10 February 2023
TOPEKA (KSNT) – The Kansas Historical Society, located next door the Kansas Musem of History in Topeka, showed off some of the artifacts they uncovered from a site in Nicodemus, Kansas.
These artifacts were uncovered during an excavation mission in 2007 by the Kansas Archeology Training Program, the Kansas Historical Society, the National Park Service, Washburn University and Howard University.
“The first item we have is a wonderful Broadside called ‘In Unity there is Strength’,” said Lauren Gray, Head of Reference, State Archives, Kansas Historical Society. “Public meetings were very important to get people talking, coming out, coming together, just like we would today.”
“In 2007 we ran our annual Kansas Archeology Training Program at the Nicodemus townsite on one of the properties that was listed by Thomas Johnson and later his grandson Henry Williams,” said Nikki Klarmann, State Archeologist, Kansas Historical Society. “We excavated a dugout house, and these items were excavated from the dugout house or a root cellar located near the house.”
According to the National Park Service web site, the small town of Nicodemus was founded by newly freed slaves in 1877 and was a refuge from the Reconstruction-era South. Nicodemus was the first black community west of the Mississippi River and is the only predominantly black community west of the Mississippi that remains a living community today. Today, only a few people and buildings remain from the original township.
For more information on these artifacts and other items from the Kansas Historical Society, click here.