French Settlement of Julian

The murder took fourteen years to solve. Bahuaud lived alone about half a mile south of the village and was killed for his money in June 1899. In 1913 one of three men under suspicion suffered heatstroke in Kansas and, believing he would die, confessed his part. He recovered, was brought back to Auburn, was tried and convicted, and spent the rest of his life in the Nebraska State Penitentiary. Bahuaud's grave is at St. Bernard's Church in Julian, where Jean Jacques Lavigne and Rose Bernard, wife of Laurent, also lie, from families the plaque names.

What the plaque says

French Settlement of Julian The first French people in this area were trappers and traders along the Missouri River. Permanent French settlers began to arrive during the 1850s. Among the early settlers were Julien Bahuaud and the Laurent Bernard, Jean Bize, and Jean Lavigne families. Eventually about 40 French families settled in this area, along with settlers of other ethnicities. A post office was established in 1880 at the Thomas Tobin house, about a mile south of what is now downtown Julian. In 1887 the Nebraska Southern Railway (later the Missouri Pacific) built a line connecting Auburn to Nebraska City. A new town was platted along this route on November 7, 1887, and took the name Julian after its most prominent settler. It was later said that railroad officials named the town "Julian" because they couldn't pronounce "Bahuaud". Julien Bahuaud was murdered in 1899; the crime went unsolved until the killer confessed 14 years later. The post office was relocated and Julian was incorporated on June 15, 1896. It became the largest primarily French immigrant community in southeast Nebraska, reaching a population of 206 in 1900. Julian Preservation Committee Nebraska State Historical Society, 2019

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Arbor Lodge State Historical Park — 11 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.
• Brownville — 14 mi
  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 — 26 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.

More markers nearby

• Peru State College — 7.8 mi
• 1882 Talmage, Nebraska 1982 — 8.0 mi
• Auburn Post Office Mural — 9.2 mi
• Half-Breed Tract — 9.2 mi