Combs School

The frame schoolhouse known as Combs School is part of Nebraska’s pioneer heritage and is identified as the oldest in Nebraska. Originally erected in the spring of 1857 at Omadi, four miles south of Dakota City, it shared the townsite’s peril when the Missouri River began to undermine the area. To save it from destruction, the building was moved to Thomas Smith’s claim about two miles south of Homer, where a new school district was organized. When construction of the Burlington Railroad from Sioux City to Lincoln began, the school was found to stand on railroad property, so it was shifted again to its present site near the old Combs mill. School redistricting later removed the need for the old Combs School, and it closed for the last time on May 22, 1964. The Board of Education of the newly formed district then donated the building to the Dakota County Historical Society as a monument to the pioneer fathers’ belief that men are ennobled by understanding.

Nebraska · United States