Nebraska County Countdown: #6 Saunders County

That is not the best picture of the courthouse but it is the best we can use. That could be a 9/10. Now only if the picture was better....

Saunders County was established in 1856. It must have been Calhoun County at some point because it was once named after John C. Calhoun, but they ended up naming it after Alvin Saunders who was a Governor of the Territory of Nebraska during the Civil War and later became a U.S. Senator.

Israel Beetison House

I drive into Saunders County several times a week and I usually drive past this awesome and creepy looking house right outside of Ashland. It looks like the perfect house to be on the cover of the next horror novel.

But it is also awesome.

Beetison was an Englishman who homesteaded in Nebraska in the 1860s and built this home using locally quarried limestone. Construction began in 1874, and teams of horses and wagons dragged 18-inch-thick limestone blocks nearly 10 miles to the homestead until the house was completed in 1875.

David Letterman

For some of us older folks remember when David Letterman was on T.V. He used to have a daily “Top Ten” list in which he would say that the list would originate from Wahoo, NE.

I think Wahoo even had a sign as you drove into it that said “Wahoo, NE the home of David Letterman’s Top 10 Lists.” Or something like that.

F.D.R. Spent the Night in Saunders County

President Franklin D. Roosevelt spent the night of April 26th, 1943, in Valparaiso while on a tour of World War II military bases.

Ice Harvest

Meatpacking plants in Omaha and Chicago relied on ice harvested from a 100-acre man-made lake near Memphis fro refrigeration from the late 1890s to the 1920s.

Communities

Cities: Ashland, Wahoo and Yutan

Villages: Cedar Bluffs, Ceresco, Colon, Ithaca, Leshara, Malmo, Mead, Memphis, Morse Bluff, Prague, Valparaiso and Weston

Census-designated place: Wann

Only one more map to go for me

Husker Stuff

Great Huskers to Wear #6: Sammy Sims (DB), Darin Erstad (baseball coach), and Keith Jones (RB)

Notable Huskers to Wear #6: Corey Cooper (DB) and Kenny Cheatham (SE),

Current Huskers Wearing #6: Eric Lee Jr. (DB)

Current Huskers from Saunders County

Ben Stille (DL), Ashland, NE

Bo Kitrell (RB), Ashland, NE

Colton Feist (DL), Yutan, NE

Noah Vedral (QB), Wahoo, NE