Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2014 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== A New Centennial History of the State of Kansas by Prof. Charles R. Tuttle Interstate Book Company - 1876 634-635 NEMAHA COUNTY was organized in 1855, and was named for the river. Its area is 720 square miles; its population, in 1875, was 7,104, in which males preponderate 290. Farming employs 81 per cent of the settlers, mines and manufactures about 8 per cent. The county seat is at Seneca, 59 miles north from Topeka. Ten per cent of the area is bottom land, and 3 per cent forest. The Nemaha is the principal stream, with tributaries Deer, Harris, Illinois, Grasshopper, Pony, Rock, Vermilion, French and Turkey creeks. Springs are plentiful, and wells average from 35 to 40 feet deep. Coal is found in small quantities along the Nemaha and creeks from six to twenty feet below the surface, ranging from four to thirteen inches in thickness; but little has been mined, and the quality being only moderate, the consumption is exclusively local. Two railroads serve this county, the St. Joseph and Denver City having its principal station at Seneca, and the Central Branch of the Union Pacific, at Wetmore, Corning and Centralia. There are three banks at Seneca, and water powers are limited. The noticeable manufactures of the county are a steam saw mill at Nemaha township; a steam flouring mill at Rich- mond; a steam flouring mill at Home township; a brewery at Seneca; a steam grist mill at Rock Creek; a steam flouring mill at Neuf- chatel township, and a cheese factory. There are 77 districts and 74 school houses valued at $70,553, besides a Catholic paro- chial school at Seneca. There are nine church buildings valued at $34,900. Nemaha was severely visited by the locusts, as 1,000 persons were in want of clothing and 250 in want of rations in the winter of 1874-5. ===========================================================================