Gosper County NEGenWeb Project
© 1999-2009

Gosper County Courthouses

Photo by: John C. Wallace (1999)

The present Gosper County Courthouse is the fourth courthouse built to serve the county, and was built in 1939 as part of the Public Works Project.  The taxpayers of the county voted to match Federal funds.  The building cost $78,000 to build and covers a full square block just south of Elwood's business district.  Over the years repairs and improvements have helped the "new" courthouse serve Gosper County residents.  Among the many improvements was the installation of metal frames for the doors and windows.

Photo courtesy Western Cartographers	Gosper County's First Courthouse Though authorization for construction of a courthouse at Daviesville was given in 1873 nothing was done until an election in 1882.  At that time Homer Walt donated land for the townsite. The new town became Homersville and the county's second county seat; the first courthouse was built there.  Lots were sold and money subscribed for the building, thus saving the taxpayers money.  The courthouse moved with the county seat in 1889.  All that remains of Homersville today is the cemetery.
First Courthouse Built at Elwood In 1885 the Burlington Railroad platted Elwood and the Lincoln Townsite Co., in an effort to attract people, offered free lots to builders if the county seat was moved to the new town.  After a bitterly contested election in November 1888 the new town became the third and final county seat.  The courthouse building was moved the eight miles from Homersvile to Elwood in spring 1889 and served the county until it was destroyed by fire in 1895.	Photo courtesy Western Cartographers
Photo courtesy Western Cartographers	Third Gosper County Courthouse Once again the Gosper County taxpayers were saved the expense of building a new courthouse.  $3,800 insurance money paid for materials and construction of the last frame courthouse building in the county.  It served the county for forty-four years before the present brick building was dedicated in 1939.

Special thanks to John C. Wallace of Lexington, Nebraska for providing the photographs used here. Thanks, too, go to the nice folks at Western Cartographers of South Sioux City, Nebraska for allowing us to reproduce the three photographs that appear in their publication, Atlas of Gosper County in Nebraska - Includes Frontier County (1979).

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