| PAWNEE COUNTY HISTORY, Internet home for the honored past of Pawnee County, NEBRASKA |
Pawnee County is located in the southeastern part of the state. The county is located on the exact spot where the largest village of Pawnee Indians were located (which is how it got its name). In area, it is 18 miles north and south and 24 miles east and west, containing 276,480 acres of land. On November 4, 1856, Pawnee City was elected as the county seat, for judicial and administrative purposes. There have been a total of four Courthouses at the present site of the Courthouse. The first one was started in 1858 and got no further than the erection of a frame and was leveled in 1860 by a wind storm. The second one was started in 1869, but due to inadequate space was rebuilt in 1878. In 1911 the Courthouse was again rebuilt, due to inadequate space, and is still used today. The jail and living quarters are no longer utilized and prisoners are lodged at surrounding counties. Until 1914 sheriffs in Pawnee County were elected to office every two years. Since 1893 there have been thirteen men to hold the office of Pawnee County Sheriff. 1893-1895 J. G. Sloan 1895-1901 M. D. Anderson 1901-1903 Cloud Fuller 1903-1907 Gabriel R. Martin 1907-1911 Cloud Fuller On May 29, 1911, the community of Pawnee County was shocked by the murder of Sheriff Cloud Fuller, at the Lepley school, just across the state line in Kansas. Sheriff Fuller was murdered by James Fielder for the murder of three members of the McVitty family. Fielder had been surrounded in the cob-house in the school yard. Fielder shot the unarmed sheriff three times, fatally wounding him, and then took his own life. 1912-1914 J. C. Raper 1914-1922 John C. McClung 1922-1934 Guy E. Avery 1934-1946 Michael J. Donahue 1946-1950 W. E. "Gene" Parker 1950-1961 Leland Hunzeker 1961-1987 Charles J. Hall Sheriff Hall was first appointed to finish the term of Sheriff Hunzeker. 1987-1997 John F. Schulze 1998-1999 Art Baldridge |
