Pleasant Hill Nebraska

Former town · Saline County · county seat 1871–1878; post office 1869–1912

About Pleasant Hill

Pleasant Hill was a town in Saline County between Turkey Creek and Spring Creek, about 4½ miles south-southeast of Dorchester and 7 miles west-southwest of Crete. The Pleasant Hill Cemetery remains, and historical marker No. 473 stands at its entrance on County Road HH, half a mile west of County Road 1600.

History

Settlers arrived in the late 1860s, and Hardin Duval laid out the town on his land in 1869, according to Andreas (the 2009 marker gives 1867). William Engles opened the first store and post office that year, and Smith's gristmill was finished in 1870. On June 3, 1871, Pleasant Hill won the county seat over Crete and Dorchester, and the records arrived from Swan City that July. At its height the town had about 500 people; in 1874 four prisoners died when the jail burned.

After elections in 1877 Wilber won the seat, and on January 28, 1878, about 300 people with 160 wagons came from Wilber and took the records. Without a railroad, Pleasant Hill shrank to about 150 people by 1882, though the marker cites 246 in 1900. The post office lasted until 1912, and the town faded after the gristmill burned in 1930.

Things to see

Pleasant Hill Cemetery and the Pleasant Hill historical marker, County Road HH · Dorchester, about 4½ mi north-northwest