Welcome to Nez Perce County!
My name is Natalie Huntley, and I am the new coordinator for the Nez Perce County site. I am currently in the process of moving to Nez Perce County, so it will take me a while to get the site updated. I look forward to doing that as soon as I possibly can. I do not have any family connection to the county, but hope to provide more research information, especially on the cemeteries in the area.
Nez Perce County was established February 4, 1864 by the Idaho Territorial Legislature with its county seat at Lewiston. Named for the Nez Perce Indians who already occupied the area when the white settlers arrived. Nez Perce County was previously established by the Washington Territorial Legislature in 1861. This was one of the four original Idaho counties in 1863. The present boundaries of Nez Perce County were set in 1911.
Lewiston served as the territorial capital for twenty-two months before the capital was moved to Boise.
The county is rich in the history of the Nez Perce Indians and the arrival of the first white men with Lewis and Clark in 1805. The first missionaries to settle in Idaho, The Rev. Henry H. Spaulding and his wife Eliza Hart Spalding, established a mission in 1863 near the confluence of Lapawai Creek and the Clearwater River. The mission was closed in 1847. The Nez Perce Indian Agency was established at Lapawai in 1860, and Lewiston was founded in 1861 as a trading center for the north Idaho mines. The Lewiston Station Normal School, now Lewis-Clark State College, was founded in 1893.
--- "Idaho Almanac, 1977 Edition."
The county seat is Lewiston, which is located on the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers. The Port of Lewiston was formed in 1958 by the voters of Nez Perce County. The county is comprised of 855 square miles.
Towns are Culdesac, Lapwai, Lewiston, Peck and Spalding, and the communities are Lenore, Leland, Gifford, Myrtle, Waha, Cameron and Southwick.
The Nez Perce Offices are at Lapwai.
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A big thank you goes out to Jill Nock and Tim Harper, previous county coordinators, for all the work they did on this site!
The IDGenWeb Project is a genealogical and resource collection for the state of Idaho and its counties. The state and counties have many volunteers who are dedicated to promoting free genealogical and research resources from the state's rich ancestral history.
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