Muir House

Muir's own papers show the reformer behind the house. History Nebraska's finding aid gives his birth in Lanarkshire, Scotland, on October 24, 1826, and says he was elected treasurer of the Nebraska Settlement Company in 1856, moved to Table Rock in 1857 and owned a sawmill from 1858. A Whig and then a Republican before he turned to the Prohibition Party, he ran on its ticket for regent of the University as well as for governor. His three boxes of papers, mostly from 1869 to 1913, hold files on prohibition, temperance, anti-imperialism and religion.

What the plaque says

Muir House This is the former home of Robert Valentine Muir, an early resident of Brownville. Born in Scotland in 1827, Muir came to America in 1835 and moved to Nebraska in 1856 as Treasurer for the Nebraska Settlement Company. He operated a sawmill, flour business, and ferry. He was also involved in real estate and was a publisher of the Nebraska Advertiser. Muir led an active public life. For years he was a key figure in the Prohibition Party of Nebraska and ran for Governor as its candidate. He died in 1917. One of Nebraska's most elegant early homes, the house was erected by Muir during 1868-1870. It was built of native Nebraska brick, in the Italianate style. The paneling of butternut, bird's-eye maple, and black walnut consists of native woods cut in Muir's own sawmill, located across the river in Missouri. This important example of our early architecture has been restored by Mrs. Harold D. LeMar. Mrs. Harold D. LeMar Historical Land Mark Council

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

• Brownville — steps away
• The Nebraska State Teachers' Association — 0.2 mi
• Lewis and Clark Campsite: July 15, 1804 — 0.4 mi
• Peru State College — 6.6 mi