Seward County Courthouse Square Historic District

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.

We must give an incident of one of our trips to mill. In the summer of 1868 we were on the way to Camden with a load of wheat, and when nearing Clark's branch, two miles below Seward, a peddler came rushing past in a tremendous hurry, fearing, we suppose, that we would get stuck in the mud at the ford, and that he would be hindered. There was a short turn in the road just where it went down the bank, and his ponies gave a sudden spring, and over went the wagon, and Mr. Peddler went sprawling into the soft mud ; his wagon-box burst, and his fine jewelry, dry goods, laces, etc., were in like fix with himself, hopelessly imbedded in the mud. We rushed to his assistance, secured the team, and helped to pick his jewelry, brushes, silks, and linen out of the horrible pit and spread them on the grass, and lamented with him the sad loss, when he finally gave way to grief in the following strain: " Mine Gott ! Vat shall I do? Vat shall I do? I is in debt for dese goots. Mine Gott ! Mine Gott! I goes and gets a rope and hangs mineself. Mine Gott! Mine Gott! " He refused to be comforted, and when we finally left him he was still giving vent to his feelings in loud lamentations. We would like to know whether he found a rope while he was yet in the notion of hanging himself.

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 - 22,903 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.