The First United Methodist Church of Nebraska City

Goode described his arrival in his 1864 memoir, Outposts of Zion. Setting out from Richmond, Indiana, on June 8, 1854, he crossed the Missouri by steam ferry in early August and found the old fort reduced to a blockhouse, one log dwelling and the remains of rough barracks. Rival town sites, Nebraska City and Kearney City, had been laid off on either side of South Table Creek, with one frame shanty of goods. Major Downs, the lone settler in the fort's old cabin, gave him several lots from his plat for the Methodist Episcopal Church then and there.

What the plaque says

The First United Methodist Church of Nebraska City Mother Church of Methodism in Nebraska After Nebraska Territory was organized in 1854, Dr. W. H. Goode came to establish Methodist missions. In 1855 Goode appointed Rev. William D. Gage to lead the Nebraska City Mission. Construction of a church began at this site in 1855. It was dedicated in November 1856. Part of the original structure forms the south end of the current sanctuary. In 1861 the Nebraska Methodist Conference was organized at Nebraska City. In 1936 the conference designated this church as "Mother Church of Methodism in Nebraska." Nebraska City First United Methodist Church Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Arbor Lodge State Historical Park — 1.2 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.
• Brownville — 22 mi
  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.

More markers nearby

• The Kregel Windmill Factory — 0.3 mi
• Russell, Majors, & Waddell House — 0.3 mi
• Mayhew Cabin, 1855 — 0.6 mi
• Nebraska City — 0.7 mi