NEWS

Lyles Station a secret no more with African-American history museum's dedication

Tim Evans
tim.evans@indystar.com
President Barack Obama speaks at the opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, USA, 24 September 2016.

It has been more than 200 years since African-American settlers put down roots that grew into a unique, small farming community in southwestern Indiana.

Two centuries later, Lyles Station may be the last of the roughly 100 black farming settlements that popped up in the Midwest in the 1800s — and its little-known story is among those spotlighted on a national stage at the Smithsonian Institution's new National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Stanley Madison, a fifth-generation Lyles Station farmer who donated his great-grandfather's scythe to the museum's collection, was among those on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the museum's opening ceremony Saturday. The event featured Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, Oprah Winfrey, Will Smith, Stevie Wonder and several Tuskegee Airmen.

Madison and about 40 residents and descendants of early settler families, representing nearly a quarter of the population of Lyles Station, chartered a bus to attend the ceremony. The group will tour the museum Sunday. .

Stanley Madison, whose ancestors helped found Lyles Station, Ind., poses outside the old Lyles Consolidated School where the federal government is expected to pay $1.25 million to convert the building into a place where today's students can learn about the area's history. The Gibson County town in the southwestern courner of Indiana was founded by freed slaves more than 150 years ago. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

"It was just absolutely outstanding to be there," Madison said of the ceremony. "It was absolutely moving."

Madison, 66, said the event was a highlight of his life, and the others there with ties to Lyles Station felt the same way.

"It's probably the top of our list for everybody," he said.

Madison got a sneak preview of the exhibit this past weekend.

"It was very emotional to see those articles from 1885 and things that had just been around our household forever," he said.

The museum tells a story, Madison said, that has too often been lost in history.

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"We’re finally going to get a chance to tell our story of the pioneer African-American farmers," he said. "That’s a plus for us. It's never been recognized and never been told."

President Obama touched on the same theme in his brief speech. He said the museum tells an essential part of the American story, but "one that has at times been overlooked."

The president called the new museum a remarkable tribute and said he hopes to someday return, maybe with grandchildren, to tour the facility.

"Together, we’ll learn about ourselves as Americans, our sufferings, our delights and our triumphs," he said. "And we'll walk away better for it."

President Barack Obama speaks during the opening ceremony of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016.

The decades-in-the-making, $540 million museum on the National Mall has another Indiana connection. The Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment was the second-largest private donor, giving $20 million to the project.

When Madison and the other Hoosiers tour the museum, they plan to immediately head to the third-floor display on Lyles Station. The exhibit includes historic photographs and typical 19th-century artifacts, such as a horse-drawn plow, a communion plate, a quilt and clothing, a journal and wood podium from the Wayman Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church. There even will be a few spades of soil from one of the farms.

An unincorporated burg located in Gibson County, about 35 miles north of Evansville, Lyles Station is among 10 African-American communities highlighted in the museum's “The Power of Place” exhibition.

Lyles Station was never a booming place. But at one time, the community, which freed slaves and other black pioneers carved out of the frontier in the first half of the 1800s, at least bustled. In its heyday, between 1880 and 1913, the hamlet had 55 homes, a train station, two general stores, a post office, a school, two churches, a lumber mill and about 800 residents, according to the Lyles Station Historical Preservation Corp. website.

Indiana settlement takes its place in Smithsonian's black history museum

A giant flood drenched its fields in 1913, and after that, the population began to scatter.

But others — including Madison's family, who arrived in 1838 — stayed in Lyles Station and pursued the same rural life their families had lived for generations.

"Today, only a few homes remain in the community of Lyles Station, but nearly half of the residents are descendants of the original black settlers," the historical group's website says. "Along with the scattered houses, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a grain elevator and the schoolhouse are all that stand as a physical reminder of the once-thriving settlement of Lyles Station, Ind."

Norman Greer, 79, still works the land his forebears farmed before the Civil War. He grows corn, soybeans and wheat on 300 acres.  This past spring, representatives from the Smithsonian came to his farm and held a ceremony during which they dug a few spadefuls of Greer's soil and carted it away with them.

That soil, the sustaining earth Greer's family has labored on for more than 150 years, is now part of the museum's Lyles Station display.

If you go

» What: National Museum of African American History and Culture.

» Where: National Mall, Washington, D.C.

» Hours: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday; noon to 8 p.m. Sunday.

» Cost: Free.

» Required: Timed Passes, a type of ticket, which are available in advance of your visit. A limited number can be obtained on the same day of your visit. Each Timed Pass has a unique entry code and can be used only once.

» Order your timed passes: They are available online. Up to six free passes per email address can be obtained online or by phone. Call the customer support center at (919) 653-0443 or (800) 514-3849.

IndyStar reporter Will Higgins contributed to this story.

Call IndyStar Tim Evans at (317) 444-6204. Follow him on Twitter: @starwatchtim.

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