Brownville

The town's National Register nomination counts 425 people in 1860 and 1,305 in 1870, probably more than 2,000 by 1873, then 1,309 in 1880, 457 in 1910 and 243 in 1960, and blames depression, fading steamboat traffic, debt and the 1885 loss of the county seat. The Brownville Historical Society, founded in 1956, encouraged buyers to acquire and restore early buildings, many vacant and near ruin, and ran house tours, festivals, art shows and fiddlers contests. In 1966 the Carson family gave the Society the house Richard Brown had built in 1860, which it opened for tours.

What the plaque says

Brownville On August 29, 1854, shortly after the Kansas- Nebraska Act had opened the territory west of the Missouri River to permanent settlement, Richard Brown arrived on the site of the town which was to bear his name. Other settlers soon followed. Brownville quickly became one of the leading towns and cultural centers in the new territory. Located on the river, it became a transfer point for westbound wagon caravans. Here Daniel Freeman filed his homestead claim recognized as the first in the nation. Brownville was also the site of the first telegraph office in Nebraska. In 1872, both party candidates for governor were from Brownville. Robert W. Furnas, the Republican, won. Furnas had come to Brownville in 1856 and established one of the state's first newspapers, the Nebraska Advertiser. T. W. Tipton, another Brownville resident, served in the U.S. Senate from 1867 to 1875. Desirous of attracting a railroad, the town approved a huge bond issue in the late 1860's. The contracting company built only ten miles of track. Deeply in debt and without a railroad, Brownville was abandoned by many residents. In 1970 the historic importance of Brownville was recognized by its enroll- ment on the National Register of Historic Places. Brownville Historical Society Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Brownville — steps away
  A Missouri River town of 1854 that bet on a railroad and lost, kept its arts through the decline, and now has Nebraska's oldest repertory theatre and a 1932 steam dredge on the bank.
• Indian Cave State Park — 13 mi
  Wooded Missouri River bluffs in the old Nemaha Half-Breed Reservation, with carvings of animals cut into a sandstone shelter, the ghost town of St. Deroin and miles of trail.
• Arbor Lodge State Historical Park — 23 mi
  J. Sterling Morton's estate in Nebraska City, a four-room house of 1855 grown to 52 rooms among the trees he planted, home of the man who proposed Arbor Day in 1872.

More markers nearby

• Muir House — steps away
• The Nebraska State Teachers' Association — steps away
• Lewis and Clark Campsite: July 15, 1804 — 0.3 mi
• Peru State College — 6.6 mi