History of Tennessee Town Topeka Ks Names of Families

This Apr marks the 150th anniversary of the finish of the American Civil War. This post is  the final of four which highlight ties between Topeka and Shawnee County and national movements during and after the Ceremonious War.

The Exoduster boom that followed the Civil State of war created a lasting change upon the demographics of Topeka and Shawnee County. By 1880 the number of African Americans residing in Topeka was 3,648, out of a total population of xv, 528. This reflects a 404% increase in the African American settlement of Topeka in a period of but five years. Most of the newcomers settled throughout the metropolis's five wards. The community of Exodusters in the third ward became known as Tennessee Town, in recognition of the land where a majority of the initial inhabitants originated.

Some of the early residents of Tennessee Boondocks were the Lytle family. John and Mary Ann "Mollie" Lytle were both former slaves who had moved from Tennessee to Topeka with their young family unit in 1882. John established a respected barbershop nearly downtown Topeka and successfully ran for assistant city jailer in 1896. His children would all become accomplished in their fields, and the careers of his daughter, Lutie, and his son, Charles, are worth mentioning.

Lutie Lytle
(source: KansasMemory.org, Kansas Country Historical Society, Copy and Reuse Restrictions Apply)

Lutie was no older than eight when the Lytles moved from Murfreesboro, Tennessee to Topeka. Attention local schools through her graduation from Topeka High, Lutie became interested in pursuing a law caste while she worked every bit a journalist. After didactics in Chatanooga, TN for two years she used her savings to enroll in the constabulary program at Fundamental Tennessee College (CTC) in 1895. At the fourth dimension, CTC was a relatively new academy, established by northern benefactors expressly for the teaching of freedmen and their families. Lutie excelled in her studies and graduated with loftier honors in 1897. Following her graduation from CTC she was admitted to the Tennessee country bar. This accomplishment was significant, as she was the first black woman admitted to the bar in that state which, at the time, excluded African Americans from even serving on a jury.

Lutie soon moved back to Topeka and became the offset African-American woman in Kansas to laissez passer the land bar. Her initial intention was to set up up a temporary law office just soon realized relocating to a different community would beget more opportunity (at the time Topeka was already domicile to vii African-American male attorneys, and a female attorney was viewed as a novelty). When asked past the local newspaper of her intended specialty, Lutie replied, "I like constitutional law because the anchor of my race is grounded in the Constitution, and whenever our privileges are taken away from united states or concise, we must point to the Constitution as the Christian does the Bible."

Later a menstruation of giving lectures on domestic law Lutie accustomed a faculty position at her alma mater, CTC. She was the first woman in the United States to teach in a chartered law schoolhouse. In 1907 Lutie married Alfred Cowan, a prominent attorney experienced in desegregation police force. The couple relocated to Brooklyn, New York and in 1913 Lutie and her married man attended the annual convention for what is now known as the National Bar Clan. Equally such, she was the first female participant in such a national organization to attend on equal footing with her husband. Mr. Cowan unexpectedly died in 1913 and Lutie successfully argued at to the lowest degree one of his remaining legal cases after his passing.

In 1916 a widowed Lutie married Reverend Stephen McNeill, a presiding elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Over the next decade the couple would alive in a variety of locations in the northeast, including Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In 1925 she render to Topeka for public appearances and praised the teachings of Marcus Garvey, a prominent figure in the Black Nationalist motion. By the early on 1930s they were back in Brooklyn and Lutie was most commonly referred to past her professional name, Lutie Lytle-Cowan. Rev. McNeill passed away suddenly in 1934.

Although she acquired fame for her pioneering role in law, the last ii decades of Lutie'due south life are clouded in obscurity and few details are available. She died, most likely, between 1940 and 1950.

Image of Charles Lytle, from the 1924 Topeka Colored Directory

While Lutie Lytle never had children of her own, she did have a namesake in her niece, the young girl of her brother Charles. Charles was an infant when the family relocated to Topeka. He initially followed in his father's footsteps as a hairdresser, merely was urged past his physician to seek a more physically-enervating occupation. In 1904 he became a Deputy Marshal of the Court of Topeka a position he held for 12 years. From there his career expanded to include positions equally a Deputy Sheriff of Shawnee Canton, Deputy State Fire Marshal, and a detective with the Topeka Police (including 2 years as Chief of Detectives).

Charles was a charismatic man and became a favorite, well-respected Topeka personality later a hunch resulted in a multi-state chase to apprehend a criminal. A 1940 Topeka Capitol article reported the forcefulness of his detective method "…consists in a rare analytical gift for understanding human nature which enables him to establish proper leads and to procure confessions with an irresistible psychological approach."

Photograph of Lytle's Drug Store, c. 1962
(source: KansasMemory.org, Kansas Country Historical Society, Copy and Reuse Restrictions Apply)

After his retirement in 1947 Charles opened a drug store at 112 Eastward. 4th, across the street from his
barbershop (which had remained in operation during his service career). Over the next 2 decades he split his fourth dimension between traveling and managing the popular store, which was airtight and bulldozed in 1963 as part of an urban renewal projection. Afterwards, Charles and his wife moved to California to exist closer to their son.  Charles Lytle died in 1969.

Desire to learn more than most Topeka history? Newspaper articles and correspondences with Lutie Lytle can be found on microfilm in the Topeka Room likewise as in online databases. An obituary for Charles Lytle and other prominent Topekans can exist acquired the library'south obituary search service.

Michelle is a fifth-generation Kansan who has a passion for history, radical home-making and science fiction. When not on one of TSCPL'south bookmobiles she can be found educating students at surrounding schools with dynamic programming.

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Source: https://tscpl.org/history/the-lytles-of-tennessee-town

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