Dodge County, Nebraska: History and Information

Dodge County, Nebraska

Dodge County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Fremont
Year Organized: 1855
Square Miles: 534
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Court House:

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Named: named in honor of Augustus Caesar Dodge, a United States senator from Iowa who was a supporter of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

History

Dodge County was organized and it boundaries defined by an act of the First Territorial Legislature in March 1855. These boundaries would be redefined again in November 1858 and December 1859, and county would be reorganized for the final time in January 1860. It is named in honor of Augustus Caesar Dodge, a United States senator from Iowa who was a supporter of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

With Dodge County being bordered on the east by the Elkhorn River and on the south by the Platte River, trappers and hunters made up the earliest inhabitants. The earliest settlements were recorded in 1856 along the Platte River in locations that would eventually become the cities of Fremont and North Bend. Because the Mormon Trail, which paralleled the Platte River, and the Old Military Road, which connected Omaha with Fort Kearny, passed through the area, freighting became an important part of the county's development. Since settlers grew only enough crops for their own use, it would be a number of years before agriculture would become a prominent part of the area.

In 1860, three towns vied to become the county seat. Fremont received 62 votes, Robinsonville received two votes and Blacksmith's Point received one vote. The latter two would cease to exist shortly thereafter. For seven years after Fremont had been chosen to serve as the county seat, county offices and records were maintained in the homes of different officers and in leased apartments. Although the question of building a courthouse had been discussed many times, a consensus could not be reached. A wealthy Fremont landowner donated a city block for the purpose of being used for a courthouse. Original plans drawn for a wooden structure were eventually abandoned in favor of a brick building. Finally, in late 1867, the building was completed.

The brick structure was remodeled and repaired three times before a second courthouse opened in October 1890. A 1915 fire destroyed that structure and three years later the present courthouse was dedicated.

Neighboring Counties:

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Cities:

Ames; Dodge; Fremont; Hooper; Inglewood; Nickerson; North Bend; Scribner; Snyder; Uehling; Winslow

County Resources:

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County Resource Guide

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we’ve given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the “characteristic features of our country!”

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn’t the only reason to explore counties’ role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today’s counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990’s political slogan “Think globally, act locally.”

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