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The Nemaha town site was selected in 1854. Allen L. COAT was the surveyor and the first person to erect his cabin. The 1855-56 legislature granted a charter for a ferry boat crossing the Nemaha River and a mill dam. This was the crossing point for the trail leading to Falls City, Rulo, St. Joseph, and other points south. Later, Mr. ELLIOTT built a bridge which the county purchased in 1867. A bridge was also built at BENNETT's saw mill west of town. A grist mill was also added. The first post office was established July 1, 1856, with Jerome HOOVER as postmaster.

On July 1, 1857, Nemaha City covered 300 acres, on a beautiful plateau covered with waving grass and wild flowers. Its buildings consisted of two or three log cabins, and a few cottonwood shanties. In one of those temporary buildings, Dr. Jerome HOOVER had installed a grocery store, where the doctor made his headquarters, and his son, Birl, carried on the thriving grocery business which was patronized by the immigrants who were constantly passing, some to Kansas, and others to points in Nebraska, for a suitable location to settle.

In 1857, all of the land south of the Nemaha River was vacant except for a few places on the Otoe Reservation, which was occupied by half-breeds and Indians. The land bounding Nemaha on the north was school land.

On July 4, 1857, a celebration in the public square was promoted by a few pioneers. An ox had been barbecued. Long tables and benches were improvised out of cottonwood lumber borrowed from the Silas TIDWELL sawmill, which was the first sawmill in Nemaha County. The river bottom at that time contained many acres of cottonwood timber which was sawed into lumber for building purposes.

The winters of 1857 and 58 were fine open winters. Carpenters could be seen working in their shirt sleeves. Everybody was pressed into the building service who could wield a hammer. Another sawmill west of town, on the Nemaha River, had been put into operation, which converted walnut logs into lumber.

New houses and businesses appeared like magic, and immigrants poured in at a rapid rate, by every kind of conveyance imaginable. The Missouri river was navigable. The packets, which were comfortable, averaged three per day. They were laden with produce and merchandise as well as passengers.

Within one year there were two commodious hotels, and numerous shops and stores were built on short notice. A Mr. BARNES made fine brick and pottery ware along the bluff northeast of town. Several brick buildings were erected out of this brick.

The first schoolhouse was built about the year 1859. It was a small cottonwood building. It served also for church, Sunday school and all public meetings. At this time there was a select school started and conducted by J.C. CRANDALL and his wife where older children attended.

The Episcopal denomination built the first church. It was a very pretty Gothic structure made of walnut lumber secured from the David LOCKWOOD woodlot on the Nemaha River bottom, and sawed by the BENNETT sawmill nearby. Ô