NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/581251
ost Nebraska counties have had a county seat fight at one time or another. Sometimes it determined which towns survived and which folded. In the Panhandle, for example, Nonpareil became the first seat of Box Butte County when the county was organized in 1886, but lost the prize to Hemingford in 1891. You won't find Nonpareil on your state highway map. Several years later Hemingford lost out to Alliance. But Hemingford had the courthouse and it seemed wasteful to build a new one in the new county seat. So they picked it up and moved it. This wasn't as impossible as it sounds – it wasn't a stone-and-brick courthouse. Still, it required some hard work and help from the Burlington Railroad. The railroad had reached Alliance in 1888, platting the town on land purchased from the state by the Lincoln Land Company, an auxiliary of the railroad. The company also built the courthouse in Hemingford and leased it to the county. After Alliance became the county seat, the company offered to move the courthouse 20 miles to its new location. They contracted with a house mover from Lincoln and gave him 30 days to get the job done. After 10 days he informed the company that it couldn't be done in time. He hadn't moved the building more than 20 feet. Now the Lincoln Land Company was in a bind. They had contracted with the county to move the courthouse and have it ready for use by July 15, 1899. The Burlington Railroad saved the day. J. H. Phelan, superintendent of the railroad's Wyoming division, offered to move the courthouse on a flatcar. Phelan's letter to the Lincoln Land Company describes the results: "Dear Sir: Referring to your message of June 30th asking for information concerning the moving of the court house – The building was safely hauled from Hemingford to Alliance and is now on the way from the track to its permanent location. As you know the building is fifty feet long by forty wide[,] two full stories in height with a heavy truss roof and constructed with a heavy hard pine frame. As there were two cuts to pass through the building was raised on timbers high enough to clear the banks and when ready to start it was fifty feet from the railroad track to the top of the deck on the building. The weight of the building was estimated at 100 tons… Six hours after leaving Hemingford the building was clear of the track in Alliance…. Yours truly, J. H. Phelan, Superintendent." In 1913 the county replaced the traveling courthouse with a solid, limestone-and-brick Beaux Arts-style edifice that still serves the county and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is a grand building, and perhaps more importantly is too big and heavy to simply haul away. ■ Visit the Nebraska State Historical Society's website at Nebraskahistory.org. NSHS, RG3152-3-19 NSHS, RG2956-33 A Brief History Moving the Courthouse By David Bristow, Nebraska State Historical Society M The county courthouse was moved 20 miles from Hemingford to Alliance on July 3, 1899. Inset, this limestone and brick courthouse replaced the original in 1913. 10 NEBRASKAland • NOVEMBER 2015 NSHS NSHS NSHS NSHS, RG RG RG RG2956 2956 2956 2956 33 -33 -33 33