Historical Marker · No. 222
The Tobin Indian Raid
Dawson County · Nebraska
Erected by Overton American Legion Post 277 and Nebraska State Historical Society
Farming communities did grow up beside the tracks here. Andreas's 1882 history dates Overton's first house to June 1873, built by James N. Patton. From 1879 Black families from the Elgin Settlement in Ontario began homesteading near Overton, among them Charles and Hester Meehan, who came with three children; Charles bought 156.51 acres in Dawson County in 1890. Between 1902 and 1907 the Meehans and other Canada-Nebraska families moved on to Cherry County, where Charles filed a Kinkaid homestead in 1907 and the DeWitty post office opened in 1915.
What the plaque says
The Tobin Indian Raid Railroads played an important role in the settlement of the Great Plains. Their construction was particularly damaging to the Indian way of life, since railroads helped the military to patrol rapidly along their lines, and villages and farming communities soon grew up along the rights-of-way. The Union Pacific was built across Nebraska between 1864 and 1867. On May 10, 1869, the U.P. tracks joined those of the Central Pacific at Promontory Point, near Ogden, Utah. Section crews were stationed along the railroad to keep the tracks and telegraph wires repaired. The Sioux and Cheyenne, knowing the importance of maintenance work, attacked working crews. Several such raids took place in present Dawson County. Mrs. Timothy Tobin and Mrs. William Costin, wives of section foremen, and their families were threatened by an Indian raiding party on April 29, 1868. Shortly afterward the warriors attacked and killed Mr. Tobin and section hands Schultz and McCarthy. A third employee named Williams, though seriously wounded, escaped to the section house. Fearing for her husband and his crew, Mrs. Costin bravely set out to warn them of the danger. A passing train picked up the survivors; the two slain workmen were buried near here. Overton American Legion Post 277 Nebraska State Historical Society
Where it stands
40.73372, -99.50241 · Directions
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