Tekamah

The county's namesake never saw it. Francis Burt of Pendleton, South Carolina, was third auditor of the U.S. Treasury in 1854 when he accepted the governorship, after President Franklin Pierce's first choice, William O. Butler of Kentucky, declined. Burt fell ill on the overland leg through Tennessee and reached Bellevue so weak that he went to bed in William Hamilton's Presbyterian mission house. He took the oath there on October 16, 1854, and died at about 3:30 in the morning around October 18. Thomas B. Cuming, as acting governor, then put the territorial capital at Omaha.

What the plaque says

Tekamah Tekamah, county seat of Burt County, was laid out on October 7, 1854, by a group of settlers led by Benjamin R. Folsom. They chose this location for its abundant water, timber, stone, and the rich soil of the Missouri River Valley. The site was named "Tehama" after a California locality where one of the party had found gold. Later, the spelling became Tekama and finally, Tekamah. Permanent settlers arrived here in the spring of 1855, a year marked by drouth and an unusually severe winter. Growth was slowed by a nationwide financial panic in 1857. The Bank of Tekamah was among several "wildcat" banks in Nebraska Territory which failed during the panic after issuing large quantities of unsecured paper currency. The basis for Tekamah's future prosperity came with agri- cultural development. Prior to white settlement, this area was the domain of the Omaha and Ponca Indians. Lewis and Clark passed here in 1804. Burt County was among the original eight counties created by the territorial legislature in 1855. It is named in honor of Francis Burt, who died two days after taking office as Nebraska's first territorial governor. Tekamah Lions Club, 1976 Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blackbird Scenic Overlook — 24 mi
  A pull-off on US-75 at Macy on the Umóⁿhoⁿ reservation, looking over the Missouri valley toward the hill where Wazhiⁿga' sabe, Blackbird, was buried after the smallpox of 1800.
• Fort Atkinson State Historical Park — 25 mi
  The first U.S. Army post west of the Missouri, a garrison town of more than a thousand people on Council Bluff from 1820 to 1827, rebuilt on its own foundations.

More markers nearby

• Governor Frederick Valdemar Erastus Peterson — 13 mi
• Cuming City Cemetery and Nature Preserve — 13 mi
• The Logan Creek Site — 13 mi
• Victor Colson Homestead — 14 mi