Otoe County, Nebraska

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

County Seat: Nebraska City
Year Organized: 1854
Square Miles: 616

Court House:

1021 Central Ave, PO Box 249
County Courthouse
Nebraska City, NE 68410-0249

Etymology - Origin of County Name

The county was named after the Watota Indians, one of the many tribes which lived along the Missouri River. Otoe is derived from Oto, the Indian abbreviation of Watota, which means "lovers of pleasure."

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Two years before the Nebraska Territory would be granted statehood in 1867, William R. Craig and F.W. Wood completed a grand two-story brick building that 129 years later holds the honor of being the oldest public building in Nebraska. That building is the Otoe County Courthouse.

Otoe County was defined by the Territorial Legislature on March 2, 1855, the same year that Nebraska City was platted. The county was named after the Watota Indians, one of the many tribes which lived along the Missouri River. Otoe is derived from Oto, the Indian abbreviation of Watota, which means "lovers of pleasure."

When the county was created, Nebraska City was designated as the county seat. For several years there were no official county offices. Rather, county business would be conducted from a log cabin and from rooms that were rented from Nebraska City stores.

Whether it was by design or by chance, when the courthouse was built in 1865 it was built on ground that was once part of an Indian cemetery. When it was completed, the courthouse cost $22,500. County offices were located on the build's first floor, the District Court on the second floor, and the jail in the basement.

The first addition to the courthouse was made in 1882 with a wing added to the west end. In 1936 it became apparent that additional space was once again needed and an identical two-story wing was added to the east side of the original courthouse. Ironically, the second addition cost nearly three times what the original courthouse cost 71 years earlier.

Today, the Otoe County Courthouse is among those listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Also rich in the history of Otoe County is J. Sterling Morton, who served as Secretary of the Nebraska Territory and twice as its acting governor. In addition, Morton was Secretary of Agriculture in President Grover Cleveland's administration. Despite this public service, Morton is best known as the originator of Arbor Day

Neighboring Counties:

Insert Counties Here

Cities and Towns:

- Burr	village	Incorporated Area
- Douglas	village	Incorporated Area
- Dunbar	village	Incorporated Area
- Lorton	village	Incorporated Area
- Nebraska City (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Otoe	village	Incorporated Area
- Palmyra	village	Incorporated Area
- Sterling	village	Incorporated Area
- Syracuse	city	Incorporated Area
- Talmage	village	Incorporated Area
- Unadilla	village	Incorporated Area
- Wyoming	township

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this 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."