Foundation showcases history of African-American settlement
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) - The story of free African Americans who left their farms in the southeast for a new life in the north is told in the portrait of a well-dressed school teacher, and in the cursive scrawl of a document that allowed them to make the journey in the first place.
Dorothy Ross treasures these artifacts. It's thanks to the foresight of her mother, Ima, and sister, Geneva - who kept family mementos - that the rest of us can learn about the history and traditions of the Lost Creek settlement.
"They're both gone and I'm carrying on what they started," said Ross, standing next to the display in the Lost Creek Community Grove.
As Indiana celebrates its bicentennial, the Lost Creek Grove Restoration and Preservation Foundation is promoting the settlement's legacy as an under-told segment of the state's history.
The organization held an open house Sunday afternoon showcasing historical documents, photographs, genealogical records, quilts, antiques and other relics from the settlement's families.
"It's not just African American's history, it is Indiana's history," said Dee Reed, Ross's daughter and the president of Lost Creek Grove.
Reed's fourth great-grandfather, Dixon Stewart, was one of the settlement's pioneers.
In 1824, the Stewarts and five other families heard about the opening of the west and sold their farms in Wake County, North Carolina. Their caravan journeyed on foot and by covered wagon to Indiana, where they settled land in eastern Vigo County - in the area of present-day Haythorne Avenue.
The travelers carried with them "freedom papers," proving to the authorities they were not slaves escaping from their bondage.
Ross pointed to the document belonging to Stewart.
"This is to certify that the bearer of hereof Dickson (sic) Stewart has been born and raised in our neighborhood and was born of free parents," read a typewritten translation, "and has conduct (sic) himself in an honest and orderly way."
The document was dated Aug. 21, 1826.
"It was a shame, but it was necessary that they carry this with them in order to travel safely," Ross said.
After arriving in Lost Creek, Stewart purchased 80 acres of land from the U.S. government to build his family's home.
More families arrived from North Carolina over the years and the settlement grew to include its own churches and schools. Ross marvels over a portrait of Bertha Carter, a school teacher with a flair for stylish hats.
The area covered approximately 15 square-miles, or 9,600 acres. Residents played baseball, joined a traveling band and gathered for all kinds of dinners, picnics and Fourth of July celebrations.
Families still meet for reunions and the community grove is rented out to the public for events.
Historians are drawn to the settlement for its richly-documented history in tracing the lives of early African Americans in Indiana.
Donna Stokes-Lucas was part of a research project studying rural settlements throughout the state dating from 1820-1870. The findings are available on the Indiana Historical Society's website.
"Lost Creek was like the jewel of my research," she said, adding she was impressed by the volume of artifacts and records that have been kept.
She said the settlement should serve as an ideal model for other communities in preserving their own histories.
Stokes-Lucas is also a co-coordinator of Indiana Freedom Trails, an organization documenting the state's role in the Underground Railroad.
She has found evidence of a "freedom seeker" sent to the Lost Creek area in the late 1840s or early 1850s by a black St. Louis pastor, in search of a specific clergyman who was the pastor's brother. Stokes-Lucas said she plans to work with Dee to pull the research together for an official recognition.
Indiana's African American settlements are the subject of an upcoming play co-written by Elizabeth Mitchell, who attended the open house.
"Resilience: Indiana's Untold Story" runs from Oct. 14-16 at the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center in Bloomington. For more information, visit facebook.com/resilience2016.
"We are telling these stories that are not in the history books of Indiana," Mitchell said.
___
Source: (Terre Haute) Tribune-Star, http://bit.ly/2clzpd3
___
Information from: Tribune-Star, http://www.tribstar.com