'Demus (04-13-09)

This week, I had the honor of accompanying a group of junior high school students on a field trip to Nicodemus, or ‘Demus, as it is called by the locals. This was my first time to our local historic site, and I was impressed with what I saw.

First, we visited the Nicodemus Historical Society Museum, run by Angela Bates. At the museum, I was struck by the contrast between the outside and the inside of the building. The museum exists inside a small house that was donated the Nicodemus Historical Society. As a house, it was seen better days. Inside is another story.

Consisting of two main rooms, every wall is covered with well-preserved artifacts, poster displays, or historic photographs. Playing in the background was a spiritual song from whence the town got its name.

I cannot express how impressed I was with the museum. Yes, like the town itself, the museum is small. However, its impact is large. Looking into the faces displayed in the many photographs, you can sense just how special the town was to those who lived in ‘Demus. As the only all black town west of the Mississippi, the residents were more than just neighbors; they were family, united by a common experience of faith, perseverance, and ancestral slavery.

The next stop took us to the WPA limestone building known as the township hall, currently leased by the National Park Service for the purpose of housing a visitor center commemorating Nicodemus as a National Historic Site. New superintendent Mark Weaver and his very knowledgeable assistant Phyllis Howard explained to us that Nicodemus is one of just five National Parks in Kansas, and that National Parks include the subcategories of National Preserves and National Historic Sites.

The visitor center also contained museum quality displays that not only told the story of Nicodemus, but also presented that story in the larger context of our nation’s history. The displays were professionally rendered and reminded me of the many impressive displays I have seen at the Smithsonian in Washington DC.

They showed us a video that both explained the incredible history of the town, and included interviews with the descendents who return to the town every year for the Emancipation Celebration Homecoming that takes place in the town every year the last weekend of July.

The video made an impression on me. With the wind howling outside, we listened to what it must have been like to travel by foot and by wagon to find only barren prairie. The only shelters available to those first “exo-dusters” had to be literally “dug-out” of the earth. On the video, on descendent reflected, “Whenever I think I am having a bad day, I remember what my great grandparents had to go through to make this town. I don’t have bad days…they had bad days.”

And yet throughout all the bad days, the town swelled to over 600 African-American residents. They built churches, stores, hotels and the first school in Graham County. Some of the residents worked up the road in Stockton, walking the ten plus miles to and from the town. We learned about the law that banned “people of color” from being on the streets of Stockton after dark, forcing Nicodemus residences to have to seek shelter in a dug-out that is still visible from Highway 24.

All in all, it was one of the best field trips I have ever taken with a group of students. The students seemed as engrossed in the history of the town as I was. Of course, Nicodemus isn’t just another historic field trip. This town is a big part of the history of Graham County. It not only tells the story of a group of exceptional people, but Nicodemus also tell the story of the determination and courage it took to settle these wild plains.

During our field trip, the wind howled and gusted and forced us to hurry into the buildings and back onto the bus. From our comfortable seats, though, the terrible wind made it easy to understand just how inhospitable the early settlers must have found this part of the world. Yet, somehow, they carved out a life for themselves and for their children. Some did not make it. Some turned around and went back to Kentucky. But the sacrifice and toil of those who remained gave us the heritage and the history we all enjoy today.

In the raging Kansas wind, you could almost hear the voices of those courageous people calling out for us to never forget them and all that they accomplished. So it is for them that we keep alive the memory of a place called ‘Demus.