Nemaha County, Nebraska

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Nemaha County, Nebraska
Nemaha County Courthouse in Auburn
Location in the state of Nebraska
Nebraska's location in the U.S.
Founded	1855
Seat	Auburn
Largest city	Auburn
Area  - Total  - Land  - Water	412 sq mi (1,067 km²) 409 sq mi (1,059 km²) 3 sq mi (8 km²), 0.63%
Population  - (2010)  - Density	7,248 18/sq mi (7/km²)
Website	nemahacounty.ne.gov/

Nemaha County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of 2010, the population was 7,248. Its county seat is Auburn.

In the Nebraska license plate system, Nemaha County is represented by the prefix 44 (it had the forty-fourth-largest number of vehicles registered in the county when the license plate system was established in 1922).

History

The county forms the core of the Nemaha Half-Breed Reservation formed in the Treaty of Prairie du Chien in 1830 as land for the offspring of traders and Native Americans. The grounds of modern Indian Cave State Park mark where the county's first community -- St. Deroin, Nebraska was founded in 1853 by members of the reservation as a trading post on the Missouri River. When white settlement was permitted in the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 it was part of Forney County (named for U.S. cabinet member John W. Forney) which stretched along the Little Nemaha River from the Missouri River to west of Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1855 Nemaha County was formally founded with Brownville as its county seat. Johnson County was initially part of Nemaha but was subsequently spun off.

Brownville was the biggest city in Nebraska at the time and several firsts occurred in the county including: in 1861 the first state normal school which was founded at what today is Peru State College and Daniel Freeman filing the first claim under the Homestead Act for land on January 1, 1863 at the Brownville land office.

The Nebraska State Fair was held in the county at Brownville in 1870-1871.

In 1883 the county seat was moved to Auburn.

In 1974 the Cooper Nuclear Station was commissioned south of Brownville.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 412 square miles (1,070 km²), of which 409 square miles (1,060 km²) is land and 3 square miles (7.8 km²) (0.63%) is water.

Most of the eastern border follows the Missouri River bordering Atchison County, Missouri. In the county's extreme northeast corner, the border follows the river's former course, lying nearly two miles (3 km) east of the present-day channel. This situation arose because on July 5, 1867, a little over four months after Nebraska's border with Missouri had been formalized with Nebraska's admission to the Union, a flood avulsion created a meander cutoff, bypassing a 15-mile (24 km) meander with a new channel only one mile long. As a result, a 5,000-acre (2,000 ha) tract of Nemaha County called "McKissick's Island" lies east of the river, and can only be reached by land from the Missouri side. The border was officially approved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1905 in the case Missouri vs. Nebraska (197 U.S. 577), and was not formally surveyed until 1999, when the states agreed to the border in a compact signed by Bill Clinton.

Major highways

• U.S. Highway 75
• U.S. Highway 136
• Nebraska Highway 62
• Nebraska Highway 67
• Nebraska Highway 105

Adjacent counties

• Otoe County, Nebraska - north
• Atchison County, Missouri - east
• Holt County, Missouri - southeast
• Richardson County, Nebraska - south
• Pawnee County, Nebraska - southwest
• Johnson County, Nebraska - west

Demographics

Nemaha County Population by decade

1860 - 3,139 1870 - 7,593 1880 - 10,451 1890 - 12,930 1900 - 14,952 1910 - 13,095 1920 - 12,547 1930 - 12,356 1940 - 12,781 1950 - 10,973 1960 - 9,099 1970 - 8,976 1980 - 8,367 1990 - 7,980 2000 - 7,576 2010 - 7,248

As of the census of 2000, there were 7,576 people, 3,047 households, and 1,980 families residing in the county. The population density was 18 people per square mile (7/km²). There were 3,439 housing units at an average density of 8 per square mile (3/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 97.60% White, 0.36% Black or African American, 0.30% Native American, 0.59% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.37% from other races, and 0.74% from two or more races. 1.00% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 3,047 households out of which 29.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.00% were married couples living together, 7.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.00% were non-families. 30.50% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.20% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.32 and the average family size was 2.91.

In the county the population was spread out with 23.20% under the age of 18, 11.90% from 18 to 24, 23.90% from 25 to 44, 22.70% from 45 to 64, and 18.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 93.30 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.00 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $32,588, and the median income for a family was $43,780. Males had a median income of $30,956 versus $19,263 for females. The per capita income for the county was $17,004. About 8.30% of families and 12.60% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.20% of those under age 18 and 13.50% of those age 65 or over.

Cities and villages

• Auburn
• Brock
• Brownville
• Johnson
• Julian
• Nemaha
• Peru
• St. Deroin, archeological site

Precincts

Nemaha County has the following precincts (which are similar to townships)

• Aspinwall
• Bedford
• Benton
• Brownville
• Douglas
• Glen Rock
• Lafayette
• London
• McKissick's Island
• Nemaha
• Peru
• St. Deroin
• Washington.

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Nemaha County, Nebraska
• Nemaha Half-Breed Reservation