This treadle sewing machine base was recovered during excavations at the Thomas Johnson/Henry Williams dugout site in Graham County at the 2007 Kansas Archeology Training Program field school. Wording on the sewing machine base proclaims it was patented in April 1878 by the Singer Mfg. Co. of New York. It also displays the trademark "S" (designed to resemble thread), a spool, and a needle. The Thomas Johnson family moved into the dugout near Nicodemus in September 1877. Henry Williams, grandson of the Johnsons, purchased the property in 1906 and lived there with his family until building a house nearby in 1920.