The village of Pleasant Hill once stood in the valley to the east. Founded in 1867, it became a thriving community with several businesses, including a general store, post office, sawmill, and gristmill. From 1871 to 1878 Pleasant Hill was the Saline County seat. Peak population was 246 in 1900. Fires, loss of the county seat to Wilber, and the lack of a railroad led to the town's decline. After the gristmill burned in 1930, Pleasant Hill faded away.
]]>PFC Charley Havlat of Dorchester, Nebraska, was the last confirmed American combat fatality in the European Theater during World War II. He was born in rural Saline County, the oldest son of Anton and Antonia (Nemec) Havlat, Czech immigrants to Nebraska in the early 1900s. His brothers, Adoph, Rudolph, and Lumir, also served in the U.S. Army during the war.
Charley and Rudolph served together in the 803rd Tank Destroyer Battalion. On the morning of May 7, 1945, two reconnaissance platoons were sent forward to locate German positions northeast of the Czech town of Volary. About 8:20 a.m. a burst of small arms fire from enemy soldiers in the woods struck the American patrol, wounding several and killing Havlat. Word of a formal cease-fire to take effect at 8:30 a.m. reached the American and German units a few minutes later. The cease-fire ended the war in Europe.
Ironically, Havlat died while helping liberate his parents' homeland. He is buried in the Lorraine American Cemetery at Saint-Avold, France. More information on Charley Havlat can be found in the Saline County Museum.
]]>Nebraska was a leader in the Chautauqua movement which brought culture and entertainment to rural America. Begun in 1874 at Lake Chautauqua, New York, where religious leaders met in summer educational sessions, the Chautauqua idea spread across the nation and provided music, debates, lectures, and sermons through the 1920's. Founded in 1883, the Crete Chautauqua acquired this site, and within a decade twenty buildings had been erected. For a time it was the largest such assembly in the country, and up to 5,000 persons camped here in family-sized tents during the ten-day summer meeting. Emphasis gradually shifted from religion to politics and entertainment, and William Jennings Bryan and the Negro Slayton Jubilee Singers were among its popular attractions. Financial losses caused backers to dissolve the Crete Assembly in 1898 after competing assemblies emerged in Lincoln, Beatrice, and Long Pine. Nearly twenty other Nebraska towns backed less pretentious programs. After 1900, traveling Chautauqua-circuit troupes played under large canvas tents in hundreds of Midwestern towns. World War I caused a slackening of interest, and vaudeville, movies, and radio gradually replaced Nebraska Chautauquas, which had once entertained, educated, and inspired thousands.
]]>Sergeant Leodegar Schnyder, who is buried in nearby Atlanta Center Cemetery, served in the U.S. Army for fifty-three years, longer than any other non-commissioned officer. Thirty-seven years were spent at the same frontier army post.
Born in Switzerland in 1814, Schnyder came to the United States with his parents in 1829. Enlisting in the army in 1837, he saw action in the Seminole War. In 1849 Schnyder's company was ordered to the newly established Fort Laramie, an isolated outpost on the overland trails. During the many years he served there, it was a focal point for emigrant travel and military campaigns, instrumental in the settlement of the West.
In 1852 Schnyder was promoted to Ordnance Sergeant and he later served as garrison postmaster. He was noted for his strict adherence to military regulations. Twice married at the post, he raised his children there. He retired from the army four years after being transferred to New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1886. With his second wife, Julia, he settled on a farm near Tobias, Nebraska, where he died December 19, 1896.
]]>Near here was located the first town and county seat in Saline County. Situated on Swan Creek from which it took its name, Swan City held prominence for only a few years.
The first settlement buildings, including a store and a sawmill, were constructed about 1865. In 1865, William Remington donated the land on which the town was located. The first meeting of the Saline County Commissioners took place there at Cline's Mill on February 17, 1866. Swan City was officially platted on October 8, 1866.
Swan City grew to a community of some 200. Its thriving business section included a hotel. The O'Connor Circus spent a few winters in Swan City.
In 1871, the county seat was moved from Swan City to Pleasant Hill. That same year, the railroad was being built through the Blue River Valley, two and a half miles from Swan City. Most of the town's business community wanted to be near the railroad and moved to either DeWitt or Wilber within two years.
The last vestige of Swan City was the flour mill which continued to operate until it burned in 1891. Swan City thus joined the ranks of ghost towns.
]]>Many nationalities blended in America and Nebraska to create our great nation and state. Prominent among them were the Czechs. They left a land which knew a great history and culture. The first university in Central Europe was established in Prague over 100 years before Columbus discovered America. Throughout generations of wars and oppression the Czech people kept alive their language, music, arts and customs, and they brought them to the New World. Here they live on. Charles Culek, who came to Nebraska in 1856, was the first permanent Czech settler. The first Czechs came to Saline County in 1865. In all, some 50,000 Czechs settled in Nebraska, most of them from the Province of Bohemia. They tended to congregate in villages, such as Wilber, officially designated by the Governor as the Czech Capital of Nebraska. Schuyler, Clarkson, Prague, and other towns were mainly settled by Czechs. Like other pioneers, Czechs conquered the hardships of frontier life, and thrived in the new land. Here they found freedom from oppression, and opportunity for their children. There peoples' industry and patriotism, with that of other nationalities, helped to make America and Nebraska great.
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