African American Town on the Frontier - Township Hall (1939)
After the Civil War, blacks in the South found that the political and economic gains of Reconstruction were being violently stripped away. In September 1877, some 300 black settlers from Kentucky arrived at the newly platted town of Nicodemus. Newcomers were shaken by underground sod houses and sixty people returned to the railhead in Ellis to live and some traveled all the way back to Kentucky. By the mid-1880s, hard working, strong-willed settlers transformed Nicodemus into a prosperous town. Today the town of Nicodemus has only 13 residents.
Township Hall, is pictured above and currently serves as the park visitor center. I love this "hand washing" sign still posted in the bathroom.
A one parking meter town!
St. Francis Hotel (1881)
The St. Francis Hotel was also the home of the Fletcher and Switzer families, the first post office, stagecoach station, and first school house. It's not easy to build a town from the difficult soil of the lonesome prairie. Trees for timber and firewood were scarce. Most families had to collect buffalo chips, sunflower stalks, and twigs to keep warm and cook their food.
Old First Baptist Church (1907)
This church began in a dugout and today services are held in a brick building to the north.
African Methodist Episcopal Church (1885)
Limestone wall of church, originally covered with stucco.
District No. 1 School (1918)
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