Life in Allensworth

In 1908, Colonel Allensworth and Professor William Payne incorporated the “California colony and Home Promotion Association”. Once they had located land halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco that was also near a depot on the Santa Fe railroad line in Tulare County, they began a successful promotion to bring Black families to Allensworth.

The new town grew rapidly at first as engineers, craftsmen, farmers, businessmen, retired soldiers, educators and nurses bought town lots, started farms and built homes for their families. There were over 800 acres dedicated to agriculture. The community grew alfalfa, grain, sugar beets and raised chickens, turkey, diary cattle, and Belgian hares.

In its heyday, Allensworth was alive with activity. The town was a transfer point on the railroad. So grain and cattle merchants provided a steady stream of business for the restaurant, hotel and livery stable. Other businesses included well digging and construction. A school, church, library, and a post office were quickly built by the community.

The residents of Allensworth were busy with activities, too. They formed a Girls’ Glee Club that performed in neighboring towns, a Women’s Improvement League, a Brass Band and an Orchestra. According to Sadie Hackett Calbert, an Allensworth resident, in “Memories of Allensworth”, people came from all around to visit the town to see “what we have done.” She wrote that Allensworth was, “alert and alive with activities which

closely resembled a beehive.” The women organized formal debates, concerts, play, club meetings and other social activities that made the town a community. According to Elizabeth Payne McGhee, “We never felt deprived. We didn’t have plumbing facilities, we didn’t have electricity, there were many things that we didn’t have, but we didn’t have, but we didn’t feel the lack of them. We would go to Pasadena for the summer, and enjoy all those things in the city, but when we got home we were quite content, because there were always the streams to explore, and the fish to catch, and we took lots of pictures. Women did needlework, lots of crocheting, canning, and so forth. And we read and wrote. I remember I was nine, my sister was eleven, and we had started a novel, and we were writing a play, and my eldest sister played the piano. We composed songs. Everybody was creative, because when you don’t have it handed to you, you make your own”.