A Photographic Look at Osceola, Nebraska

My Home to Osceola series is fictional.

The characters are created out of my own head and the plot is formed as I put those characters through hard circumstances. You won’t find my stories in the history books, sorry to say (or perhaps not so sorry since no real person would want to endure what fictional characters suffer through).

But in the midst of the fiction I like to weave in a thread of reality. Such as, did you know that Osceola, Nebraska is a real town? 

Whenever a fact about the town is brought up in my series, I do my best to stick to truth. If a character walks down a street, all references to street names are accurate. When possible, I use the names of real stores and buildings from the era. Building material, landscape details, and calendar dates all are true to 1880.

During part of my research for the series, I discovered some old photographs that helped me visualize the town as well. This is my third book release in the series, and I just realized I’ve never given you a peek into my research books. It’s about time that I shared . . .

The real town of Osceola has it’s own history book that locals refer to as “the orange book.” It’s rich with stories, facts, and insight into the people who first formed this town. 

The picture above is a pen and ink drawing of Osceola in 1880. And there’s the secret to how I figure out where old historic buildings were located. Nothing mysterious about it.

I replicated the drawing in my notebook and made little marks to identify my fictional buildings as well (it’s functional, but not lovely, so no picture provided). 

In 1879:

This is a picture from when the railroad came through Osceola in 1879. These men and teams of horses were hauling dirt to place around the freshly laid railroad ties. 

The railroad’s new arrival is mentioned in A Choice of Love when Matt and Emily attend the town’s Fourth of July celebration. Now in A Time of Proving Miriam and Jase get to reap the benefits of the faster mode of travel–although some people weren’t fond of the commotion the engines brought to town. And the horses certainly didn’t enjoy the noise. The ruckus of an incoming train caused more than one team to run away.

Still in 1879:

This picture of a hunting party gives us a peek at a sod house just like Emily’s in A Choice of Love and like Jase remembers in A Time of Proving. 

When pioneers first settled the area around Osceola, they found themselves faced with a problem. The plains held no material for homebuilding, nothing except a few trees along rivers and creek beds.

But grass was one thing in abundance. And since the roots ran so long and thick, the sod could be cut from the ground like building bricks and used for shelter for people and animals.

For many years, sod houses were commonplace on the Nebraska prairie. Only people who could afford to ship in lumber by rail had frame houses.

And truly, it wasn’t such a bad thing. The inside walls could be plastered, and as a side benefit of having such thick walls, sod houses were often warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer than their wooden contemporaries. It took a long time to figure out the art of insulation for frame houses.

The 1880’s Courthouse

The first county courthouse was humble, to say the least. More like a house than anything.

This is the exact building my characters would have walked past on the streets of Osceola

Interesting side fact: A Time of Proving ends on January 1st, 1881. That night, the courthouse caught fire and burned to the ground, destroying a lot of documents and papers. The exact cause of the fire is unknown, but it was accidental. (Or was it? Maybe that should tie in with the next book . . .)

The Town of Osceola, Nebraska in 1880 (or approximately that time)

In 1872 Osceola was made up of the courthouse, a frame store, a post office, a sod school, and a couple houses. 

By the time of A Time of Proving in 1880, many store fronts were made of brick and the town had a more elaborate style. This was the year of a building boom, as Jase notes when he arrives in town, and the town expanded dramatically, mostly due to the new railroad.

Fun fact: The Osceola history book mentioned that the newspaper wrote that in 1881, “Osceola is now known as the town of bay windows.” 

I decided to have Miriam start this trend by suggesting that Jase put a bay window in his house. Of course, his clients wanted him to do the same for their houses–and so bay windows spread through Osceola. 🙂

The Mickey Mansion: 1883

This house was built a couple years after A Time of Proving, but it deserves mention since it’s such a historic landmark in Osceola. 

The Mickey Mansion, as it’s known, was built in about 1883. The picture on the left shows it then while the one on the right shows it as the house now stands as part of the local museum.

John Hopwood Mickey, the first owner of this house, was one of the town founders, the county treasurer, a banker, and eventually the Nebraska governor. 

And in case you were curious…John Mickey’s name also appears in A Time of Proving (Jase mentions him in chapter nine while talking with Thaddeus Conway). 

John Hopwood Mickey, 13th governor of Nebraska

Osceola, Nebraska: Present Day

If you pass through Osceola, Nebraska today, some things have changed since the days of A Time of Proving. The streets are paved, not dirt. Buildings have been updated. The courthouse is now quite the masterpiece of the town.

However, other things are the same. The town still has the same general layout. Davis Creek still twists its way through town, and trains still chug their way along the tracks. 

And I guess that just goes to show that the past isn’t really so far away as we imagine.