Oreapolis Nebraska - Nebraska Directory

Oreapolis Area Cameras

Former town · Cass County · post office 1859–1864

About Oreapolis

Oreapolis (also spelled Oreopolis) was a planned town near the confluence of the Platte and Missouri rivers, about 3 miles north-northwest of Plattsmouth in northeastern Cass County. Andreas wrote in 1882 that nothing marked the spot of the town or its seminary. The map point is the GNIS location.

History

Dr. John Evans, a founder of Northwestern University and namesake of Evanston, Illinois, promoted Oreapolis in the late 1850s, expecting a railroad to the Pacific to start here. Its plat showed 276 blocks, a depot, four public schools and hilltop land for a university, a theological seminary and a high school, and buyers came in 1858, mostly Iowans and Methodists. The Legislature chartered a seminary in 1858; its trustees organized on June 1, 1859, and Loudin Mullin built a three-story brick building, 38 by 80 feet, for 250 students, finished outside in December 1859 and inside in September 1861. The Oreapolis Town Company gave ten acres, 100 lots and $500.

The panic of 1857 had already stalled railroads and banks, and Oreapolis counted only 187 people in 1859. The seminary ran two or three years with few students, lost the Methodist Conference's support and was abandoned and later torn down. Evans became governor of Colorado Territory, the post office closed in 1864, and by 1865 most buildings had been moved to Plattsmouth or destroyed; the minister's house stood until the 1940s. The Burlington later had a station named Oreopolis on its line along the county's north edge.

Nearby towns

Plattsmouth	about 3.2 mi south-southeast	US 34/75
La Platte	about 1.7 mi north-northwest	US 34/75
Mynard	about 5 mi south	US 34/75
Cullom	about 6 mi west	County roads
Cedar Creek	about 10 mi west	NE 66

Things to see

Plattsmouth and the Cass County Historical Society Museum, about 3 mi south-southeast · Schilling WMA at the Platte–Missouri confluence · Cullom, another Burlington station, about 5.5 mi west