County of town: Gibson County
Location of town: 5 Miles W. Princeton on IN-64/65, go N. 1 mile on CR 500, Lyles Station
Location this waymark: Former School/Museum, since no city hall exists here
Marker location the same
Marker erected by: Indiana Historic Bureau & Lyles Station Historic Preservation Corporation
Date marker erected: 2002
Marker text:
Side one:
Settled in late 1840s by Joshua and Sanford Lyles, former slaves from Tennessee. African Methodist Episcopal Church (since 1860) and schools (1865-1958) played important roles in sustaining the community. On land donated by Joshua Lyles, railroad companies maintained a station circa 1870-1950s for passenger, freight, and mail service.
Side two:
Named Lyles Station 1886. Community declined after widespread flooding in 1913. It remains probably most intact African-American settlement in the state; several present residents are descendants of original settlers. Lyles Consolidated School, built 1919, listed in National Register of Historic Places 1999; restoration began 2001.
The Person:
"John Liles and his sons, Joshua Lyles, born in Henry County, Virginia in 1800, and Sanford Lyles, who was born in Robertson County, Tennessee in 1813, were the founders and original settlers of Lyles Station, an African American settlement in Patoka Township, five miles west and one mile north of Princeton, Gibson County, Indiana. On the 1813 and 1814 Free Negroes and Mulattoes Schedules of the personal property tax list for Henry County, Virginia, are found John Liles’ father, James, and Sally and William Lyle, all living in separate households and Sally and William are undoubtedly relatives of John Liles. On the lists are other familiar surnames of Virginia free blacks: Cousins, Roberts, Goings and Stuart.
"By 1820, John Liles was living as a free man in Springfield, Robertson County, Tennessee. At the same time, John Liles’ father, James, was living as a free man in Montgomery County, Tennessee. The Liles brothers and their father were reportedly given money by a slave master to resettle in a northern state. This is, however, a myth as Col. Joseph Hopson, a white American Revolutionary War veteran and resident of Montgomery County, Tennessee, who had lived as the Lyles family did, in Henry County, Virginia, attested to the Montgomery County, Tennessee Courts that James, Patsy, Daniel, John, Joshua and Mahalia Liles were free persons in Henry County, Virginia. It is more probable that those other early black families that settled in Gibson County, Indiana, before 1840, were also free persons that, prior to moving, sold all of their realty and personal possessions, pooled their money, and selected a literate Joshua Lyles to purchase their land in Indiana.
"In 1830, John Liles and his children, Daniel (b. 1795, in Virginia), Joshua (b. 1800), and Tabitha (b. 1812, in Tennessee) lived in separate households as free people of color in Robertson County, Tennessee. The 1830 Tennessee census reflects that there were thirteen free black families living in Robertson County: the families of John Lile, Daniel Lyle, Joshua Lile, Tabitha Lile, Wilson Portee, Bob Stewart, Herbert Stewart, Edmund Stewart, Harrison Chavous, Patsy Chavous, William Silver, Philip Silver and Bennet Mitchell.
"Prior to 1840, John Liles and the Lyles siblings left Tennessee, with their families, and traveled along the Ohio river, through Kentucky to Indiana, where in Patoka Township, near the White, Wabash and Patoka rivers, John Liles settled with his father, James, his wife and his young son, Sanford, in Gibson County, Indiana, where his older son, Joshua Lyles, purchased 1,200 acres of government land. Daniel Lyles settled with his wife, Nancy Nolcox Lyles, and family in Union township, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, where he was a farmer. In 1840, John Liles’ son, John, settled in Pigeon township, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, but then moved to Gibson County where he appears on the 1850 census. James Lyles remained in Robertson County, Tennessee, where he married Rebecca White, and bought land in 1837. Nothing more is known of John Liles’ eldest son, James, except that he appears to have visited the Thomas Cole household in Gibson County, Indiana, where he is seen on the 1860 census. Ten black families were listed as free persons of color living in Patoka, Gibson County, Indiana, in 1840: the families of Nelson Bass, Joel Stewart, John A. Morland, Robert Cole, Banister Chaves, Joshua Lisles, Thomas McDaniel, John Lisles, Isaac Williams and Duke Anderson. Lyles Station was established in 1849, and still exists today. The Agricultural Schedule of the 1850 census reveals that Joshua Lyles had 60 improved acres, 260 unimproved acres, 4 horses, 10 cows, and 50 swine. The Lyles farm produced 150 lbs. of butter, 10 lbs of maple sugar, 60 lbs of honey and 500 bushels of Indian corn. The cash value of the farm was $500, the farm implements and machinery were valued at $10, livestock was valued at $247 and the value of the animals slaughtered was assessed at $99. From 1849, until the end of the Civil War in 1865, Joshua and Sanford Lyles traveled back to Tennessee and brought freed blacks to Indiana to settle Lyles Station. Joshua sold these later settlers the land on which they built their homes and farms. Joshua, Sanford and their brother, John Lyles, who married Malinda MacDaniels, July 28, 1836, in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, were farmers in Lyles Station and could read and write. Tabitha married Joseph Ferguson, March 22, 1839, in Vanderburgh County, Indiana. Prior to her death on December 31, 1890, Tabitha Lyles Ferguson, had two daughters, Isabel and Tabitha.
"Lyles Station, incorporated in 1886, was a thriving community following the Civil War, and from 1880-1913, was an entirely self-sustaining African American settlement, having a population of 800, a train station, 55 homes, a post office, school, lumber mill, blacksmith, cemetery, two grocery stores, a band stand and a church. Joshua Lyles donated the land to the Airline Railroad for the building of the train station along the Louisville-St. Louis line, in 1870, which allowed the Lyles Station farmers to export their goods to Princeton. During the early 19th century, Indiana had at least twenty black settlements, and Lyles Station was the largest and one of the oldest of these early American communities.
"Joshua Lyles was married to Carparta (she was commonly called "Clara"), who was born in Albemarle county, Virginia in 1802, and they had twelve children: Susan Ann, Joseph, Joel, Drusilla, Angeline, Mildred, all born in Tennessee, as well as Isaac, Mahala, Jacob, Jonathan, John and Joshua, all born in Indiana. Carparta, could neither read nor write, and died around 1875. Joshua lived with his family in Lyles Station until his death around 1885.
"Sanford Lyles, the youngest of the Lyles brothers, married Harriet, born in 1805, and with their son, Joshua, who was born in 1840, lived across the street from his brother, Joshua. Sanford died shortly after Harriet, who died on August 23, 1882, in Gibson County, Indiana.
"Just imagine – John Liles, his children, and their families, were living as free persons in the South and southwestern Indiana, more than a generation before the beginning of the Civil War and the legal abolition of slavery in the United States of America" ~
The entire Lyles Family History on Free African Americans
The Town:
"The legacy of Lyles Station, a small community located 4.5 miles west of Princeton, Indiana, began in the early 1840’s as a settlement of freed slaves, One of these early settlers, Joshua Lyles, donated 6 acres of ground to the Old Airline Railroad to establish a rail station. In 1886, the settlement was officially named Lyles Station in honor of Joshua Lyles and his contribution.
"The town flourished during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, developing into a self-sustaining community of approximately 800 residents. At its peak (1880-1913), Lyles Station consisted of fifty-five homes, a post office, a railroad station, an elementary school, two churches, two general stores, and a lumber mill. However, the 1913 flood of the Patoka and Wabash Rivers left much of the area under water, marking the start of the settlement’s decline.
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. 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, Indiana.
"However, the spirit of freedom and perseverance which made the town prosper is still very much alive in the hearts and minds of those individuals who have worked to restore the Lyles Consolidated School building. Ground breaking on the renovation project was held in June of 2002 and in May of 2003, the dreams of preserving the Lyles Station legacy were realized with the opening of the restored Lyles Consolidated School." ~ Lyles Station
A historic marker is located next to the AME chapel: N 38° 22.215 W 087° 39.558
Marker erected in 1986
Marker text:
1886 LYLES STATION, INDIANA 1986
Dedicated to preserve the memory of Joshua Lyles
Lyles Station, Indiana, the state's only remaining Black-named community, was settled more than one hundred years ago by Joshua Lyles, a freed slave from Tennessee.
He encouraged other freed slaves to settle as farmers in Indiana. The "Negro Colony", as it was called prior to and after the Civil War, became a Northern picture of Southern culture.
The community served as a symbol of hope for freed men and slaves.
Reverend Edward Taylor Jr., Pastor
THENCEFORWARD - FOREVER FREE