May 2021 Road Trip to Kansas Part Three of Five Series

Rooks County, south of Palco

We left Great Bend on Sunday, May 23rd and drove in a big semi-circle for most of the day to finally end up for the night in Lawrence, Kansas, home of Kansas University. Parts 3 - 4 - 5 will detail that Sunday.

First up - Hays, Ellis, Nicodemus.

We took highway 96 out of Great Bend to reach highway 183. Highway 183 played a big part in my life: it was the highway through Stockton, through Hays, runs near a sister's house, and was the highway that led me to a new life between my 8th grade and Freshman year.

When we got to south of Hays, we took the alternate bypass around to head to Frontier Park. This road takes one pass the historic Fort Hays site but we weren't heading to see the fort; we were headed to see the buffalo! 

Baby calf on the ground

Calving season was upon us and we saw baby bison romping around their large pen. We thoroughly enjoyed the show they put on for us!

We decided to forego driving on 183 and instead took the bypass all the way around Hays to I-70. On I-70 we put the metal down and drove the short trip to the Ellis, KS exit. It was spitting rain on us but that was the only time we ran into rain for the whole day. 

I played against some team from Ellis during school. The home of Walter P Chrysler of Chrysler fame is in Ellis. We took the exit and drove on county blacktop for several miles, weaving through Ellis County and then into Rooks County. We crossed the Saline River into Rooks County and again in part five.  

Many of the homesteaders and settlers of Nicodemus took a train to Ellis and walked on foot towards Nicodemus. Probably pretty close to the road we were taking from Ellis to Nicodemus. I was able to ride through Palco, a little village I had not seen in a long time and probably won't for a long time if ever.

We took Highway 18 to Damar and saw the beautiful twin steeples of the Catholic Church in Damar from the highway. Then we took another county blacktop to Highway 24. By this time we were only a mile from Nicodemus. Nicodemus is very important to me - I have written about this National Historic Site many times. I'm just going to post a lot of pictures for the rest of this blog post. But I'm going to end my text by saying -- I love Nicodemus!

The NPS ranger said I heard correctly: the old dugout was used by Nicodemus settlers after 5:00. 😢

Nicodemus Historical Marker

Fort Hays Historical Marker

Nicodemus Archive Files at KU Library

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a very special affinity for Nicodemus, Kansas, now a part of the National Park Service.

For those who don’t know anything about Nicodemus,  Nicodemus represents the involvement of African Americans in America’s westward expansion. It is the oldest and only remaining Black settlement west of the Mississippi River.

The Kansas University Spencer Research Library has a large archive collection of files about Nicodemus. You can go online to see what is indexed, but to actually see the collection, one would have to go to the Spence Library.

Here is the official citation to the collection with link to the index: 
Nicodemus Historical Society Collection, Kansas Collection, RH MS 545, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas. http://hdl.handle.net/10407/4641638255

Here is the collection summary:
Title: Nicodemus Historical Society collections
Dates: 1880-2015
Quantity: 38 boxes + 5 oversize boxes, 6 oversize folders, 1 audio cassette

Here is the archive file’s description of Nicodemus:

History of Nicodemus, Kansas
    The town of Nicodemus in Graham County, western Kansas, was founded in 1877 by African Americans migrating primarily from Kentucky and Tennessee, before the time period of the Exodusters. The town reached its most prosperous years by 1886, with the maturation of area agricultural production. However, the community began a long decline when a rail line, built in 1888, bypassed Nicodemus, instead linking through the neighboring town of Bogue.

    The population is thought to have peaked in 1910, when the federal census reported 595 inhabitants in Graham County. By 1950, only 16 residents were counted, and the Post Office station closed in 1953.

    Nicodemus was designated a National Historic Landmark by the federal government in 1976, and became a National Historic Site operated by the National Park Service in 1996 in large part thanks to Angela Bates, a prominent citizen. The town is known for its long history, noteworthy citizens, and the Homecoming Emancipation celebration that takes place each July

I often thought about the statement by former US senator Bob Dole, who led the effort to make Nicodemus a National Historic Site in 1996. He stated in an interview about Nicodemus that there was a lot of racism aimed towards the residents of Nicodemus. I found this sad but there were at least two obvious transportation racist choices. One, the railroad was supposed to come across the Solomon into Nicodemus. The railroad workers set up a tent city that became Bogue. The railroad went through Bogue. The other obvious choice was putting in the original Highway 24.  It ran three miles to the north of Nicodemus and then veered straight south to meet the highway from Bogue, three miles west of Nicodemus. I mean they couldn’t have veered the highway straight south three (or even two) miles to the east? Of course they could have.

I’ll probably never get a chance to see this archived collection but I am glad it is available for future researchers to see and document the beginnings of Nicodemus.

Nicodemus

I grew up in Western Kansas on a farm. Well, until my Dad changed careers from a farmer to an ordained Methodist preacher. Then I was thrown from an unknown kid into the proverbial glass bowl that is the life definition of being a preacher's kid.  But that is another story.

Growing up on the homestead back in the sixties and early seventies did not afford me many opportunities to encounter ethnicities beyond different types of Caucasians: French-Canadian, Volga Germans, Irish, and other European descendants.

But there was an exception.

About 15 miles to the southeast of the Hunter homestead was the town of Nicodemus.  Nicodemus back then was a small town with two active churches and the best barbeque I ever tasted at Ernestine’s Bar-B-Que.  What made Nicodemus unique was that it was the only Black Town west of the Mississippi.  So, among an all-white dominated section of the country was this little town that stood for freedom, independence, and resilency. 

Nicodemus was founded by former enslaved African-Americans who traveled from Kentucky with the promise of land.  Some of those early Nicodemus Exodusters who traveled from Kentucky were disappointed in the vast Kansas landscape devoid of trees and humanity.  But many stayed and created a town that is still around today, although now, Nicodemus is a National Historic Site administered by the National Park Service.

I learned a lot from my visits to Nicodemus as a young boy besides enjoying awesome barbeque at Ernestine's. 

The population of Nicodemus explodes each end of July for the Emancipation Homecoming celebration.  Anyone with any type of family relations to the residents of Nicodemus' past came back "home" to celebrate the town.  I learned from these celebrations the importance of family reunions and that jazz was a pretty cool form of music.

When I was no older than five, I went to my first revival week at the Nicodemus First Baptist Church.  At first, I was terrified.  I never witnessed so much active participation by people in the pews during a service.  But I grew to love it.  I learned that celebrating religious beliefs did not fit into a one-size-fits-all category.  I made sure that as a father to my children that they attended their share of church services at African-American churches here in Chattanooga so that they could experience the same thing I did growing up.

Another important lesson I learned from Nicodemus was to persevere.  The early settlers of Nicodemus had few willing to help.  But through adversity, they overcame with resilient independence that no one could take away.  Nicodemus became home for generations of African-Americans on the western plains of Kansas.  I am grateful that it did.

Find out more about Nicodemus at this NPS.gov link.