This region was once home to Oto and Missouri Indians, who ceded their land to the government before Nebraska Territory was created in 1854. White settlers arrived in 1857 and founded a town and post office named Helena about four miles west of here. Spring Creek Post Office was established in 1868 about two miles to the southeast. A settlement named Bob Town, with a school, a church, and a few businesses, grew up nearby. When the Crete branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad was built along the south fork of the Little Nemaha River in 1888, the rails bypassed Helena and Bob Town. John William Cook founded a new town named after his father, Andrew Cook Sr., on the railroad right-of-way. Spring Creek Post Office moved to Cook; Helena and Bob Town disappeared.
Cook had about fifty residents when the first train arrived in November 1888, and the village incorporated in 1891. Because of many artesian wells nearby, Cook became known as "Artesian City."
]]>Tecumseh, the county seat of Johnson County, was incorporated in 1856. It was first called Frances in honor of the wife of Colonel Richard M. Johnson, for whom the county is named. In 1857 the town was renamed for the famous Shawnee Indian chief, Tecumseh, whom Johnson fought during the War of 1812.
This historic marker is on the original townsite on the old Brownville Fort Kearney trail. Growth was slow until the mid-1860s when the lucrative freighting traffic along these trails was channeled through the town. Development accelerated after the arrival of the Atchison and Nebraska Railroad in 1872 and was further stimulated ten years later by the extension of the Republican Valley line.
Tecumseh's downtown district has been enrolled on the National Register of Historic Places and contains several distinguished examples of nineteenth century architectural styles. These include the old jail, built around 1872, and the City Hall and Courthouse, both constructed in 1889. Another noteworthy building, the 1889 Christian Church, is now the headquarters of the Johnson County Historical Society. Tecumseh's distinctive buildings stand as symbols of the community's past.
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