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Posted on Mon, Sep. 15, 2008

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Kansas official led settlers to all-black communities

BY BECCY TANNER

The Wichita Eagle

This is one in a series of vignettes celebrating Kansas history. The series' name comes from the state motto, Ad astra per aspera: "To the stars through difficulties."

It was the late 1880s, two decades after the end of the Civil War.

Across the nation, liberal politicos loved Edward McCabe, a rising star from Kansas.

McCabe, twice elected state auditor, was the highest-ranking elected African-American in the West. He helped lead a national movement to encourage African-Americans to settle in all-black communities in the Midwest.

Because Kansas had established communities, organizations, such as the First Colored Real Estate Homestead and Emigration Association of the State of Kansas, formed to attract African-Americans to Oklahoma.

"At present we are Republicans," McCabe said. "But the time will soon come when we will be able to dictate the policy of this territory or state, and when that time comes we will have a Negro state governed by Negroes."

McCabe advised African-Americans to bring money and a skill to sustain themselves for at least a year. He cautioned future settlers: "Come prepared, or not at all."

McCabe was born a free man in 1850 in Troy, N.Y. He grew up in Fall River, Mass., and Newport, R.I. As an adult, he worked as a clerk on Wall Street in New York City, then moved to Chicago where, in 1872, he became the clerk in the Cook County office of the federal treasury.

In Chicago, he heard about a massive migration of African-Americans to Kansas. McCabe wanted to be part of that.

He came to Kansas in 1878, stopping first in Leavenworth where he learned about a town in northwestern Kansas promoting itself as an African-American community -- Nicodemus.

In Nicodemus, he established a law and real estate office. He also became secretary of Nicodemus, a land surveyor and, then, Graham County clerk.

Within a year of McCabe's arrival in Kansas, an estimated 40,000 Exodusters -- a term describing former slaves -- also arrived and settled in Kansas. He helped negotiate relief efforts for them as they struggled to get established.

In 1882, McCabe was elected to his first of two terms as state auditor, the official who examines and checks the state's financial records.

He won by an overwhelming majority, drawing notice from Republican leaders across the nation. He was selected as an at-large delegate to represent Kansas at the Republican National Convention in Chicago.

The national attention prompted brief criticism from the Kansas Convention of Colored Men, who accused him of selling out.

Angered, he replied he had worked "single-handed to secure a representation for my race."

After he left state office, he moved to Oklahoma and helped settle all-black towns there.

McCabe died in 1908, almost a year after both of his daughters became ill and died. He is buried in a Topeka cemetery.

Reach Beccy Tanner at 316-268-6336 or btanner@wichitaeagle.com.