Plymouth

The colony's church did not move with the depot. Its Congregational Church still stood three miles south, so on April 10, 1894, Congregationalists in the new village organized the Second Congregational Church of Plymouth. They built for $1,208 and dedicated the building on August 19, 1894, with J. B. Doolittle as their first pastor. The congregation dwindled, and in 1905 it deeded the building to the Methodist Episcopal Church of Plymouth, gave its members letters of dismissal and disbanded. Its book of history, minutes and membership, 1894 to 1905, is on microfilm at History Nebraska.

What the plaque says

Plymouth Plymouth began in 1871 as a farming commu- nity 3 miles south and 1½ miles west of the present town of Plymouth. D. E. Jones, a Congregational minister and land agent for the Burlington and Missouri Railroad, arrived to locate a site for a colony that would follow the ideals of the Pilgrims who founded Plymouth, Massachusetts. Settlers came from eastern states and Germany. In 1872 the town of Plymouth was founded. By 1880 it boasted 100 people, a Congregational Church, a school, and numerous businesses. In 1893 the Rock Island Railroad refused to build a depot at Plymouth because of a steep uphill grade from the town. The loss of a station meant the end of old Plymouth. Only the cemetery remains. The depot was built on the divide between Cub Creek and Dry Creek, the present site of Plymouth. The new village, incorporated in 1894, was settled by arrivals from Germany joining Germans who came by way of Canada. Their descendants make up the majority of Plymouth's present population. Nebraska State Historical Society Jefferson County Historical Society Plymouth Centennial Organization

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Homestead National Historical Park — 8.8 mi
  Daniel Freeman's claim on Cub Creek near Beatrice, one of the first filed under the Homestead Act, with a one-room school, a homesteader's cabin, restored prairie and the land's earlier owners.
• Rock Creek Station State Historical Park — 14 mi
  A stage and Pony Express station on the trail southeast of Fairbury where James Hickok killed David McCanles in July 1861, with the court papers that cleared him, and deep wagon ruts.

More markers nearby

• Swan City — 7.2 mi
• Jansen — 9.9 mi
• Czech Capital — 12 mi
• Homestead Movement — 13 mi