I’ve already covered the city of York in previous columns but never the entire county itself. The history of the name York is interesting to trace, but only to a point.
A.D. Jones of Omaha, a historical figure himself, was on the territorial legislature’s committee that was charged to name Nebraska’s counties. Jones, even when approached directly, was mute on the name’s source, but several others, quite reasonably, put the origin on York, England.
York County was created and named by the territorial legislature in March of 1855 but, having no population, it was attached to Greene County (later renamed Seward) for judicial and administrative purposes. With the establishment of the Oregon Trail Cut-Off, which connected Nebraska City with Fort Kearny, U.S. Indian Agent Ben Lushbaugh created the first of five road ranch/stage stations in York County’s Brown Township in 1863 and built the first building in the county there.
The first permanent settlers, John Anderson and son William, settled in West Blue Township in 1864, with the first post office created three years later at McFadden.
In March of 1870, Gov. Butler called for an election to be held April 26 at A.M. Ghost’s preemption cabin in order to organize the county; 86 votes were cast, with Ghost’s cabin becoming the de facto courthouse, but with each county officer made responsible for securing all his official records. The vote also set the city of York, named for the county, as the county seat. The Midland Pacific Railroad reached York in 1877 with the help of $94,000 in county and $10,000 in city bonds.
In July of 1876, virtually the entire county’s crops were destroyed by grasshoppers. The county established a bounty of $1 to $2 per bushel of burned grasshoppers and by August of the following year, eight farmers had collected $20 for more than 11 bushels of the insects.
Today there are nine incorporated towns in York County. In 1866, the area issued bonds to the Kansas City & Omaha Railroad to encourage their connection, which came in June of the following year. In August of 1887, the Benedict post office opened, named for E.C. Benedict, president of the Kansas City & Omaha Railroad. With the success brought by the railhead service, Benedict was incorporated in 1890.
In 1870, the Aikin post office opened, but was renamed Plainfield in January of 1873 and subsequently renamed Lenox in 1879. Despite the name Lenox on the post office, the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad named its new siding on the site Bradshaw for the maiden name of J.M. Richard’s wife, who jointly owned the site.
The post office then assumed the name Bradshaw. In June of 1890, virtually the entire town was leveled by a tornado. It was rebuilt, only to be hit by Nebraska’s only F-5 tornado and again devastated in 1964.
In anticipation of the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad, the Pioneer Land Site Co. established a town to be named Poston. The U.S. Post Office declined the request, saying it duplicated another Nebraska post office. And although the Poston Review began publishing, the town and post office were renamed Gresham in honor of the U.S. secretary of state. In 1942, the railroad, then owned by the Chicago & North Western Railroad, closed.
Henderson was born with the arrival of 35 Mennonite families from Prussia in 1874. The community began to prosper in 1887 when the Pioneer Land Site Co. established a village, named for an early settler, David Henderson, and the arrival of the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad. In 1888, the post office opened, and Henderson was incorporated.
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Lushton, named for Wm. Lush, an official of the St. Joseph & Grand Island Railroad and its civil engineer/site planner, began life with the arrival of the railroad, the establishment of the post office, the town plat/survey and completion of the first general store, all in the spring of 1887. The post office closed in 1965, becoming a branch of McCool Junction.
What would ultimately become McCool Junction started life on the Blue River as Niota post office. In October of 1867, the first settler in the immediate area arrived. When the Kansas City & Omaha Railroad arrived, the depot and siding were built about two blocks from Niota and named simply McCool by the railroad after the railroad’s general manager, Dan McCool.
In 1888, a second branch of the railroad arrived, and the name was changed to McCool Junction. The railroad became part of the Burlington, then the Union Pacific, which ran its last train there in 1984.
Thayer, northeast of the city of York, opened its post office in September of 1870 and was named for Civil War Gen. John Thayer, who was also a U.S. senator and governor of Nebraska. The city incorporated in 1914.
Easily the most famous person born in Thayer was Steve Henderson, who invented ranch dressing while living in Alaska. The dressing was renamed Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing in about 1954, when Henderson bought a ranch by that name in California. In about 1992, the generic ranch dressing became the most popular salad dressing in the U.S.
Waco was first named Westernfield in 1872 when the post office opened. But when the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad arrived in 1877, it was renamed Waco, after the Texas town, two years later.
The city of York, as county seat, reached its peak population of 8,081 in 2000. The peak population of the county’s other incorporated towns are: Benedict in 1910 at 336, Bradshaw at 373 in 1980, Gresham 492 in 1920, Henderson 1,072 in 1980, Lushton at 205 in 1900, McCool Junction at today’s estimate of 430, Thayer at 168 in 1920, and Waco at 310 in 1900.
York County’s currently estimated total population of 13,500 is its peak.
Historian Jim McKee, who still writes with a fountain pen, invites comments or questions. Write to him at P.O. Box 5575, Lincoln, NE, 68505 or at jim@leebooksellers.com.
Bradshaw is shown in June of 1890 when the entire downtown section of the York County town was destroyed by a tornado. At least five, and possibly eleven, people were killed.