During the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal created government programs to counter the effects of the Great Depression. Hundreds of post offices were built and the U.S. Treasury commissioned art for many of them. Twelve Nebraska post offices were selected to receive murals.
Ethel Magafan, the artist for the Auburn project, chose a theme depicting local agriculture. The canvas was installed in the post office lobby in 1938. The post office is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
]]>The Nemaha county seat was established at Brownville in March 1855 by the first territorial legislature. Brownville retained the county seat until an 1883 election approved its removal to Auburn, a town formed in 1882 by the merger of the adjacent villages of Sheridan and Calvert. The first courthouse in Auburn was a frame structure at this site, which soon proved inadequate. A series of elections culminated in 1899 with approval of $40,000 in bonds to build a new courthouse.
That same year the county commissioners accepted a design by Nebraska architect George A. Berlinghof and construction began. Stone was quarried about five miles west of Auburn and brick was produced by a local brickyard. The cornerstone was laid on May 25, 1900, in a ceremony featuring former Nebraska Governor Robert W. Furnas. County offices moved into the new courthouse in December 1900.
The symmetrical building with two main entrances, executed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, features corner towers, permanent materials, elaborate ornamentation, and reflects permanence and stability. In 1990 the Nemaha County Courthouse was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
]]>On October 16, 1867, the first meeting of the Nebraska State Teachers' Association was held on this site in the Brownville Union High School, at that time the largest free high school in Nebraska. Presiding over this meeting was Robert W. Furnas, one of Brownville's leading citizens, who would later serve as Nebraska's second governor (1873-75).
During this pioneer time, there were concerns about the often primitive and low-quality schools. Fewer than half of Nebraska's children attended school, and there were virtually no standards for teacher qualification. In response to these needs, the fifty-six people who attended the two-day meeting created the NSTA "for the purpose of elevation the profession of teaching and promoting the interests of schools in Nebraska."
That spirit of commitment to education lives today in the work of thousands of Nebraska teachers who daily rededicate their efforts to the future of children and the improvement of their profession. Since its Brownville beginnings in 1867 the organization, now known as the Nebraska State Education Association, continues with an unbroken history as Nebraska's oldest professional association.
]]>The members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition camped a short distance south of here on the Nebraska side of the river, on July 15, 1804. They had covered nearly 10 miles that day, most traveling in a 55-foot keelboat, two pirogues, and dugout canoes. Clark and two men, however, walked along the river surveying the land. Clark noted in his journal that they had to cross three small streams, including the Little Nemaha River. He described it as "a Small river, about 100 yds. above the mouth it is 40 yards wide." He swam across, recording the extensive prairies between the hills marking the Missouri River floodplain. He noted the abundance of fruit: "I Saw Great quantities of Grapes, Plums, or 2 Kinds wild Cherries of 2 Kinds, Hazelnuts, and Goosberries."
Soon after embarking the next morning, the expedition's keelboat caught on a snag in the river. Despite the delay, the explorers traveled 20 miles on July 16.
]]>On August 29, 1854, shortly after the Kansas-Nebraska Act had opened the territory west of the Missouri River to permanent settlement, Richard Brown arrived on the site of the town which was to bear his name. Other settlers soon followed.
Brownville quickly became one of the leading towns and cultural centers in the new territory. Located on the river, it became a transfer point for westbound wagon caravans. Here Daniel Freeman filed his homestead claim, recognized as the first in the nation. Brownville was also the site of the first telegraph office in Nebraska.
In 1872, both party candidates for governor were from Brownville. Robert W. Furnas, the Republican, won. Furnas had come to Brownville in 1856 and established one of the state's first newspapers, the Nebraska Advertiser. T. W. Tipton, another Brownville resident, served in the U. S. Senate from 1867 to 1875.
Desirous of attracting a railroad, the town approved a huge bond issue in the late 1860's. The contracting company built only ten miles of track. Deeply in debt, and without a railroad, Brownville was abandoned by many residents. In 1970 the historic importance of Brownville was recognized by its enrollment in the National Register of Historic Places.
]]>It was an accepted custom for many early fur traders to marry into Indian tribes. As the Indians ceded their lands, the rights of the half-breed descendants were not always identified. This situation was recognized by the government in 1830, by the Prairie Du Chien Treaty which set aside a tract of land for the half-breeds of the Oto, Iowa, Omaha and Santee Sioux tribes.
This tract was located between the Great and Little Nemaha Rivers. In 1838, the land was surveyed by John C. McCoy, who placed the western boundary eight miles west of the river instead of ten miles as specified. This caused problems, as later white settlers were to settle on Indian lands west of McCoy's line. Congress ordered the land resurveyed, and in 1858 the McCoy line was made official. On September 10, 1860, Louis Neal received the first patent.
The owners were never required to live on their property and many eventually sold their lands to whites. One of the original survey lines is now partly identified by the Half-Breed Road which runs in a southeast direction from here. The descendants of some pioneer fur traders still live in the area.
]]>This is the former home of Robert Valentine Muir, an early resident of Brownville. Born in Scotland in 1827, Muir came to America in 1835 and moved to Nebraska in 1856 as Treasurer for the Nebraska Settlement Company. He operated a sawmill, flour business, and ferry. He was also involved in real estate and was a publisher of the Nebraska Advertiser.
Muir led an active public life. For years he was a key figure in the Prohibition Party of Nebraska and ran for Governor as its candidate. He died in 1917.
One of Nebraska's most elegant early homes, the house was erected by Muir during 1868-1870. It was built of native Nebraska brick, in the Italianate style. The paneling of butternut, bird's-eye maple, and black walnut consists of native woods cut in Muir's own sawmill, located across the river in Missouri. This important example of our early architecture has been restored by Mrs. Harold D. LeMar.
]]>On June 20, 1867, at the urging of Civil War veteran and legislator Col. Thomas J. Majors, the state legislature established a teacher training school at Peru on the site of the former Mount Vernon Seminary. Called the Nebraska State Normal School, it was one of the first of its kind west of the Missouri River. The school’s purpose was to train young men and women “in the arts of teaching, and in all the various branches that pertain to a good common school education.” The curriculum would include instruction in the trades, agriculture, the law, and the rights and duties of citizenship. On October 24, 1867, when the first classes convened with thirty-two students, the campus consisted of sixty acres and a single building. During the next thirty-eight years, the school was the only teacher education institution in the state. As Nebraska’s population increased and additional state normal schools were established, the legislature expanded normal education from two to four years. In 1949 the school’s name was changed to Peru State Teachers College. It was renamed Peru State College in 1963.
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