The Nurses Who Came Before Us: Allen Allensworth
NURSING HISTORY · PERIOPERATIVE NURSING
Long before he became the highest-ranking African American officer in the United States Army of his era, Allen Allensworth spent his teenage years caring for the sick and wounded as a civilian aide attached to a Union Army hospital corps.
Lieutenant Colonel Allen Allensworth, photographed in US Army chaplain's uniform, believed early 1900s. Source: Find a Grave memorial photograph. Public domain in the United States as a pre-1930 photographic work; contemporary Allensworth portraits in the same uniform are also held by the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and the University of California.
Allen Allensworth's documented nursing-adjacent service was brief: a teenage civilian aide caring for the sick and wounded in a Civil War hospital corps, with no formal training or registration, because no such credential existed for him at the time. It was the seed of a life spent almost entirely in service to others, first at sea, then in the ministry, then as a military chaplain, and finally as the founder of a town.
RECORD AT A GLANCE
Born | 7 April 1842, Louisville, Kentucky |
Died | 14 September 1914, Monrovia, California (aged 72) |
Nursing-adjacent role | Civilian nursing aide, Hospital Corps, 44th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 1861 to 1863 |
Military service | US Navy, 1863 to 1865; US Army chaplain, 24th Infantry Regiment, 1886 to 1906 |
Highest rank | Lieutenant Colonel, US Army |
Also known for | Founding the town of Allensworth, California, in 1908 |
Legacy | Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, California |
FROM SLAVERY TO THE HOSPITAL CORPS
Allen Allensworth was born into slavery on 7 April 1842 in Louisville, Kentucky, the youngest of thirteen children. He was enslaved by several different owners during his childhood; a Quaker woman, Mrs Talbot, taught him to read before he was separated from that household. At around thirteen he attempted to escape towards Canada, was recaptured, and was later sold to a man who trained him as a jockey.
In 1861, while working near Louisville, Allensworth encountered soldiers of the 44th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He attached himself to the regiment's Hospital Corps as a civilian nursing aide, caring for sick and wounded soldiers. This was not a formal nursing appointment in the modern sense, there was no such credential available to him, but it was genuine hands-on care of the sick and wounded, carried out under wartime conditions with none of the training or protection a nurse would expect today. He later travelled with a doctor to Georgetown, Ohio, where he experienced freedom for the first time.
THE US NAVY AND FREEDOM EARNED
On 3 April 1863, Allensworth enlisted in the United States Navy, later describing it as the day he earned his first pay as a free man. He served as a captain's steward and clerk aboard the gunboats USS Tawah and USS Pittsburgh for two years, and was discharged in 1865 at the war's end.
After the war he worked and studied. He ran restaurants in St Louis with his brother from 1868, then pursued an education at Ely Normal School and later at the Nashville Institute, which became Roger Williams University.
MINISTRY AND MARRIAGE
On 9 April 1871, Allensworth was ordained a Baptist minister by the Fifth Street Baptist Church. He went on to pastor several congregations, including reorganising Louisville's Harney Street Baptist Church, later renamed Centennial Baptist Church. In 1877 he married Josephine Leavell, an accomplished musician, and the couple had two daughters, Eva and Nella.
ARMY CHAPLAIN TO THE BUFFALO SOLDIERS
In 1886, at the age of forty-four, President Grover Cleveland approved Allensworth's appointment as a chaplain in the United States Army. He was assigned to the 24th Infantry Regiment, one of the African American regiments later remembered as Buffalo Soldiers, and served at a series of Western forts including Fort Bayard, Fort Supply and Fort Harrison. In 1889 he published a set of educational standards for the regiment's post schools.
By the time he retired in 1906, Allensworth held the rank of lieutenant colonel, the highest rank reached by any African American officer in the United States Army of his era.
He retired after twenty years of service as chaplain.
FOUNDING ALLENSWORTH, CALIFORNIA
In 1908, Allensworth and Professor William Alexander Payne founded the town of Allensworth in Tulare County, California. It became the only town in California entirely founded, financed and governed by African Americans, with its own schools, churches and civic institutions, and streets named after figures such as Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass. By 1914 the settlement held roughly nine hundred acres of deeded land worth more than one hundred and twelve thousand dollars.
Allensworth died on 14 September 1914 in Monrovia, California, after being struck by a motorcyclist. He was seventy-two, and is buried at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles. The town he founded later declined due to water shortages, the Great Depression and arsenic contamination discovered in 1965. Roughly two hundred and forty acres of the original townsite are preserved today as Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park.
TIMELINE
1842 | Born into slavery in Louisville, Kentucky, on 7 April. |
1861 | Joins the Hospital Corps of the 44th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment as a civilian nursing aide, caring for the sick and wounded. |
1863 | Enlists in the US Navy on 3 April, serving as captain's steward and clerk aboard USS Tawah and USS Pittsburgh. |
1865 | Discharged from the Navy at the end of the Civil War. |
1868 | Runs restaurants in St Louis with his brother. |
1871 | Ordained a Baptist minister on 9 April. |
1877 | Marries Josephine Leavell. |
1886 | Appointed US Army chaplain to the 24th Infantry Regiment. |
1906 | Retires from the Army as lieutenant colonel after twenty years as chaplain. |
1908 | Founds the town of Allensworth, California. |
1914 | Dies in Monrovia, California, on 14 September. |
1973 | Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park is established. |
WHY WE TELL THIS ONE
Allensworth's medical service was brief and informal by today's standards: a teenager caring for the sick and wounded in a wartime hospital corps, with no training, no registration and no protection beyond what the regiment could offer. It was not nursing as we define it now. But it was real care, given under pressure, and it sat at the start of a much longer life built almost entirely around service: the Navy, the ministry, the Army chaplaincy, and finally a town built so an entire community could govern its own future.
That throughline, from hands-on care of the sick and wounded to a lifetime spent building institutions that outlasted him, is one perioperative nursing still recognises. Modern theatre teams, including the Scrub Scout Nurses who support them today, carry the same basic commitment forward: showing up for people at their most vulnerable, doing the unglamorous work well, and building something that holds up under pressure. Allensworth's story is less a nursing history footnote than a reminder of how old, and how ordinary, that commitment really is.
READER FAQ
Was Allen Allensworth a nurse?
Not in the formal sense used today. He was a civilian nursing aide attached to the Hospital Corps of the 44th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War, caring for the sick and wounded. There was no formal nurse registration in the United States at that time, so his role was that of a hospital corps aide rather than a credentialed nurse. His documented caregiving is the reason he belongs in this series: it shows how care for the sick and wounded has long been part of military and community life, well before nursing became a regulated profession.
What rank did he reach in the US Army?
Lieutenant colonel. When he was appointed Army chaplain to the 24th Infantry in 1886, he became the highest-ranking African American officer serving in the United States Army of his era, and by his retirement in 1906 he held the rank of lieutenant colonel.
What was the town of Allensworth?
A town in Tulare County, California, founded in 1908 by Allensworth together with Professor William Alexander Payne. It is recognised as the only town in California founded, financed and governed entirely by African Americans. Roughly two hundred and forty acres of the original townsite are preserved today as Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park.
How did he die?
He died on 14 September 1914 in Monrovia, California, after being struck by a motorcyclist. He was seventy-two. He is buried at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Where can I read more?
His own biography, Battles and Victories of Allen Allensworth, written by Charles Alexander and published in 1914, is digitised by the University of North Carolina's Documenting the American South project. Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, managed by California State Parks, also documents his life and the town he founded.
SOURCES
• Wikipedia, “Allen Allensworth”, cross-checked against the primary and institutional sources below.
• BlackPast.org, “Allen Allensworth (1842-1914)”.
• African American Registry, “Allen Allensworth, Municipal Administrator born”.
• National Archives, “Westerly Winds and Big Skies, Finding Colonel Allen Allensworth at the National Archives”, Rediscovering Black History blog.
• California State Parks, Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park visitor brochure.
• Charles Alexander, Battles and Victories of Allen Allensworth (1914), digitised by Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• Find a Grave, memorial for Allen Allensworth, birth, death and burial details cross-checked against the sources above.
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Thank you, Allen Allensworth, for your service.
