento as a draftsman and planner for the California Department of Parks and Recreation, heard about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He recalled wanting to lash out violently, but then remembered Col. Allensworth and the town he founded.8 He drafted a proposal to establish Allensworth as a state historical site with assistance from a professor at California State University, Sacramento. The National Register of Historic Places included the “Allensworth Historic District” in 1972. Finally, the Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park was created in 1974 when the California Agency of Parks and Recreation bought land within the historic townsite of Allensworth. Today, the town has been resurrected by a committed group of people, including former inhabitants and their children, who continue to push for the growth and development of this important cultural and historical landmark.

Some locations throughout Allensworth, such as Bicker’s General Store, the town’s first established business, could not be restored. However, they still have intrinsic value to the town’s storied history. After arriving in 1909, Mary Jane Bickers operated a small general store which she leased from the Pacific Farming Company. By September 25, 1909, she was appointed the first original postmaster to establish the first original post office within the community.