Paragon Cemetery

Two post offices opened in this part of Cedar County on December 11, 1871. Bow Valley, which gave the first congregation its name, was named for the creek it stood on, with Conrad Wisner as postmaster, and lasted until April 1903. Smithland, probably named for its first postmaster, Michal Smith, became Paragon in February 1882, a name the county's place-name list suggests came from the plain English word. On October 17, 1883 that Paragon post office took a new name, Hartington, after the railroad town platted that year.

What the plaque says

Paragon Cemetery Paragon Lutheran Church evolved from Bow Valley Evangelical Lutheran Church, established in 1873. Founding families were Albert Erdenberger, Bernhard Olsen, Martin Bottolfsen, and John Anderson. Services were conducted in homes, the District 24 schoolhouse, and in Hartington until Paragon Lutheran Church was built in 1904. Bernhard and Maren Olsen donated the cemetery ground in 1876; Nils Seim was the first burial. Along with the church, cemetery, and school, the Paragon community once included a gristmill, post office, and general store. Paragon Cemetery Association Nebraska State Historical Society 2008

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• National Music Museum — 16 mi
  One of the great collections of musical instruments in the world, on a college campus in a prairie town, built around a band teacher's thousands of horns, fiddles and curiosities.
• Spirit Mound Historic Prairie — 19 mi
  A lone hill north of Vermillion that Lewis and Clark walked to on a scorching day in 1804, now one of the few places left where you can stand exactly where they stood.

More markers nearby

• Cedar County — 4.7 mi
• Hartington: Home of Two Nebraska Governors — 4.9 mi
• Meckling & Lincoln — 14 mi
• Grand Officers — 15 mi