Norfolk is located on the North Fork of the Elkhorn, in the northeastern part of the county, about four miles above its junction with the main branch of that river. The valley surrounding it is level, and the town is occasionally flooded. This might be, and probably will be, prevented.
The first store-keeper here, and the pioneer store-keeper of the county, was Evan Jones, who kept a small store in a dug-out, near the present site of the “Norfolk Mills,” in November, 1866. These mills were built by Col. Charles Mathewson, being completed in February, 1870, and they determined the location of the town, which was laid out in 1869, by Col. Mathewson. The first store in the town was also built by him in the spring of 1869. He also built the first frame house in the town, which stands at the corner of Main and State streets. Col. Mathewson died in May, 1880.
The first child born in the town was a son of Fred. Haase, in the fall of 1866, which lived only a few weeks, it being the first natural death in the county. Mrs. Carr died in the following March. The first marriage was that of Fred. Dagner to Miss Wilhelmina Zastrow, July 24, 1869.
The post office was established in 1869 and named Norfolk, because it was on the North Fork of the Elkhorn, and August Raasch was first Postmaster.
The first church building was erected in the fall of 1867, by the German Lutherans, John Heckendorf preaching the first sermon in it soon after its completion. It was constructed of logs, Herman Braasch paying $40 for the logs. This church erected a neat frame church edifice in 1878, which was dedicated August 23, 1878. A second German Lutheran was built at Norfolk during the same year. The Congregationalists erected a neat frame building in the year 1872, Rev. J. W. Kidder being their first minister. The Methodists and Episcopalians also have church organizations, but no buildings. The Catholics completed their church in the spring of 1882.
Maps, Photographs and Postcards of Norfolk Nebraska
Don’t know if you know this, but the postcard of the Oxnard Hotel that you have here was published by the Norfolk Book Store, owned by the three Hall brothers, who later went on to form the Hallmark Card Company. As in Hallmark movies and Hallmark cards. Pretty neat.
That is cool! How do you know that?
Of the six buildings displayed above, only the public library and post office are still standing. Which kind of makes for an interesting twist today…
I’m not sure what’s in the public library building now, but the new library is across the street from the “new” post office, which was shut down. There was an addition made to the old post office building, and it’s now known as the “McMill Building” after the cornerstone year it was built in Roman numerals (MCMII – 1903). “MCMII” kind of looks like “McMill”, thus the name! They wanted to tear it down at some point and make it a parking lot, but somebody worked to save it. There’s a plaque inside the entryway that shares the history of the building. (You can actually distinguish the original part of the McMill building from the addition by the different coloring of the exterior brick).
Talking about the buildings in my last comment made me think of some more noteworthy things. I graduated from Norfolk Senior High in 2009 and from Northeast Community College in Norfolk in 2012. These institutions have some intertwined connections today, and I’ll explain how:
Norfolk used to have a Junior College. There also used to have a tech school, and those schools combined into what is known as Northeast Community College today. The Junior College had buildings all throughout town. The engineering college (which is across the street from the park with a mini Statue of Liberty) now houses Norfolk Junior High, I believe. (Sidebar – it also has a fallout shelter in it from the 60s. If you’re not familiar with those, you should look them up. And ditto with geodetic markers.)
There’s another building in town that the Norfolk Public School system uses now as well… I think it’s their administrative office.
However, the most important building that I want to mention is the old sorority house from the Junior College. It was next to the Home for Funerals near 12th and Norfolk Avenue, but it’s been recently town down. It was a beautiful building as impressive as the funeral home.
I learned all this from derpin around in both town and Northeast’s library. I was looking for something at school one day and found an old/displaced book of Northeast’s history in a cabinet. I recognized some of the Junior College buildings from derpin around town (as stated), and read it. I can’t remember what the book was called and I don’t know what happened to it, but I put it back exactly where I found it.
Fast forwarding a few years to when I lived in Pierce, I was at a garage sale and found an old yearbook from the former tech school. (I believe it was dated 1967.) I like old books, so I bought it. A few years later, Northeast had their 50th anniversary, and I gave the yearbook to the President. Before I did, I showed the yearbook to some attendees that looked like they might have been around in 1967. They recognized some people in it and shared some historical tidbits, but I forgot what they shared.
I’m hoping that yearbook is on display at Northeast or something so that people can learn this history the same way I did!