Allen Allensworth was an American chaplain, colonel, city founder, and theologian. Born into slavery in Kentucky, he escaped during the American Civil War by joining the 44th Illinois Volunteers as a Union soldier. After being ordained as a Baptist minister by the Fifth Street Baptist Church, April 9, 1871, he worked as a teacher, led several churches, and was appointed as a chaplain in the United States Army. In 1886, he gained appointment as a military chaplain to a unit of Buffalo Soldiers in the West, becoming the first African American to reach the rank of lieutenant colonel in the United States Army. He served in the Army for 20 years, retiring in 1906.
Photograph from his 1914 biography
1887 illustration of Allensworth, featured in Men of Mark.
1889 photograph of Allensworth in Fort Bayard, New Mexico.
Memorial for Allen Allensworth in Monrovia, California
Allensworth is an unincorporated community in Tulare County, California. Established by Allen Allensworth in 1908, the town was the first in California to be founded, financed, and governed by African-Americans.
Allensworth's restored buildings now occupy Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park.
The town was named for and in part established by Col. Allen Allensworth, a chaplain of the United States Army who escaped slavery during the Civil War.
