Seward, Nebraska

The county seat and principal city of Seward county, was founded by Lewis Moffitt, and surveyed as a town site in the spring of 1868, by Hon. Thomas Graham. At this time one hewed log cabin graced this beautiful plateau, which was the home of its founder, Mr. Moffitt. Lots were treely offered to those who desired to make improvements. John Roberts, Sr., built the first building for the new town. We well remember passing over the ''site" one morning in June and seeing the pile of lumber lying just where Joel Tishue's store now stands, and how our heart swelled with emotion as we witnessed the signs of the coming birth of a new city; and well do we remember standing in our cabin door and watching frame after frame arise, as they appeared week after week, and rejoicing fo see what we long had waited for; and how exhilarating it seemed as we would leave the field for dinner, and on approaching the house and casting our eyes toward the embryo city, we would exclaim, "Mother, just see, there is another house going up in town." We remember that David Figard helped do the carpenter work on that little store. Beaty & Davis (J. N. Beaty and W. R. Davis) were the pioneer merchants. They sold groceries and dry goods, and were right clever fellows, too; they used to credit us, and then take their pay in butter, eggs, cottonwood lumber, fire wood, and promises, and the promises were the most plenty of any article produced in those days. I shouldn't wonder if they have some of those same promises yet.

Passage source: History of Seward County, Nebraska, Together with a Chapter of Reminiscenses of the Early Settlement of Lancaster County, published 1888.

J. N. Beaty built the first residence, and if you desire to see it just call at our house some day at dinner time and you will see the same old residence (our dining room). W. R. Davis erected the second where his house now stands, but in the march of progress it has given way for a better one. (Orlando Pierce claims his to be the third house.) Then Dr. Walker and W. H. Tuttle each commenced building about the same time. The Doctor's old house now stands on 4th street, just east of the opera house, and Mr. Tuttle's house was the beginning of what is now the Commercial House, but it was named the Blue Valley House. A public well was dug by E. L. Ellis and paid for by subscription. This old well stood in the center of the square. Some subscribed work, turning windlass, others Cottonwood lumber for curbing. The well was a prime necessity to all the people, but the residents of the town were not able to pay all the cost of the well, and the farmers were invited to chip in, wliich they did freely. At first a bucket and windlass were used, but A. L. Strang, now of Omaha, had settled on section 9, just north of town, and he had secured an agency for the famous Halliday windmill, and he began to talk windmill for the public well. Mr. Strang had already put up one on his farm, which the people were invited to go and examine, and it being the first windmill whose sails were unfurled in all this great region, people were not slow to go and examine its work. The windmill was bargained for, by Mr. Strang being the principal subscriber to the fund. It proved to be ''a thing of beauty and a joy for years."

Passage source: History of Seward County, Nebraska, Together with a Chapter of Reminiscenses of the Early Settlement of Lancaster County, published 1888.

The spring of 1869 brought recruits. School district No. 9 was organized, and L. G. Johns built a little shanty where Butler block now stands, and the district rented it, and Mr. Johns opened a school in it. Mr. Mauley built three small houses, one for a drug store, one for a hardware store, and one to live in. He painted them red, and that was the first attempt at ** painting the town red." About this time H. L. Boyes & Son got their little mill to grinding grain, after a long and tedious struggle. Their saw-mill had been running the previous season, and had been of great value to the settlement. The grist-mill was a God-send to the village and country, as previous to this we had depended largely on the Camden mill, although it was five miles further from us than Milford mill. Our reasons were that the Camden folks were our last friends, and Milford folks were our rivals, and our prejudice could easily carry us five miles through a blizzard.

Passage source: History of Seward County, Nebraska, Together with a Chapter of Reminiscenses of the Early Settlement of Lancaster County, published 1888.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Seward City - it names this place 53 more 53 times.