Custer County's First Courthouse

The hearing held here closed a case already decided once. In the spring of 1879 Print Olive and Fred Fisher were tried at Hastings, in Adams County, where Judge Gaslin had sent the case, and the jury found them guilty of second-degree murder. Gaslin sentenced both to life in the penitentiary. The Nebraska Supreme Court then held that indicting and trying them in Adams County had been an error, over Judge Samuel Maxwell's dissent, and the case went back to Custer County. No one pressed it, and Olive walked free after about nineteen months behind bars.

What the plaque says

Custer County's First Courthouse Custer County, named in memory of General George Armstrong Custer, was organized July 27, 1877. Frontiersmen and pioneer ranchers had been living in the area since 1872. Earlier, soldiers from Fort McPherson and settlers from the Platte River counties had regularly made hunting expeditions here, for its river valleys were noted feeding grounds for deer, elk and antelope. The log ranch house of Milo F. Young, then located in Section 23, Township 15N, Range 22W, was des- ignated as the temporary county seat. Built in 1876, it officially served as the courthouse for seven years, though most county records were kept in the home of the officials. On December 17, 1880, here was held a hearing for the re-arrest and re-trial of Olive and Fisher, for the lynching of Mitchell and Ketchum, one of history's most noted feuds between ranchers and homesteaders. No charges were pressed and the case was dropped. The log house continued to serve as a private residence for many years but was finally abandoned. At the request of several community organizations in 1933, the Young Estate donated the house to the village of Callaway, and it was moved here to Morgan Park. Seven Valleys Historical Society Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• The Nebraska State Grange — 15 mi
• Broken Bow — 16 mi
• Broken Bow Town Square — 17 mi
• Etna — 17 mi