Allensworth Tour - Frank & Laura Smith House

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Allensworth State Historic Park
Laura & Frank Smith House

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We've created this simple tour to give you an exact feel of the exterior of Allensworth State Historic Park and the buildings currently restored. Interior shots to follow so please return and please share this information with someone who will appreciate this work. Thanks.

Excerpts taken from Volunteer Handbook

Mr. and Mrs. Frank A. Smith and Miss Laura Smith's move from Colorado Springs, CO to Allensworth in May 1910. At the time they were among the first families to settle Allensworth. Frank, an ex slave and native of North Carolina, was the first Smith to make the westward trek, although he later persuaded several of his brother Joe Smith's children to relocate to Colorado. But only one, Winmark followed him to Allensworth.

Winnark Smith, Sr., a native of Clinton, MS and the son of an ex-slave, moved into Frank's Allensworth home in 1912 with his two young sons, Paul and Winnark. Winmark made the move after his wife Sarah's death. Before relocating, Winmark visited Allensworth, probably sometime in late 1911; when he returned with his family in the Fall of 1912, his uncle Frank had died.

Winmark, Sr. found work in Tulare leaving his sons with their great aunt Laura. During the seven years the boys lived in Allensworth, they spent the summer with their dad in Tulare. For about two school terms towards the end of the decade, Winmark Sr. made arrangements for the boys to board with Mrs. Gross. At the end of the 1919 school term, when the boys were 11 and 13, their dad moved them to Tulare and assumed responsibility of their full-time care.

Frank resided in Allensworth less than two years before his death on November 8, 1911. For at least six months of his residence he was under a physician's care for a cardiac disorder. Nothing is known about Mrs. Frank A. Smith; Laura Smith, on the other hand, was a resident and active community member until 1935. For a period around 1914 she served as president of the Women's Improvement League. She held a four year appointment as school trustee. As a members of the Allensworth Cemetery Community, she helped create a protected cemetery district and went on record in 1918 as one of the District's three trustees. The cemetery district established by Laura Smith and her colleagues had been a protected property for sixty-five years. Although a considerable portion of the five acre cemetery has been desecrated by local farmers who have plowed under some of the graves, there is a current movement to restore the site.

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