Written by: Anonymous
Comment text: Hello, I am a decendent of the Hackett family, and I am researching my family tree, looking to connect with any relatives that may have been in Allensworth, Alameda, Woodland or Guinda, CA.
(Toni)
grandberry63@hotmail.com
September 10, 2007
Written by: Anonymous
Comment text: Hi my name is DeIvory Allensworth, I come from a huge family of Allensworth, we originate from louisville, Kentucky , Henderson and even Evansville, Indiana. We are definately aware of the colonel! and are very proud! We are definately his kin. We are in the process of planning a huge trip there! there will be at the very least 100 of us! any of our family that are true Allensworth can contact me at msdeivory@aol.com
October 25, 2007
Written by: Anonymous
Comment text: Jarvis Reeves,Jarvis Reeves, my name is David Allensworth and I just recently learned of my father and of the town Allensworth. I would welcome an opportunity to learn more. plesae contact me if and when it is appropriate. I would love to visit the town and am fortunate to have been blessed into a family truly unique and I am anxious to learn more. I hope to hear from you and I know that when the time is right I more than likely will find my self in your town. with respect and very truly yours. David
December 5, 2007
Written by: Anonymous
Comment text: My Mother wrote "Out of Darkness" and I published it for her because none of the large publishers were interested. I visited the town recently and was happy to see what the "Friends" and the State have accomplished. Yes, it's a little sparse but it's a work in progress. Thank you for including a link to my Mother's book.
Will Radcliffe
Inklingpress.com
January 10, 2008
From: Wanda Hall [mailto:wl.hall@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 10:54 AM
To: allensworthblog@fredyt123.com
Subject: Oklahoma Connections
Hello Deontay,
I just read the information on computer about the town of Allensworth. This led me to look for some connection. The reason I am writing this email is to get in touch with you before my tour on February 9th, 2008 to the township of Allensworth. Perhaps we can exchange or meet to find a connection of my family and your back to the year of late 1800s. My mother was born in Beggs Ok, 1897.
Are you interested?
April 9, 2008
Written by: Julia Morris
Comment text: We are a kindergarten through fourth grade class in San Diego, California. We read about Allensworth, CA in our Language Arts text book. We decided to look for more information about Allen Allensworth and William Payne on the internet. We are excited to see the website and this blog available to us for further research. We hope to one day have an opportunity to visit this state and historic state park. If anyone would like to blog us back about how life was in Allensworth, we would be excited to read about such experiences.
Have a great day~Miss Julia's Class, San Diego, CA April 9, 2008
Comment text: We are a kindergarten through fourth grade class in San Diego, California. We read about Allensworth, CA in our Language Arts text book. We decided to look for more information about Allen Allensworth and William Payne on the internet. We are excited to see the website and this blog available to us for further research. We hope to one day have an opportunity to visit this state and historic state park. If anyone would like to blog us back about how life was in Allensworth, we would be excited to read about such experiences.
Have a great day~Miss Julia's Class, San Diego, CA April 9, 2008
August 18, 2008
Comment text: Senola Reeves Green was one of my teachers at
Jefferson High School in Los Angeles Ca.
in 1945,46,47.
Jefferson High School in Los Angeles Ca.
in 1945,46,47.
September 7, 2008
Comment text: Lillian Wells,
How can I understand the current development plans?
I'll be in Allensworth next month for the bike ride. Might we speak then?
How can I understand the current development plans?
I'll be in Allensworth next month for the bike ride. Might we speak then?
October 9, 2008
Comment text: State celebrates 100th anniversary of Allensworth
Lt. Col. Allen Allensworth and other former slaves turned a desert wasteland into a thriving pioneer town, making a strong statement about black self-determination in an era of rampant discrimination.
By Steve Chawkins
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 6, 2008
In 1908, Lt. Col. Allen Allensworth, a charismatic ex-slave and retired military man, set out to build an all-black community on a hardscrabble patch of land 40 miles north of Bakersfield.
This weekend, the centennial of his long-shuttered town will be honored by thousands of Californians trooping to the site, now known as Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park.
Though it thrived for less than a decade, the town strikes a special chord among many, who see it as a pioneering effort in black self-determination.
"That group in the first 50 years after emancipation was probably the most dynamic group we've had," said Rick Moss, chief curator of the African American Library & Museum at Oakland. "Allensworth is a real testimony to their drive, their dignity, their willpower -- it's all right there."
Moss is among the speakers at the two-day celebration. So is Lonnie G. Bunch III, founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History. The Crenshaw High School Elite Choir and actor William Allen Young will be among the entertainers making appearances.
Amtrak is establishing special bus and train routes to the park from Los Angeles, Inglewood, Sacramento, Oakland and elsewhere. (Details are available at www.parks.ca.gov/). About 5,000 visitors are expected -- far more than the couple of hundred residents who lived in Allensworth at its height.
Visitors will tour the town's three remaining original buildings and 19 that have been reconstructed. The hamlet boasted a hotel, a school, a library, a church, a general store -- the basic municipal amenities that its settlers had found wanting.
A state historic park since 1974, Allensworth was recently the focus of a battle over plans for a 12,000-cow dairy on adjacent land. After concerted protests from black community groups, the state last year paid the landowner $3.5 million to give up his rights for any kind of livestock operation.
Funded by donations, Saturday and Sunday's event is sponsored by the state's Legislative Black Caucus, the California State Parks Foundation and the state parks department.
"We're honoring the vision of these people from 100 years ago," said state parks director Ruth Coleman. "At a time when white supremacy was so rampant, they created this town to demonstrate their self-sufficiency, to prove that blacks could do everything whites could do."
As a youth, Allensworth was sold in the slave markets three times -- once for daring to learn how to read. In a remarkable career, he fought on Navy gunboats in the Civil War and served as an Army chaplain in the Philippines, attaining the highest military rank any black man had held. He also became a Baptist minister before founding the town that bears his name.
At its dedication, he reminded his followers of their purpose in separating from their former, mostly white communities.
"If we expect to be given due credit for our efforts and achievements, they must be made where they will stand out distinctively and alone," he said, exhorting the residents to "settle upon the bare desert and cause it to blossom as a rose."
The colonel, who recruited many settlers from the ranks of his old Army comrades, was "not shy" about promoting the cause, said his granddaughter, Josephine Blodgett Smith of Los Angeles.
The 94-year-old former teacher recalled chugging over hair-raising roads in a model-T to visit relatives in Allensworth.
"When you think of where they began and what they accomplished, these were remarkable people," she said. "The state gave them one teacher and they actually taxed themselves so they could have two."
Just three months after her birth, her grandfather was fatally struck by a motorcyclist.
Beset by water problems and hurt by the closure of its railroad depot, the town withered in just a few years. But, as the only privately financed black community in the U.S., it had already made its mark.
"Even though it didn't 'succeed', it was a tremendous effort," said Moss.
steve.chawkins@latimes.com
You may edit this comment, or delete it altogether.
Kind regards,
Lt. Col. Allen Allensworth and other former slaves turned a desert wasteland into a thriving pioneer town, making a strong statement about black self-determination in an era of rampant discrimination.
By Steve Chawkins
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 6, 2008
In 1908, Lt. Col. Allen Allensworth, a charismatic ex-slave and retired military man, set out to build an all-black community on a hardscrabble patch of land 40 miles north of Bakersfield.
This weekend, the centennial of his long-shuttered town will be honored by thousands of Californians trooping to the site, now known as Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park.
Though it thrived for less than a decade, the town strikes a special chord among many, who see it as a pioneering effort in black self-determination.
"That group in the first 50 years after emancipation was probably the most dynamic group we've had," said Rick Moss, chief curator of the African American Library & Museum at Oakland. "Allensworth is a real testimony to their drive, their dignity, their willpower -- it's all right there."
Moss is among the speakers at the two-day celebration. So is Lonnie G. Bunch III, founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History. The Crenshaw High School Elite Choir and actor William Allen Young will be among the entertainers making appearances.
Amtrak is establishing special bus and train routes to the park from Los Angeles, Inglewood, Sacramento, Oakland and elsewhere. (Details are available at www.parks.ca.gov/). About 5,000 visitors are expected -- far more than the couple of hundred residents who lived in Allensworth at its height.
Visitors will tour the town's three remaining original buildings and 19 that have been reconstructed. The hamlet boasted a hotel, a school, a library, a church, a general store -- the basic municipal amenities that its settlers had found wanting.
A state historic park since 1974, Allensworth was recently the focus of a battle over plans for a 12,000-cow dairy on adjacent land. After concerted protests from black community groups, the state last year paid the landowner $3.5 million to give up his rights for any kind of livestock operation.
Funded by donations, Saturday and Sunday's event is sponsored by the state's Legislative Black Caucus, the California State Parks Foundation and the state parks department.
"We're honoring the vision of these people from 100 years ago," said state parks director Ruth Coleman. "At a time when white supremacy was so rampant, they created this town to demonstrate their self-sufficiency, to prove that blacks could do everything whites could do."
As a youth, Allensworth was sold in the slave markets three times -- once for daring to learn how to read. In a remarkable career, he fought on Navy gunboats in the Civil War and served as an Army chaplain in the Philippines, attaining the highest military rank any black man had held. He also became a Baptist minister before founding the town that bears his name.
At its dedication, he reminded his followers of their purpose in separating from their former, mostly white communities.
"If we expect to be given due credit for our efforts and achievements, they must be made where they will stand out distinctively and alone," he said, exhorting the residents to "settle upon the bare desert and cause it to blossom as a rose."
The colonel, who recruited many settlers from the ranks of his old Army comrades, was "not shy" about promoting the cause, said his granddaughter, Josephine Blodgett Smith of Los Angeles.
The 94-year-old former teacher recalled chugging over hair-raising roads in a model-T to visit relatives in Allensworth.
"When you think of where they began and what they accomplished, these were remarkable people," she said. "The state gave them one teacher and they actually taxed themselves so they could have two."
Just three months after her birth, her grandfather was fatally struck by a motorcyclist.
Beset by water problems and hurt by the closure of its railroad depot, the town withered in just a few years. But, as the only privately financed black community in the U.S., it had already made its mark.
"Even though it didn't 'succeed', it was a tremendous effort," said Moss.
steve.chawkins@latimes.com
You may edit this comment, or delete it altogether.
Kind regards,
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