Nebraska State...
|
|

|
|
|
| |
Nebraska Counties
|
|

|
|
|
| |
|
|
Greeley County, Nebraska
Greeley County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education
County Seat: Greeley
Year Organized: 1871
Square Miles: 570
MSA: |
Court House: Put address here
|
Named: Greeley County is named in honor of Horace Greeley, who said,
"Go west young man and grow up with the country."
State & County QuickFacts:
Greeley County
Quick Facts
History
Religion played a key role in the
early development of Greeley County. In 1871, a group of Seventh-Day Baptists
from Wisconsin settled on the north side of the Loup River. Nine years later,
the Irish Catholic Colonization Association was formed in Chicago for the
purpose of relocating Irish immigrants to the healthy atmosphere in Nebraska. It
purchased 25,000 acres from the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad for its
colony.
Greeley County is named in honor of Horace Greeley, who said, "Go west young man
and grow up with the country." Enough settlers had come west to this area
between the Loup and Cedar Rivers that in March 1871 the county was formed and
its boundaries established. A post office called Lamartine, which was located on
the south bank of the Loup River, was designated as the county seat.
A townsite called Scotia sprang up in the southwest corner of the county in
1874. Townspeople felt that their settlement was a better site for the county
seat since the majority of county inhabitants were located in the Loup River
Valley. An election confirmed their feelings and in 1885 a one-room courthouse
was built.
That same year, a settlement called Greeley Center was established in the
geographic center of the county. When the Burlington Railroad passed through
Greeley Center two years later, the citizens there felt the growing economy and
central location made it a better site for the county seat. A courthouse was
built, complete with a jail, in an effort to relocate the local government.
After several elections, Greeley Center finally prevailed over Scotia in 1890.
Since the post office was known simply as Greeley, the word "Center" was dropped
from the name some years later.
Greeley County, like most other counties in Nebraska, proved to be prosperous
for the early farmers. In the northwest corner of the county, which is
considered part of the Sandhills, ranching sustained the economy. A decade
later, farming and ranching are still the principal industries.
Neighboring Counties:
Cities:
- Greeley; Scotia; Spalding; Wolbach
County Resources:
Enter County Resources and Information Here
|
|
County Resource Guide
|
|

|
The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we’ve given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the “characteristic features of
our country!”
But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn’t the only reason to explore counties’ role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.
Today’s counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990’s political slogan “Think globally, act locally.” |
|
| |
Penn Foster High School
|
|

|
|