The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was authorized by Congress in 1933 to provide employment and vocational training to young men during the Great Depression. The CCC worked on forestry and soil conservation projects across the nation. Company 752 of the CCC occupied a camp at this site from October 2, 1934, through August 15, 1941. Up to 200 men were housed in the compound, known as Camp Thayer. The camp motto was "We lead, others follow." Men from Camp Thayer were sent to the Republican Valley after the 1935 flood to perform emergency work.
During World War II, six of the nine barracks at the former CCC camp were used as a side camp to house as many as 120 German prisoners of war from the overcrowded POW camp at Concordia, Kansas. The first prisoners arrived in early December 1943. The POWs performed farm work arranged by the Thayer County Non-Stock Cooperative Labor Association, replacing local men who had entered military service. The Hebron POW camp closed on November 15, 1945. The site of the camps is now the city's Riverside Park.
]]>The boundaries of the future Thayer County were first defined in 1856, and the county was named Jefferson. In 1867 Jones County to the east was attached. The legislature in 1871 divided the single large county into two, naming the western county Thayer. The eastern county became today's Jefferson County. Thayer County is named for John M. Thayer, Civil War general and Nebraska U.S. senator, 1867-71. He later served as Nebraska governor. Hebron, the county seat, was established in 1871.
Several great trails to the West passed through Thayer County, including the Oregon-California Trail, the Pony Express Trail, and the overland stagecoach route. In 1864 Indians raided ranches and stage stations along the trails in Thayer County. The St. Joseph and Denver City Railroad came in 1872. Thayer County is the home of Nebraska's woman suffrage movement, forming the first permanent woman suffrage association in 1879.
The Thayer County courthouse, completed in 1903, is constructed of Indiana Bedford limestone and Vermont marble. The building's tower was so badly damaged by the Hebron tornado of 1953 that it had to be removed.
]]>Bruning Army Air Field, located northeast of here, was one of eleven army airfields in Nebraska during World War II. Construction began in September 1942 on 1,480 acres of farmland, for which the government paid twelve landowners $73,400. The field was activated on March 18, 1943. It eventually included 1,720 acres, 234 buildings, and three 6,800-foot runways. By December 1943 nearly 500 civilians and 3,077 military personnel worked there.
Bruning initially provided training for the 456th, 449th, and 487th Heavy Bombardment Groups, flying B-24 Liberators. The 449th moved directly from Bruning to Italy, where it flew 245 group missions, losing 101 planes, 388 men killed in action, and 363 men as prisoners of war.
In 1944 the field was home to P-47 pilots from the 23rd Fighter Squadron, later sent to Europe, and the 507th and 508th Fighter Groups, which flew in the Pacific. The field was declared surplus by the War Department on November 21, 1945, and transferred to the state of Nebraska in 1947. Bruning was maintained as a state airfield until 1969. The site has reverted to agricultural uses.
]]>Located three miles north of this corner, near the Little Blue River, the village of Friedensau ("Peaceful Meadows") was established in 1874 by Lutheran missionary pastor John J. Kern. The town was first settled by his former parishioners from Indiana and Illinois.
In 1885, according to a book written by Kern, there were approximately seventy inhabitants in Friedensau and the surrounding area. There were two German Lutheran churches, a school, post office, water-powered grist mill, lumber yard, hotel, livery stable, blacksmith shop, and a number of other small businesses.
As late as the fall of 1886, it was expected that the Rock Island Railroad would be extended from Fairbury through Hebron, Friedensau, Kiowa, Oak, and Nelson. However, due to the influence of area landowner John G. Deshler, the railroad was routed east through his property. After the railroad reached Deshler in 1887, the buildings in Friedensau were moved over the fenceless prairie and relocated in Deshler. Only the Trinity Lutheran Church and its cemetery remain in the Friedensau area today.
]]>During the nineteenth century the United States underwent a dramatic westward expansion, but perhaps no single event stimulated this mass migration more than the 1848 discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in California. Hundreds of thousands of Americans were struck with "the fever." While some chose to sail to California on the famed Clipper Ships, the vast majority of gold seekers journeyed overland from the Missouri River feeder towns of Independence, St. Joseph, and Council bluffs. Through Nebraska, most travelers followed the established Oregon Trail which also became known as the California or "Forty-Niner" Trail.
The Forty-Niner Trail entered Thayer County near present-day Alexandria and followed the Big Sandy Valley where water, wood, and grass was available. After crossing the Big Sandy near Belvidere the trail proceeded in a southwesterly direction to the banks of the Little Blue. After the establishment of Thompson's Station a few miles south of Belvidere the trail followed the Eighteen Mile Ridge across Thayer County. The route was later used by the Pony Express, freighters, overland stage companies and the railroads. The trip to California was long and arduous, with disease, heat, lack of water, and Indian threats the constant dangers.
The call to adventure, possible riches, or a new home in a new land encouraged these hardy pioneers to make the journey along the Forty-Niner Trail.
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