NEBRASKA Lexington
Dawson & Gosper County Travel Guide 2025 | 17
Reviving History & Creating Memories
BY HEATHER HEINEMANN Executive Director of Lexington Chamber of Commerce L goods to the people traveling along the Oregon and California trails and traded with the many Indian tribes that were still in the area. Louisa Freeman wrote in her diary that they got along well with the Indians though many of the white settlers did not, and as a result much of Plum Creek fell victim to several attacks, the most famous being the Plum Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Turkey Leg raid of 1867. The Plum Creek Massacre has been portrayed in a book, “Captive of the Cheyenne,” written by Russ Czaplewski and published by the Dawson County Historical Society. It tells the true account of Nancy Jane Morton’s capture by the Cheyenne Indians and the attack on her wagon train. When the Union Pacific Railroad was built through Dawson County, the Freemans moved their store across from the new depot. The town was called Plum Creek. Louisa wrote in her exington, located in Dawson County, has a rich history. It was first established as a frontier trading post in 1860 by Daniel and Louisa Freeman. It sat along Plum Creek across from a Pony Express station south of the Platte River. They provided
diary that their store was on the first level of their new big house, and they boarded newcomers on the second level. Daniel Freeman became the first county clerk and operated the first Plum Creek newspaper called the Dawson County Banner. Daniel threw himself into bringing people from the east to settle this small town of Plum Creek and was often away from home. It was during one of those trips that he drowned in the Platte River. Louisa and her children remained in the Plum Creek vicinity until she died at the age of 86. With the building of the Union Pacific Railroad and the rise of the locomotive, the small town of Plum Creek began to expand. People came from all over the United States and settled in Dawson County. I.P. “Print” Olive, a cattleman from Texas, was drawn by the vast prairies of central Nebraska. His family, including his parents and a few siblings, settled in Plum Creek and quickly became a prominent family in the area. Ira Olive, Print’s brother, was more of a businessman, while Print and their younger brother Bob loved the life of the cowboy and ran their cattle business. But times were changing as more and more homesteaders settled the area, and the cattlemen and farmers argued over land rights. One such argument between the Olive family and
Lexington Public Library
Dawson County Courthouse
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