Osceola and The Early Pioneers: 1867-1967

Osceola was a Seminole leader, born Billy Powell in 1804 in the Upper Creek town of Talisi and raised in his Muscogee mother's ways. As a child he went to Florida with Red Stick refugees after the Creek War. He was not the principal chief but an adviser to Micanopy, and he led resistance when the United States moved to force the Seminole west. On October 21, 1837, on General Thomas Jesup's orders, he was seized under a flag of truce at peace talks near Fort Peyton. He died a prisoner at Fort Moultrie on January 30, 1838.

What the plaque says

Osceola and the Early Pioneers The early settlement of Polk County in 1867 brings us in close touch with the trail of the pioneer. Then from year to year, others came and settlement advanced. These early settlers came by covered wagon, many with ox team. The nearest rail- road was 40 miles distant and the roads were trails angling from place to place. The vast expanse of prairie grass, as far as the eye could see was broken only here and there by smoke arising from some sod house on a claim. Osceola, the county seat and geographical center of Polk County is said to have been named after the Indian Chief Osceola of Florida. It was first located three miles southeast of the present site. The present location was made permanent October 10, 1871. The post office was established June, 1872 and the town was incorporated on August 26, 1881. At this date, Osceola was the terminus of the mail route from Lincoln via Ulysses. The Union Pacific Railroad ran its first train into Osceola June 23, 1879, giving direct communication with the outer world. Polk County has been the home of three governors, Albinus Nance, John H. Mickey and Ashton C. Shallen- berger. Osceola Lions Club Historical Land Mark Council

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Genoa U.S. Indian School Museum — 21 mi
  The surviving trades building of a federal boarding school that ran from 1884 to 1934 on the Pawnee Nation's last Nebraska land, where at least 86 children died and the cemetery is still lost.

More markers nearby

• Stromsburg - The Swede Capital of Nebraska — 5.9 mi
• Village of Shelby — 6.1 mi
• The Lincoln Highway-Gardiner Station Section — 12 mi
• Duncan, 1871-1971 — 14 mi