Allen Allensworth (7 April 1842 – 14 September 1914), born into slavery in Kentucky, escaped during the American Civil War and became a Union soldier; later he became a Baptist minister and educator, and was appointed as a chaplain in the United States Army. He was the first African American to reach the rank of lieutenant colonel. He planted numerous churches, and in 1908 founded Allensworth, California, the only town in the state to be founded, financed and governed by African Americans.
During the American Civil War, he escaped by joining the 44th Illinois Volunteers and later served two years in the navy. After being ordained as a minister, he worked as a teacher, studied theology and led several churches. In 1880 and 1884, he served as the only black delegate from Kentucky in the Republican National Conventions. In 1886, he gained an appointment as a military chaplain to a unit of Buffalo Soldiers in the West and served in the US Army for 20 years, retiring in 1906.
In addition to his work in developing churches, he was notable for founding the township of Allensworth, California in 1908; it was intended as an all-black community. Although environmental conditions inhibited its success as a farming community and the residents abandoned it after a few generations, much of the former town has been preserved as the Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park. It marks the founders’ dream and the thriving community that developed for some time.
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