The year was 1854,
just a half-century after Lewis and Clark's valiant expedition into the Louisiana Territory, and thirteen years before the state of Nebraska would be born.
On a hot, muggy day
in late August, an enterprising young man from Holt County, Missouri, paddled his canoe across the Missouri River to take early advantage of the opportunities the "new land" offered.
His name was
Richard Brown
On this, his first work day in the wooded wilderness, he laid the foundation for the first cabin of one of the first towns to be settled in Nebraska Territory: his brainchild and his namesake -
Brownville
The 1854 Didier Cabin located in downtown Brownville let's visitors experience what Brown's first home was like.
He was a dynamo of energy ... his enthusiasm for his town-to-be was contagious.
Within three months of the erection of Richard Brown's historic cabin, the first birth; the first marriage, and the first death had occurred in the frontier settlement
Within the first year, a general store had been opened; the Christian Church had been organized; a three month term of school had been taught; Dr. Andrew S. Holladay had come to care for the sick; Richard Brown had been appointed the young town's postmaster; a steam sawmill had been erected; a flatboat ferry plied back and forth across the river; and Brownville had been named the county seat of Nemaha County.
By the spring of 1856,
word had gotten around: Brownville! This was the place to bring your family, the place to set up shop, the place to build your future. For this was a town with a future - a big future!
Despite there being something of a financial crisis, 1857 continued to be generally a good year for Brownville. The number of steamships docking at her wharf increased from thirteen to forty-seven with as many as a hundred people disembarked from these vessels on a single day.
On the last day of the year 1857, Robert Furnas (then newspaper Editor, and future Governor) estimated the population as 700 or 800, and went on to say: "Brownville will deserve to be called the mighty
'Queen of the West.'"
Dive into more of Brownville's rich history at any of the seven local museums dedicated to preserving these stories.
He was a dynamo of energy ... his enthusiasm for his town-to-be was contagious.
Within three months of the erection of Richard Brown's historic cabin, the first birth; the first marriage, and the first death had occurred in the frontier settlement
His name was
Richard Brown
On this, his first work day in the wooded wilderness, he laid the foundation for the first cabin of one of the first towns to be settled in Nebraska Territory: his brainchild and his namesake -
Brownville
The 1854 Didier Cabin located in downtown Brownville let's visitors experience what Brown's first home was like.