Welcome to
Allensworth State Historic Park
Singleton General Store & Post
Office
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tour
We've created this simple tour to give you an exact feel of the exterior of
Excerpts
taken from Volunteer Handbook
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Joshua Singleton played a large
role in Allensworth. Besides running the store and serving as
postmaster for four and a half years, he organized an orchestra, letting
people use his collection of stringed instruments. They practiced in
the back of his store or at Frank Milners barber
ship. Sometimes in the summer they played outside in front of the
store. Joshua also experimented with raising cotton. He planted
twenty acres of long staple Pima near well #3 at Allensworth and it did very
well. In latter years the farmers in the The store served two functions. The main room was used as a store and the side rooms were used as the Singleton family residence. The towns post office was located in a small cubicle in the store portion of the building. Store supplies included MJB and Folgers coffee. Some people at Allensworth called MJB coffee Mary Jane Bickers because Mr. Bickers had the first store in town. Coffee came in one and five pound sacks of whole beans which were fed into the grinder and put back into the original sack. Other stock items included cold meats, milk, cheese, and butter kept in the ice box. Ice was stored under the floor in the dining room. Singleton also stocked men's work clothes, underwear, overalls, and red bandana handkerchiefs. The post office at Allensworth was established September 25, 1909. Mary Jane Bickers was the first postmistress and operated the post office from her store. On September 15, 1910 Joshua Singleton assume the duties as postmaster. The post office was discontinued on April 13, 1933 due to alleged irregularities by Miss Wells who was incarcerated in the Fresno County Jail at that time. ******
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