The site of North Bend was settled in 1856 by a party of Scottish immigrants. En route from Lake Zurich, Illinois to Kansas, they stopped at a bend at the northernmost point of the Platte River, where they were invited to an impromptu Fourth of July celebration at a newly founded townsite named Emerson. Finding the site congenial, and concerned about the "Border War" in Kansas, they opted to remain there, founding a nearby townsite that they named Franklin.