Wildhorse Township Orientation

Wildhorse Township

NPS Photo/Daniel Cox

You are no longer in the Nicodemus Township. You are in Wildhorse Township. The last of the three large groups that migrated west to Kansas to settle at Nicodemus arrived in spring of 1879. Earlier settlers homesteaded land in and around Nicodemus, compelling these newcomers to locate farther from town. Some of the homesteaders settled 4 miles south of here and called their area of Wildhorse Township Kebar after the local post office. This area had a cemetery and school but not a church. However, Reverend John Samuels who organized the group that settled here was an ordained Christian minister and held services in his home for family members. Rev. Samuels, his family, and others arrived in prairie schooners rather than by train from Leavenworth. Napue, Samuels, Craig, Sadler, Garland, Hall, and Travis are common family names of those who resided in this region that teemed with native grasses and natural springs. Area explorers can still view remnants of the Napue Homesteads, one directly across from the other on a hill 4 miles south on Road 360, south of the Samuel cemetery.