Nebraska Off the Beaten Path® by Diana Lambdin Meyer

Author:Diana Lambdin Meyer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781493031191
Publisher: Globe Pequot Press

Exodusters Settlement in the Sandhills

In 1904, a little community was established in the Sandhills of Cherry County called DeWitty, one of several towns that sprung up as a result of the 1904 Kinkaid Act, which opened the Sandhills to settlement and helped many who hoped for a new life in a new land. What makes DeWitty noteworthy is that it was founded by Exodusters, a name given to freed slaves from the south who, like so many others attracted to the Great Plains, were looking for opportunities to build a better life. DeWitty has disappeared from the landscape just west of the community of Brownlee in Cherry County, but the town does hold a place in Nebraska history. The town was named DeWitty after the first postmaster, and after he left the community, it was called Audacious. Later on the town was known as Garden. In 1909 a group of black homesteaders led by William Walker and Charles Mehan took out homestead claims, and other black homesteaders joined them until the population reached a peak of about 175 people. They constructed sod houses, a post office, a grocery store, a church, and a school. There was a baseball team called the Sluggers. They lived just as the white settlers did, working the land, raising families, praying for good weather, and taking part in rodeos. DeWitty dwindled in population, and by 1940 there were no African Americans left in Brownlee.

Another small group of black settlers claimed land west of Westerville in Custer County. Three brothers, Moses Speece, Henry Webb, and Jerry Shores, all of whom had taken the last names of the slaveholders who once owned them, were the first to settle there. The Speece family, whose sixteen living children enjoyed music, was said to have worn out two pump organs and a piano in the twenty-five years they lived in their sod house. Both the Speece and Shore families were photographed by Solomon Butcher, whose work has been widely published. Their homes are gone and their families are scattered, but their images remain forever.

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