Lyles Station began in the early 1800s as a settlement of free black men near the convergence of the Wabash, Patoka, and White Rivers, west of Princeton, Indiana. In 1870 Joshua Lyles, a free black man from Tennessee, donated 6 acres to the Old Airline Railroad to establish a rail station in what was then called the Switch Settlement, and in 1886 the community was officially named Lyles Station in his honor. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it flourished as a self-sustaining community of about 800 residents, with 55 homes, a post office, a railroad station, an elementary school, two churches, two general stores, and a lumber mill. Flooding of the Patoka and Wabash Rivers in 1913 left much of the area under water and marked the beginning of the settlement's decline. Today only a few homes remain, though nearly half the residents are descendants of the original black settlers, and the scattered houses, Wayman Chapel A.M.E. Church, a grain elevator, and the schoolhouse remain as reminders of the once-thriving community. The spirit of freedom and perseverance continued in efforts to restore the Lyles Consolidated School building in 2002, and in 2003 the school reopened as a museum and educational center.