Swan City, Nebraska

Former town · Saline County · county seat 1867–1871

About Swan City

Swan City was the first town and first county seat of Saline County, at the forks of Swan and Turkey creeks west of present DeWitt. Nothing of it remains; the Swan City historical marker (No. 48) stands on NE 103 about 2 miles northwest of DeWitt, and the map point is the marker.

History

The first store, Thomas Freeman's, and the county's first sawmill, built by T. Cline, stood here by the mid-1860s on land of William Remington and his neighbors. According to the marker, the county commissioners first met at Cline's Mill on February 17, 1866, and the town was platted on October 8, 1866; Andreas says it was laid out early in 1867, when the county was formally organized, and Swan City became the county seat. It grew to about 200 people with a hotel and a flour mill, the O'Connor Circus wintered here more than once, and the first term of district court was held here in May 1870.

In 1871 Pleasant Hill won the county seat and the railroad was built about 2½ miles away, and most of the town moved to DeWitt and Wilber within two years. By 1882 only the old gristmill and two or three houses were left, and the mill burned in 1891.

Things to see

The Swan City historical marker on NE 103 · DeWitt, about 2 mi east-southeast · Pleasant Hill, the second county seat