By KAREN MADORIN
Over Labor Day Weekend ,many Nicodemus descendants gathered to re-enact their ancestors’ story of leaving 1877 Kentucky to immigrate to Western Kansas to homestead and found a town. Descendant Angela Bates devoted decades to researching and recording her family’s Western Kansas story and has written a script to share it. The ripples, like those of a pebble tossed into a still pond, continue to affect participants’ lives.
Angela researched the Ellis/Nicodemus Trail, collaborated with Walz families who own land the trail crosses, wrote the script, encouraged cousins to participate, and discovered Nick Abt Films. Finally, she, with the help of others, and funding from the National Parks Foundation and Trust for Public Lands, tied up loose ends necessary to film the Ellis to Nicodemus Trail segment of the documentary in only three days. After a storm threatened filming on Friday evening, they shot the rest of the weekend’s footage with sunshine, gentle breezes, and moderate temperatures. Everyone involved thanked God that local snakes sunbathed elsewhere while participants traipsed the path their forebears walked 145 years earlier.
I participated as the proverbial fly on the wall, taking photos and listening to conversations among computer techs, business people, realtors, vet techs, university professors, United States Park Service employees, chefs, and others who peeled away layers of shared family history. Several descendants traveled from urban areas as far away as Atlanta and Cincinnati because Nicodemus like most western Kansas small towns has outsourced many dreamers and visionaries.
These cousins proudly connect to this community that birthed their futures through their annual Emancipation Celebration and its huge gathering. Only a few live nearby so hiking through grasses so dense walkers couldn’t see snakes or ticks added realistic drama. Experiencing mosquito bites and a badger-hole-induced tumble, re-enactors demonstrated the same hardy spirit their ancestors displayed following wagons 35 miles northwest from Ellis across unbroken prairie to undeveloped Nicodemus.
On Pioneer Day in October, ripples widened as documentary participants provided the Nicodemus Historical Society Program. Actors emotionally voiced either in person or through Zoomhow the filming impacted them. Several told how children, grandchildren, and friends had never heard of relatives who left Kentucky and traveled to Kansas to homestead. They discussed what homesteading required. All took pride in descending from sturdy stock. Actors playing the very pregnant Emma Williams, her mom Zerina, and dad Tom Johnson experienced a deep spiritual connection to ancestors they portrayed. Those observing filming watched their characters develop and deepen.
Many participants noted original settlers’ physical stressors due to traveling with a very pregnant woman and several older family members. They commented that their ancestors relied entirely on themselves during that first trek to Nicodemus. Re-enactors knew they could call help if necessary. Someone mentioned farmsteads with wells now exist that didn’t back then. Those newcomers either carried water or drank from creeks and the river along the way.
The circle widens as this story impacts more than the descendants recreating it. Their formerly enslaved ancestors’ desire for freedom and the right to homestead came to life for the film crew, land owners, support crews, and wagon and horse teams who had no relatives in Nicodemus. The filming touched everyone involved. That effect will grow as more audiences view it.
Completing all aspects of the documentary takes time. In the future, when it hits the screen, ripples will expand beyond Western Kansas and these participants’ lives. This story of strength and determination adds not only to the legacy of our state but also our nation.
Karen is a retired teacher, writer, photographer, outdoors lover, and sixth-generation Kansan. After a time away, she’s glad to be home.