County Past
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Dawson County, Nebraska

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
10historic places
—earliest paper
1860formed
24,111pop. 2020
24cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 10 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1969. Most listings are in or near Gothenburg, Cozad, Lexington.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for Nebraska is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Dawson titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

8 of 10 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

10 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Allen's Opera HouseCozadBuilding1988
Calling, Ernest A., HouseGothenburgBuilding1979
Carnegie Public LibraryGothenburgBuilding1986
Cozad Downtown Historic DistrictCozadDistrict2018
Dawson County CourthouseLexingtonDistrict1990
Hendee HotelCozadBuilding1979
Midway Ranch HouseGothenburgBuilding2001
Midway Stage StationGothenburgBuilding1969
Olive, Ira Webster, HouseLexingtonBuilding1989
Temple, Harry V., HouseLexingtonBuilding2019

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Dawson was formed in 1860 (1860-01-11) from unknown / original county.

DAWSON created by Nebraska Territory from Non-County Area 1.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Dawson County population from 1860 to 2020 (Census historical series).

24k12k161860188019201940196020002020
1860188019001920194019501960198020002020
162,90912,21416,00417,89019,39319,40522,30424,36524,111

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

24 cemeteries and 0 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 24 of 24 listed
NameLatLon
Christ Lutheran Church Cemetery40.96235-100.12889
Cottonwood Cemetery40.93235-99.92007
Cozad Cemetery40.86066-99.94719
Evergreen Cemetery40.7645-99.68004
Fairview Cemetery40.77194-99.99595
Gothenburg Cemetery40.9459-100.14022
Grace Cemetery40.86028-99.86483
Grand View Cemetery40.94764-100.09117
Greenwood Cemetery40.79556-99.72844
Hewitt Cemetery40.85877-99.7773
Hillside Lutheran Cemetery40.89481-99.78774
Jewell Cemetery40.95993-99.56512
Mount Hope Cemetery40.82929-99.67379
Overton Cemetery40.73181-99.52245
Park Valley Cemetery41.03152-99.54405
Pleasant View Cemetery40.82922-100.11391
Rose Hill Cemetery40.98868-99.8445
Saint Anns Cemetery40.77868-99.71165
Saint Johns Lutheran Cemetery40.90195-99.84622
Saint Patricks Cemetery40.97476-99.61001
Salem Presbyterian Cemetery40.99632-100.1273
Sumner Cemetery40.96048-99.50259
Walnut Grove Cemetery40.97616-99.99453
Willow Island Cemetery40.90186-100.07587

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Dawson County, Nebraska

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.