Raising Funds a Nebraska Historical Marker for Dewitty-Audacious Township

We're still at it and need your help!

https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/310W61/ab/14wwe5

Raising Funds for Nebraska Historical Marker on Highway 83

The Nebraska State Historical Society recently approved a roadside historical marker for DeWitty, the longest lasting, most successful African-American rural settlement in Nebraska. Descendants of a legendary Sand Hills settlement, the Cherry County Historical Society and a Nebraska-born author are teaming up to have a historical marker placed along Highway 83.

DeWitty — in later years called Audacious — was settled by Homesteaders returning after the Civil War in Dawson County from Buxton Elgin, Settlement, Kent County, Ontario. The settlement placed a high value on educating its children, an ethos they had brought from Canada.  More than 100 families lived in the settlement during its roughly 40+ years of existence.

In the early 1900s, a group of these homesteaders laid claim to land along the North Loup River in Cherry County, just west of present-day Brownlee. They were taking advantage of the Kinkaid Act of 1904, which allowed settlers to claim 640 acres of land, or one square mile, in the 37 counties that comprised the Sand Hills.

A Town of New Beginnings and Lasting Legacies - Their point was not to establish a generational farming community but to establish a base for their children and future generations as well as excel in whatever field they chose.  And they had the audacity to think they could. 

Now that the marker has been approved, the group is trying to raise the $5,100 the state historical society requires as payment.

Donations can be mailed to or dropped off at or mailed to:

Security First Bank

PO Box 480

Valentine, Nebraska 69201

Make checks payable to: “DeWitty Historical Marker Fund.” 

We also have a secure funding site

 https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/310W61/ab/14wwe5

Joyceann Gray and Marcia Thompkins great granddaughters of DeWitty homesteaders William P. Walker and Charlotte Hatter-Riley Walker, say:

“When we can clearly mark where our ancestors have been — and by name — we can ensure the full story will be told and we can then better understand the purpose of our journey.”

Example of Nebraska State Historical Society Marker

“This is really the tale of two communities: DeWitty-Audacious and Brownlee,” says Stew Magnuson, former Nebraska nonfiction book of the year winner, and author of The Last American Highway: A Journey Through Time Down U.S. Route 83: Nebraska-Kansas-Oklahoma, which has a chapter on DeWitty-Audacious. “Relations between the two communities were by all known accounts, excellent. The mostly Danish settlers of Brownlee and the African-Americans in DeWitty held a July 4th picnic together every year. William P. Walker was the county Veterinarian and supported both communities. His daughters Goldie and Fern became county teachers as an example of the dreams for their children coming true.

Some of the one-room schoolhouses were integrated.

 Teacher Goldie Walker Hayes and her one room school

There is also another photograph in history books that shows the Brownlee residents on the day they came to help build the DeWitty Church. People had to depend on each other in that remote, harsh land,” says Magnuson.

Magnuson first encountered the DeWitty story in a Nebraska land Magazine article he found in his grandparent’s home in Stapleton, Nebraska when he was a teenager.

“The thought that there was a black settlement in the Sand Hills blew my mind because I had been raised on a diet of Hollywood westerns and TV shows that portrayed the American West as populated only by white folks and Indians. The towns and homesteads were in fact far more multicultural and racially integrated than the media and history textbooks have portrayed. I hope the sign does a little to dispel that myth,” he says.

Woodson and Stith Families

Joyceann Gray

06/20/2015

                                    DeWitty-Audacious

The Woodson and the Stith Families

Their point was to establish a base for their children and future generations to excel, and they had the audacity to think they could.

The Woodson and Stith families came from the south, Tennessee, and Kentucky respectively.  Aaron Woodson was a hard working industrious family man. With ten children and a wife to house and feed, he sought out any promising enterprise as he farmed a large lot of land. Aaron and his wife, the former Phoebe Brooks, raised their children to be educated and versatile as they went about setting examples for them. When the sun came up, Aaron was already hard at work. So was Mrs. Woodson, tending to the home and teaching her children necessary skills. Their children all grew to realize the dreams of their parents.

 Charles “Boss” Woodson, the fifth son of Aaron and Phoebe Woodson, not only did he look just like his Dad but took after him in that Woodson way of being kind and gentle. He was hard working and never let a chance go by to help out his fellow man. Remembered fondly by many people in and around Cherry County for his impressive musical talent, Boss organized and led the DeWitty Dance Band. As the mail carrier for Cherry County, he was known to ride folks along his route from town to town. One such day, Maggie Stith and her five boys needed to catch a train bound for Horton Kansas. Her husband had secured a job working for the railroad in the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad Shops. There was no public transportation between DeWitty and Thedford. Boss Woodson saw to it that the Stith family made it to the train station in time to catch the train to Horton. Charles would later retire from the government and live out his days in California.  

As the railroad expanded so did, the demand for skilled and educated workers and the members of the Walkers, Evans, Ward, and others responded. These adventurous and educated children of the homesteaders of DeWitty-Audacious used the progress of the railways as stepping-stones to bigger and better lives for themselves and their children. The Woodson’s would live long enough to see their children become successful farmers, teachers, and government workers. One of the Stith boys, Forrest Muriel, became a teacher, published author of two well-read books. As a Methodist Minister, he served as a U.S. Army Chaplain and served overseas in World War II. He retired in Lincoln, Nebraska.

So we ask again and again to please help us to honor the homesteaders, their contributions and legacies by contributing to our DeWitty-Audacious Historical Marker Campaign the most successful rural African-American community in the state. Many Thanks to all who have heard our plea so far; if you haven't done so, you can send a contribution to:  

  

The Security First Bank 

 PO Box 480 - Valentine, Nebraska 69201 

Please make checks payable to: “DeWitty Historical Marker Fund.”

The Highway 83 Chronicles: Group Raising Funds for Nebraska Historical Marker...

The Highway 83 Chronicles: Group Raising Funds for Nebraska Historical Marker...: Spot near North Loup River on Hwy 83 in where the marker may be placed.   Descendants of a legendary Sand Hills settlement, the...

The Emanuel's

DeWitty-Audacious

Joyceann Gray

6/13/2015

A Town of New Beginnings and Lasting Legacies
 
Their point was not to establish a generational farming community but to establish a base for their children and future generations as well as excel in whatever field they chose.  And they had the audacity to think they could.

We remember the Emanuel family today, warm, loving and hard working. From Gary County came the Emanuels to Canada, and then migrating back into the states and Nebraska.   Joshua Emanuel the second son of Samuel and Sarah was a dynamic intelligent individual who, along with John Kersey, and John Travis, designed and built the Bethel Methodist Church in Buxton, Canada. In coming to Nebraska, he brought experience and skill with a good business head. The various buildings would later demonstrate this skill as he designed and help to build in Dawson and again in DeWitty-Audacious. He married Lucinda Travis and they had seven children together. He then married Ida Delienay and they had two children together.  Sadly, Joshua would pass at age 52 and would not live to see how fine his children and future generations turned out. One particular descendant is James Andrew Emanuel born on June 15, 1921, in Alliance, Neb. His father, Alfred, died when he was young. His mother, Cora, was a schoolteacher and a driving force in his life. James became a renown poet, educator and critic who published more than a dozen volumes of his poetry, much of it after his frustration with racism in the United States which  helped motivate him to move to France. James received his higher education at Howard University in 1950 and received his master’s from Northwestern in 1953. He earned his doctorate in English and comparative literature from Columbia while he was teaching at City College.

James became the epitome of what each of the homesteaders of DeWitty-Audacious wanted for their children. James A Emanuel papers at the Library of Congress

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/mss/eadxmlmss/eadpdfmss/2003/ms003041.pdf

For more on James’ life achievements: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/12/books/james-a-emanuel-poet-who-wrote-of-racism-dies-at-92.html?ref=obituaries&_r=1

Thanks to all who have sent checks to help in celebrating the homesteaders of DeWitty-Audacious and their legacy by donating to our Historical Marker fund: the most successful rural African-American community in the state.   If you haven't done so, you can send a contribution to:     Security First Bank

PO Box 480       Valentine, Nebraska 69201

Make checks payable to: “DeWitty Historical Marker Fund.”

--

The family of Joshua and Mary Emanuel 

Names:  Joshua and Mary A. Emanuel and their children - Top row - Alfred baby daughter Julia and his wife Cora - Wilbert, John, Mary, Jennie, Lawrence, Grace, Joshua (dad), Hattie, Mary Ann (mom), baby Elza (in mom's lap), - Frank, Carl, Nellie & Dewey Emanuel's 1913

http://jgraydiscovery.com/2015/06/14/remembering-the-emmanuel-family/

DeWitty-Audacious

Our latest article sent to the Valentine Midland News

J. Gray

6/8/2015

DeWitty- Audacious 

A town of New Beginnings and Lasting legacies

Their point was not to establish a generational farming community but to create a base for their children and future generations to excel in whatever field they choose, and they had the audacity to think they could.

Coming from as far away as Louisiana, Virginia, and Canada; many families, traveled to Nebraska in search of a fresh start. Arriving in the mid-1880’s, some of the families from Canada were the Brown brothers, Meehan’s, Guilds, Robinson, Crawford, Walker, Riley, Morgan, Mance, Hatter, and Emanuel families. All of who first homesteaded in Overton, and later with more families arriving they began moving on to Cherry County after the ratification of the 1904 Homestead Act. Eventually, they established the DeWitty settlement in the Sand Hills, named in honor for their postmaster. Charles “Boss” Woodson was the mail carrier: and as a rule he would kindly give folks a lift in his wagon at no charge.

John Pegg, the Weights and Measures Inspector for Omaha, vigorously spread the word of the Homestead Act of 1904 and sponsored many families including his brother Charlie Pegg. Robert Hannahs, who opened a barbershop in Brownlee and worked his farm on weekends and the Hayes family, are still remembered fondly. Roy gassed in WWI and couldn’t hold on but his wife Goldie and her sister Fernnella (who married Charles “Boss” Woodson) were exceptional teachers all over

 Cherry County. In fact, their brother George A. Riley was the Director of District 164. Goldie elected as the Cherry Co. Rural Teachers delegate to the General Assembly and then appointed as principal in Norris S.D. in 1955.

The Riley’s oldest, Jerome R., became a doctor and was busy down in Washington D. C.; his nephew William ”Bill” Riley Sr. became the first black Locomotive Engineer at Union Pacific. Albert Riley Sr. remained in Nebraska for many years, spending 34 of them working at the Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge.

We need your help for DeWitty-Audacious

Group Raising Funds for Nebraska Historical Marker on Highway 83

Spot near North Loup River on Hwy 83 in where the marker may be placed.

 Descendants of a legendary Sand Hills settlement, the Cherry County Historical Society and a Nebraska-born author are teaming up to have a historical marker placed along Highway 83.

The Nebraska State Historical Society recently approved a roadside historical marker for DeWitty, the longest lasting, most successful African-American rural settlement in Nebraska.

DeWitty — in later years called Audacious — was first settled in the early 1900s by a group of homesteaders along the North Loup River in Cherry County, just west of present-day Brownlee. They were taking advantage of the Kinkaid Act of 1904, which allowed settlers to claim 640 acres of land, or one square mile, in the 37 counties that comprised the Sand Hills.

Now that the marker has been approved, the group is trying to raise the $5,100 the state historical society requires to pay for it.

Donations can be mailed to or dropped off at:

Security First Bank

PO Box 480

Valentine, Nebraska 69201

Make checks payable to: “DeWitty Historical Marker Fund.”

The first group of DeWitty settlers came from Overton, Nebraska, in Dawson County. But they were originally from Kent County, Ontario, where many escaped slaves and free people of color resided. One of the first to claim land near the North Loup was the family of Charles and Hester Meehan, an interracial couple, who had met and fell in love in Canada. Charles was a first-generation Irish-American, and Hester Freeman, of African decent. Others from different parts of the country joined them. The barber, Robert Hannahs, had been born into slavery. DeWitty had a baseball team and band. Both played all over the Sand Hills. The settlement placed a high value on educating its children, an ethos they had brought from Canada. More than 100 families lived in the settlement during its roughly 20 years of existence.

“The homesteaders of DeWitty were just that —Audacious,” says Catherine Meehan Blount, one of the Meehans’ last two living grandchildren. “They were Audacious for believing that the American dream belonged to them, too, and they were Audacious for committing all they had to attain that dream.  Remembering DeWitty pays homage to those who confronted barriers in the pre-civil war United States, in Canada and in the Nebraska Sand Hills with a ‘we can’ attitude. Remembering DeWitty gives anyone who knows their story a reminder that they can, too.”

Joyceann Gray, great granddaughter of DeWitty homesteaders William Walker and Charlotte Hatter, says:

“When we can clearly mark where our ancestors have been — and by name — we can ensure the full story will be told and we can then better understand the purpose of our journey.”

Example of Nebraska State Historical Society marker

“This is really the tale of two communities: DeWitty and Brownlee,” says Stew Magnuson, former Nebraska nonfiction book of the year winner, and author of The Last American Highway: A Journey Through Time Down U.S. Route 83: Nebraska-Kansas-Oklahoma, which has a chapter on DeWitty. “Relations between the two communities were by all known accounts, excellent. The mostly Danish settlers of Brownlee and the African-Americans in DeWitty held a July 4^th picnic together every year. Some of the one-room schoolhouses were integrated. There is a photograph in history books that shows the Brownlee residents on the day they came to help build the DeWitty church. People had to depend on each other in that remote, harsh land,” says Magnuson.

Blount added: “My dad, Bill Meehan, was born in Overton but spent most of his youth in DeWitty.  He told the story of DeWitty’s renaming to Audacious with much prideful laughter because, he we certain, it had been renamed for him when he was about 12 years old.”

Magnuson first encountered the DeWitty story in a Nebraskaland Magazinearticle he found in his grandparent’s home in Stapleton, Nebraska, when he was a teenager.

“The thought that there was a black settlement in the Sand Hills blew my mind because I had been raised on a diet of Hollywood westerns and TV shows that portrayed the American West as populated only by white folks and Indians. The towns and homesteads were in fact far more multi-cultural and racially integrated than the media and history textbooks have portrayed.I hope the sign does a little to dispel that myth,” he says.