"Nicodemus"(4-10-1877)

Established during Reconstruction,Nicodemus,Kansas,was the first primarily African-American

Residents of Nicodemus.

rural settlement after slavery ended.The town was named for a legendary slave who who foretold the coming of the Civil War.On April 16 of that year, a circular predicted Nicodemus would become the "Largest Colored Colony in America."In June,W.R. Hill filed a 160-acre town site plat with the government land office in Kirwin,Kansas,to found a town on the proposed site.Over the next three years,the first general store,including a pharmacy,the first attorney and land agent offices,and later a post office and a church were built.The official census of February 1880 counted 595 African-Americans or 20 percent of the entire population of the county.In June of that year,and average of seven acres per homestead was put into cultivation.On August 1,1881,Emancipation Day in Nicodemus was first observed,an annual celebration that continues today.In 1910,the African-American population of the county reached its peak of 700.The fate of Nicodemus hinged on the railroad that though proposed never happened in April,The Missouri Pacific line stalled at Stockton Kansas.The Union Pacific ran south of the Solomon River bypassing Nicodemus by six miles.In 1950,the town was reduce to 16 inhaditants.Three years later,the post office closed.Nicodemus completed a cycle of existence in almost 80 years.In 1976,Nicodemus was designated a National Historic Landmark.On November 12, 1996,Congress established the Nicodemus National Historic site in Graham County Kansas.