When the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Pacific Ocean went through this area their mood was undoubtedly gloomy. On the previous day they had buried their comrade, Sergeant Charles Floyd, who died of a ruptured appendix. Although he was the expedition's only fatality, the explorers suffered from a variety of illnesses and accidents. On August 22 Captain Lewis became ill. Although the cause is unknown, Captain Clark mistakenly believed it was caused by arsenic in rocks Lewis had examined. On the return journey in 1806, Lewis was injured in a hunting accident.
On this day the explorers passed the Sioux River. Clark was told about a place high up this river where "a Creek Coms in which passes thro Clifts of red rock which the Indians make pipes of, and when the different nations Meet at those queries all is piece." This is now known as Pipestone National Monument, located in southwestern Minnesota. The party camped along the Missouri River northeast of here.
]]>About 1 1\2 miles north of this spot is the abandoned site of "Old St. John's,"one of the first towns established in Dakota County.
The townsite was settled on June 2, 1856, by the Father Trecy Colony--sixty people, with eighteen ox-drawn covered wagons. The site was surveyed and platted June 24, 1856, and the town was named St. John's, in honor of St. John the Baptist.
The colony was led by Father Jeremiah Trecy, a young Catholic priest from the Garryowen Parish near Dubuque, Iowa. Consisting mostly of Irish immigrants, it constituted the first Catholic parish in Nebraska. The town of St. John's grew rapidly and by 1858 it had two hundred inhabitants.
In 1860 Father Trecy went to Washington seeking permission to establish a mission among the Ponca Indians. Meanwhile the Civil War began. Father Trecy became an army chaplain, and never returned to his beloved colony.
In the early sixties, the Missouri River began to threaten St. John's. The people began moving their buildings to the new town of Jackson. By 1866 all buildings were gone and the townsite was abandoned.
The site of St. John's still exists as a symbol of courage and hope and of the religious faith of a dedicated people.
]]>Built 1857-Closed 1964 The frame schoolhouse in the background is part of Nebraska's pioneer heritage - the oldest school building in Dakota County and one of the oldest in Nebraska.
Originally erected in the spring of 1857 at Omadi, four miles south of Dakota City, the school shared the townsite's peril when the Missouri River began to undermine the area. Since the school faced destruction it was moved to Thomas Smith's claim, about two miles south of Homer. Here a new school district was organized.
When construction on the Burlington Railroad from Sioux City to Lincoln began, the school was found to be on railroad property. The building was then shifted to its present site near the old Combs mill. School redistricting eliminated need for the old Combs School, and its doors closed for the last time May 22, 1964.
The Board of Education of the newly-formed district donated the building to the Dakota County Historical Society, who has set it aside as a monument to the pioneer fathers' belief that, "MEN ARE ENNOBLED BY UNDERSTANDING.”
]]>Near here stands the first Lutheran church building constructed in Nebraska. It has occupied this site since 1860.
The congregation was first served by Reverend Henry W. Kuhns, a missionary sent by the Allegheny Synod to Nebraska Territory. Kuhns preached his first sermon in the front room of the Bates House (hotel) in November 1850 and formally organized the church on July 22, 1859.
The membership immediately made plans for building, but their effort of moving an abandoned store from the abandoned town of Pacific City was frustrated when the structure was destroyed by a prairie fire while being moved to Dakota City.
This church was designed and built by Augustus T. Haase, a local carpenter and member of the Emmanuel Lutheran congregation, at a cost of $2,000. For several years the building also served periodically as a Territorial courthouse, with religious services being held on Sunday as usual. Samuel Aughey, a leading scientist of the period, was the second pastor to serve the church.
This old church still stands as a monument to the steadfastness of purpose of the early settler and as a symbol of pioneer religious life.
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