Nebraska City

Florence, Nell, Grace, and Norton Ware are pictured here riding bicycles at their home, named Wildwood. Jasper and Ellen Ware, their parents, moved to Nebraska City in 1869. The town was already home to several schools, public entertainment venues, and fraternal lodges. In September 1859, ten acres south of town had been cordoned off to create grounds for the first Territorial Agriculture and Mechanical Fair. Nebraska City even hosted the first Nebraska State Fair in 1868. (Courtesy of the Wildwood Period House.)

Reading was a popular hobby in the 1800s; the Ladies Round Table and Literary Club was organized in 1869 and collected 100 books to start the town’s first library. That led to the construction of the Morton James Public Library in 1896. Another hobby was music. Grace Ware, daughter of Jasper and Ellen, is pictured here at her home, Wildwood. Ware trained in music at Juilliard in New York City. (Courtesy of the Wildwood Period House.)

The four Ware children and a friend loaded up a livery wagon in preparation for a three-day trip in the late 1890s. Their home, Wildwood, is pictured in the background. In the late 1960s, the Ware’s historical home and grounds were given to the City of Nebraska City to serve as a park, increase the size of the city-owned golf course, and preserve the house as a museum. (Courtesy of the Wildwood Period House.)

The Bickel home at 703 Third Corso is pictured here in December 1906. While many of the early structures in Nebraska City were built of wood, the founding of local brick factories increased the number of brick homes and businesses. Brick was favored over wood mainly because of its durability and fire-resistant nature. (Courtesy of Brett and Robyn Gay.)

Nebraska City’s first teacher was Margaret Martin. She began teaching in 1855 and earned $1.50 per month. Lucy Bowen taught at the second school opened in Nebraska City, beginning in the spring of 1856. It was a private school on Third Rue and Sixth Terrace. Bowen taught there 25 years. (Courtesy of the Nebraska City Historical Society.)

Nebraska City’s Grand Army of the Republic Hall at 910 First Corso was built in 1894 to honor local veterans of the Civil War. The hall was used for meetings and special events, like the one in this 1898 photograph. (Courtesy of the GAR Hall.)

Early settlers tended to be civic-minded people. Local merchants started a band, seen above, and even held parades. The photograph below was taken on May 30, 1908. Residents also were quick to hold posts in the city government and introduced many fraternal lodges, including a Masonic lodge and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. (Both courtesy of Nebraska City Tourism and Commerce.)

Nebraska City residents enjoy a picnic on the lawn of Arbor Lodge. Other leisure activities included concerts, parades, gun clubs, tennis, horse racing, and bicycling. (Courtesy of Arbor Lodge.)

At the east end of Arbor Lodge Park, along Second Avenue, was Morton Lake. It was located in a 23-acre tract of land that had been ceded to Nebraska City by J. Sterling Morton. Morton asked the city to tend to the land as a public park, and when Joy Morton donated Arbor Lodge to the state in 1923, Morton Park was included in the transaction. The lake was eventually filled in. (Courtesy of Arbor Lodge.)

The thoroughly American sport of baseball was introduced to Nebraska City in the 1860s and proved to be very popular. The town’s team, called the Otoes, even played a game against the Cincinnati Reds in 1869. The Reds went undefeated that season; the team is often considered the first professional team in baseball. (Courtesy of the Arbor Day Foundation.)

The city baseball team did run into trouble with the law once when they scheduled a game on a Sunday afternoon. The local sheriff came armed to stop the game, but the crowd interfered, giving the visiting team from Omaha time go into hiding until they could catch the next train home. Sunday baseball was not played again for a long time, perhaps not even by these players in 1910. (Courtesy of the Nebraska City Museum of Firefighting.)

On July 4, 1910, Eddie Rickenbacker, who was well on his way to becoming a famous race-car driver, participated in a car race in Nebraska City’s Steinhart Park, nicknamed Driving Park. Rickenbacker blew a tire and ended up in Steinhart Pond. He later competed several times in the Indianapolis 500 and became a top fighter pilot during World War I. (Courtesy of the Nebraska City Museum of Firefighting.)

On a cold day in November 1912, Benoist Aviators landed a tractor biplane on the flats of the Missouri River. The plane was in route from Omaha, Nebraska, to New Orleans, Louisiana. (Courtesy of Nebraska City Tourism and Commerce.)

Nebraska City opened the first high school in the state in 1865. While not consistently used due to many options of private schooling in the community, residents did front the $31,000 to build the structure. The first NCHS graduate is recognized as Mary Cornelia Petring, in 1880. (Both courtesy of the Nebraska City Historical Society.)

After completing high school, there were several opportunities for higher education in Nebraska City, including Toland’s Business University on Central Avenue across from the Otoe County Courthouse. Another school, Otoe University, opened in 1859 at the corner of Fourteenth Street and Fourth Avenue. Classes were offered in languages, moral science, mathematics, natural science, German, French, music, painting, gymnastics, physiology, pathology, and the nature and laws of the mind. Otoe University was sponsored by the Presbyterian Church and had about 100 students annually. Nebraska College bought the Otoe University property in 1872 and closed it in 1885. (Courtesy of Dorris Sackles.)

Local students gather outside the Sixth Street School at the corner of Sixth Street and Fourth Corso in 1895. Other schools included a female seminary in operation from 1861 until 1863. The Benedictine Sisters opened an academy for young ladies in 1865, and in 1868, the Nebraska Legislature chartered Nebraska College and Divinity School at Talbot Hall, located a couple of miles outside of town. In 1888, the Nebraska City Academy opened at that site and, within six months, reached an enrollment of 85 students. The Prairie Institute at Thirteenth Street and Second Avenue opened in 1869 with music, language, and general studies in its curriculum. Finally, Schoenberger Hall opened in 1870. The school for girls taught French, German, drawing, music, Latin, and more. It closed in the late 1880s. (Courtesy of the Nebraska City Historical Society.)

Students at Nebraska City High School took advantage of opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities such as basketball. Pictured here is the 1906–1907 basketball team. (Courtesy of the Morton James Public Library.)

The Fourteenth Street School was first built at the southeast corner of Fourteenth Street and First Corso in 1869. The building was destroyed by fire in 1874 and rebuilt the following year at the same location. (Courtesy of the Nebraska City Museum of Firefighting.)

Lilly Sorensen was a longtime teacher at the Sixth Street School. She is pictured here with the morning kindergarten class of 1956–1957. (Courtesy of the Morton James Public Library.)

In 1911, Nebraska City Public Schools erected a new high school on the southwest corner of First Corso and Ninth Street. Thousands of students graduated from that building before it was demolished in 1964. (Courtesy of the Morton James Public Library.)

Nebraska City has been home to the state’s school for the blind since March 1875. When the school first opened, it had an enrollment of three students, and annual tuition for one student was $250. The original building was constructed for under $1,000 and had no indoor plumbing. By the 1900s, the school averaged 60 to 80 students and boasted a gymnasium, stables, and an orchard. Music was a high priority for educators at the school. The institution has been in continuous operation and is now known as the Nebraska Center for the Education of Children Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired. (Courtesy of the Morton James Public Library.)

The cornerstone to St. Benedict’s Catholic Church at 411 Fifth Rue was laid in September 1860. Completed in 1861, the Romanesque-style structure is the oldest brick church in Nebraska. (Courtesy of Nebraska City Tourism and Commerce.)

In 1853, the first Methodist service in Nebraska City was preached by Rev. William Gage in one of the abandoned Fort Kearny buildings. In 1855, the Nebraska City Methodist Church was officially established with eight members. Work on a worship hall began in 1856, and the back wall of the current building is part of that first structure. By 1870, there were 14 active church organizations in Nebraska City. Some met in log buildings, a few were brick, and many met in residential homes. (Courtesy of the Nebraska City First United Methodist Church.)