Nicodemus: A Town That Offered A Dream

NICODEMUS, Kansas — Self-determination can be a powerful motivator for people, especially for those who escaped the bonds of slavery at the end of the Civil War. When they were offered a chance to claim a small patch of land in a place called Kansas, hundreds jumped at the offer.

"It's a story of folks coming out and being landowners, who were formerly enslaved, people that come out and they have the opportunity to have their own little community," explained National Park Service Ranger LueCreasea Holmes when asked how Nicodemus, Kansas, came to be. "Self-governed, freedom of religion, educate their people in their own little bubble."

The town was envisioned by W.R. Hill, a white developer, and W.H. Smith, a Black reverend, who in 1877 traveled to Kentucky to offer the formerly enslaved a parcel of land of their own for $5. The initial offer was taken up by about 350, who rode a train west from Sadieville, Kentucky, to Ellis, Kansas, and then walked the final 35 miles to the Nicodemus townsite.

"The oral history is that [Hill] fell asleep down by the river, by the Solomon River, down by a tree and wakes up with this great idea to create this all-Black town," said Holmes, whose, great-, great-, great-grandparents were in that first group.

Kansans, who fought with the Union Army in the Civil War with the promise of joining the United States as a free state, welcomed Blacks. The Kansas Freedman's Association promoted the new state to Blacks, saying Kansas had "shed too much blood for this cause now to turn back from her soil these defenseless people fleeing from the land of oppression."

But not all who made the journey to Kansas, which Hill pitched as the land of milk and honey, were enthralled with what they found.

"When we got in sight of Nicodemus, the men shouted, 'there is Nicodemus!' Being very sick, I hailed this news with gladness," Willina Hickman noted in the spring of 1878. "I looked with all the eyes I had. 'Where is Nicodemus? I don't see it.' My Husband pointed out various smokes coming out of the ground and said, 'That is Nicodemus.' The families lived in dugouts...The scenery was not at all inviting, and I began to cry."

But many endured in Nicodemus, which the Park Service notes is "the oldest continuously occupied town west of the Mississippi planned and settled by African Americans."

Though the initial occupants of the town lived in dugouts, they soon built homes, businesses, and farms.

"Nicodemus ... was originally settled by the colored race, and by their patience and untiring energy have succeeded in gaining a grand, glorious victory over nature and the elements, and what used to be the Great American Desert now blooms with waving grain," the Nicodemus Cyclone noted in its June 15, 1886 edition.

But that prosperity was fleeting, as Union Pacific Railroad tracks being laid west took a quirky turn south and around the town before continuing west towards Bogue and Hill City. Rumors had it that W.R. Hill, who sold land to whites to create Hill City to the west of Nicodemus, convinced the railroad to bypass Nicodemus in favor of his namesake town.

Holmes tells the story to those who travel to Nicodemus National Historic Site on the Kansas plains.

Little remains of the once-upon-a-time boom town that in the late 1880s boasted a "bank, four general stores, three groceries, four hotels, three pharmacies, two millineries, two liveries and two barber shops," notes the Park Service. Today, just five buildings constitute the historic site's infrastructure: the town hall; the St. Francis Hotel, which also was a private residence; the African Methodist Episcopal Church; the District No. 1 School, and; the First Baptist Church.

Just two, the town hall and the A.M.E. Church, are open to the public.

The Park Service hopes to be able to renovate the First Baptist Church, which it was able to acquire last year. The church dates to 1907 and reflects the dedication to faith and religion that helped Nicodemus settlers persevere. For more than 100 years the building was the site of religious gatherings, baptisms, gospel choirs, community dinners, and other events. 

But over the decades the building fell into disrepair. Today it's boarded up while the Park Service seeks funding to restore the church and open it to the public.