Lyles Station is still ‘turning dirt upside down’

PRINCETON, Ind. (WISH) – In the middle of corn and coal country is Lyles Station, one of the last surviving Black settlements.

It was started in part by a man named Charles Grier about 1810.

“He was so amazed about the large wood area and the rivers and the fertile soil, and so he put down roots here, and his first track of land that’s south of us here was 40 acres.”

And now, Stanley Madison, a farmer who grew up in Lyles Station, is the sole keeper and curator of the settlement’s museum.

“We’ve been turning dirt upside down making corn grow for a long time,” said Madison.

“The African Americans were looking for a place that they could call freedom,” said Madison.  “And where they could take care of their families, and carry their firearms, to keep their supply of food and protect their families.”

When word spread that Lyles Station was a place where free blacks could settle, keep their guns, and work the land, the area thrived.

“Everything that they produced here,” said Madison. “From lumber to all their crops, were actually shipped out to Chicago, Indianapolis, and various places.”

It was originally called the “switch” settlement.

“You know like the little switch, you get when grandma says get you a prime switch,” laughs Madison, “that was our first name.”

It was eventually named after a man who owned 1240 acres, Joshua Lyles. And education was a cornerstone of the community.

“Across was this log cabin and we had a white teacher to actually come here in the 1863/64 year and teach our children, and it was a dollar, to a dollar fifty that the parents paid per child.”

Lyles Station was a pocket unto itself, successful and productive.

“They were able to keep that deep root going in that direction of survival,” said Madison. “That was because of that commitment of unity, working together.”

That is until the flood of 1913.

“We had to adapt and when the flood of ’13 took out our cabins, our farms, and crops, the various it put us to the point where we were on our knees praying a lot,” said Madison.

That’s when many settlers headed to the city, those who remained, still taking care of this slice of heaven on earth.

“We’ve been here so long that we have been able to figure out how to survive,” said Madison.

In September of this year, Lyles Station is going to be recognized by the Smithsonian Institute, as they do a tribute to Black American farmers. With more than 150 current residents of the town in Gibson County, about half are relatives of the founding fathers.

Click here for more information on Lyles Station.