16 NEBRASKAland • JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2015
F
lour milling was one of
the earliest and most
important industries
to develop in Nebraska.
Early settlers needed
mills to grind their wheat
and corn into flour and
cornmeal, and also create
a market for local cereal
grains. Early mills were
often operated in conjunction
with a sawmill to cut timber
into dimensional lumber. By
providing needed services,
mills began community centers
in newly settled areas, and
were a necessity for any
fledgling townsite.
During the first years
of settlement, most
Nebraska mills used
water for motive power.
Settlers naturally followed
the water courses inland
and mill building followed.
Additionally, early developers
and town boosters touted
the available water power
of Nebraska's rivers that could power
numerous mills, factories, and other
industrial enterprises. The Elkhorn
River, flowing some 200 miles through
northeastern Nebraska, was believed
by some promoters to be a source of
unlimited water power.
In 1872, a small party of men from
West Point in Cuming County traveled
up the Elkhorn to see the country
above Norfolk. One of the sightseers
was John D. Neligh, a manufacturing
entrepreneur and founder of West
Point, Nebraska. The party stopped at a
promising townsite in central Antelope
County and noted its water power
potential. In October Neligh went to
Omaha and bought the land from the
Omaha and Northwestern Railroad
Company.
By early 1873 Neligh had his new
townsite surveyed and platted, and
built a dam on the river to power a saw
mill. William B. Lambert, an associate
Nebraska's
Historic
Neligh Mill
By Thomas R. Buecker
JOHN D. NELIGH
This early view shows the mill penstock with its 10-foot fly wheel that turned a 1-inch
wire cable drive to power mill machinery.
NEBRASKA
STATE
HISTORICAL
SOCIETY,
N418.9-112
NEBRASKA
STATE
HISTORICAL
SOCIETY,
N418.9-5