Beemer is a village in Cuming County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 678 at the 2010 census.
Geography
Beemer is located on the table lands adjoining the Elkhorn River bottoms, 84 miles from Omaha and nine miles northwest of West Point, near the geographic center of Cuming County where Nebraska Link 20A meets U.S. Route 275.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , all land.
History
Early settlement
The first settlers of European descent arrived in the Beemer area by prairie schooner in 1864, seeking land under the Homestead Act. The new inhabitants built dugouts, sod houses, and, eventually, log cabins. The earliest settlers in Beemer Township included M. Brayrerton, George Graham, Joseph S. Emley, Robert Fehlmann, Dr. H.H. Howe, Howard Howe, James and Michael McNamara, Judge Newburn, the Rabe family, W.S. Schneald, William Sharp and two sons Martin and Silas, Casper Schifferns, David Simons, Wm. A. Smith, J.E. Spencer, Benjamin Ewing, John Wagaoner, Henry White, James Wilson, and William Witte.
The first school in Beemer Township was taught by Mrs. William Sharp in 1867 in her log cabin, a short distance to the northwest of where Beemer is now located.
West of Beemer, a small stream called Rock Creek flows into the south side of the Elkhorn River. In 1865, August Lambrecht built a water-driven grain and flour mill on the creek about from the river. Lambrecht's mill, combined with the creek and with favorable agricultural conditions, attracted a small concentration of settlers; the area was known as "Rock Creek", after the stream.
In 1871, the tracks of the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad, which followed the Elkhorn upstream from Fremont, reached Wisner; the line reached Norfolk in 1879. As the railway was extended, water stops were needed at intervals to support the steam locomotives. The railroad stops were also served by telegraphs for the purpose of administering and controlling the railroad as well as business development of the telegraphs. The telegraph station at the water stop located at the site of present-day Beemer was named after the nearest significant settlement, Rock Creek, and used the call letters "R C". So, for the next fifteen years, two locations, several miles apart and on opposite sides of the Elkhorn, were referred to as 'Rock Creek': one was the area around the Rock Creek stream near Lambrecht's mill and the other the area around the railway water stop and telegraph station.
Forming a village
In 1885, Allen D. Beemer, George Canfield, and K.C. Morehouse laid out lots to the north of the Rock Creek water stop and platted a village to be known as Rock Creek, as filed in the county seat of West Point on May 26, 1885. Mr. Beemer built the first rail depot building, and led the drive to build a wooden bridge across the Elkhorn. His efforts on behalf of the area were rewarded in 1886, when Congressman Edward K. Valentine secured a post office for the settlement, naming it the Beemer Post Office. On July 15, 1886, in response to a petition of 54 residents, a village named Beemer was incorporated with Harry Delmont, W.D. Gibbon, John M. Barber, F.J. Fitzgerald, and Niels Hansen the village trustees. In that year Mr. Beemer founded a newspaper, the Beemer Times; and the rail company changed the name of the station from Rock Creek to Beemer, although its telegraph call signs remained "R C" (for "Rock Creek") until the depot closed in 1963.
Beemer's first century, 1886 - 1986
The first century was marked by spurious growth and numerous initiatives to develop Beemer. The Beemer Times, founded by A.D. Beemer around 1 March 1886, chronicled the times, the progress, the achievements, the disasters, and the dilemmas that faced early Beemer. The paper assailed ills like the muddy streets, the lack of sidewalks, and the excessive number of taverns; and it reported on more favorable developments like improvements to the schooling, new commercial enterprises, and major modernizations such as waterworks, electrification, road improvements, and telephone systems.