Nemaha and nine other counties in southeast Nebraska produced more applies in 1912 than did the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Colorado and Utah. So what happened?
Mother nature reared her ugly head.
In November of 1940 a disastrous freeze killed thousands of the Nebraska fruit trees and most of the orchards in Nebraska were abandoned.
Just think what could have been...
Nemaha County was established in 1855. That makes the county 163 years old. That is older than the majority of the people who are reading this article.
The county seat is Auburn, but it was not always so. The first county seat of Nemaha Valley was Brownsville until 1883.
Nemaha Valley made up the corpus of what was called the Nemaha Half-Breed Reservation. The reservation was a ten mile wide tract of land set aside for the mixed-ancestry descendants of French-Canadian trappers and women of the Oto, Iowa, and Omaha, as well as the Yankton and Santee Sioux tribes.
Maybe the next time you want to tweet “these are some strange times” remind yourself that there was once a reservation in Nebraska set aside for people who are the children of French-Canadian trappers and Native American Indians.
Indian Cave State Park is a recreational and historic preservation of a cave which has prehistoric petroglyphs, otherwise known as cave carvings. The park also offers horseback riding, hiking trails, camping and picnic facilities, fishing areas and winter skiing.
Last but not least is Peru State College. Civil War veteran Thomas Majors of Peru was a member of the Nebraska Territorial Legislature in Omaha prior to 1866. In a failed attempt to get the University of Nebraska to be created in Peru, Thomas Majors brought a “normal school” to Peru, NE.
In some politicking to get the capitol of Nebraska moved from Omaha to Lincoln they were garning support and one of the olive branches they extended would seeing to it that “Peru gets the normal school.”
“Normal school” back then were later called teachers colleges.
The Name of Places People Call Home
Cities: Auburn (county seat) and Peru
Villages: Brock, Brownville, Johnson, Julian, Nemaha
Unincorporated Communities: Glenrock, Howe, Rohrs
Precincts or Townships: Aspinwall, Bedford, Benton, Brownville, Douglas, Glen Rock, Lafayette, London, McKissick Island, Nemaha, Peru and St. Deroin
Ghost Town Sighting
St. Deroin is considered a Ghost Town as it was abandoned in 1920 as result of flooding. Before that it was chartered because of a popular ferry to get across the river.
I told my wife last night that I want to visit every ghost town in the state and she was....well...not completely enthusiastic about the idea.
SPELL IT WITH ME. EMMM. EYYYYYY. PEEEE!!!!!
Husker Stuff
Great Huskers to Wear #44: Calvin Jones, Jay Foreman and Randy Gregory
Other Notable #44s: Mike McNeil and Jay Moore
Current Husker Wearing #44: Cameron Jurgens and Mick Stoltenberg