Nicodemus Kansas, Sadieville Connection

Between the fall of 1877 and 1879, groups of African-Americans from central

Kentucky left for the Promised Lands of Kansas. Some of these emigrants boarded trains in Sadieville in the fall of 1877. They settled on the high plains of western Kansas, in a town known as Nicodemus. This town now stands as the oldest and only remaining all-black town west of the Mississippi that was established at the end of Reconstruction.  In 1996 it was designated a unit of the National Park Service. The Nicodemus Historical Society has worked for over twenty years trying to reestablish kinship bonds with descendents of this migration.

 

 

The Mt Pleasant Baptist Church has ties to the Nicodemus AME Church.  On September 5, 1877 most of the congregation of the Mt Pleasant Baptist Church boarded the train in Sadieville for Nicodemus, Kansas. A large portion of the Mt Pleasant congregation left Nicodemus soon after arrival and returned to Kentucky or other destinations in Kansas.

 

The Mt Pleasant Baptist congregation that returned was deeded a parcel of land by T.J and Josie Burgess in Sadieville on December 13, 1884 to erect a house of worship. The Mount Pleasant Baptist Church was built in 1897 and was recently designated as a Kentucky Landmark by the Kentucky Heritage Council and deemed worthy of preservation.

 

In 2009 Angela Bates, Executive Director of the Nicodemus Historical Society came to Kentucky to speak about “The Connection”. Please visit www.nicodemushistoricalsociety.com .