Nebraska State...
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Nebraska Counties
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Hall County, Nebraska
Hall County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education
County Seat: Grand Island
Year Organized: 1858
Square Miles: 546
MSA: |
Court House: Put address here
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Named: named in honor of Augustus Hall, who was Chief Justice of the
Territorial Supreme Court at the time the county's original boundaries were
created.
State & County QuickFacts:
Hall County Quick
Facts
History
When Maj. Stephen H. Long, a Union
government engineer, passed through this area in 1820 while returning from an
expedition in the Rocky Mountains, he reported the area was "wholly unfit for
cultivation and uninhabitable by a people depending on agriculture for their
subsistence." Long's harsh observation would prove to be erroneous, however.
Agriculture in the lush Platte River Valley dates back to the days when the
Pawnee Indians located their villages along the south bank of the river. The
Pawnee would depend more on their crops of corn and pumpkins than they would on
the buffalo that roamed the area. Early white settlers lived off the land as
well, selling corn to nearby Fort Kearny.
Hall County was created by the Territorial Legislature on Nov. 4, 1858. The
county's original boundaries would be redefined again in 1864 and 1871. This new
county was named in honor of Augustus Hall, who was Chief Justice of the
Territorial Supreme Court at the time the county's original boundaries were
created.
The Mormon Trail brought many of the first settlers to the Hall County area. But
like so many other counties that border the Platte River, the westward
advancement of the Union Pacific Railroad in the 1860s can be credited with
contributing to the most significant development.
One of the sidings located along the rail line was approximately two miles north
of a settlement on the north bank of the river. The settlement was relocated to
the site of the siding and renamed Grand Island City. Within six years it would
be incorporated and become the county seat. The name, later shorted to simply
Grand Island, was derived from a large island in the river.
The stately courthouse that today serves the county was completed in 1903 and
has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1980 the county
added an Administration Building directly across the street. The courthouse is
used primarily for the courts and county corrections, with the other county
offices housed in the Administration Building.
Neighboring Counties:
Cities:
- Alda; Cairo; Doniphan; Grand Island; Wood River
County Resources:
Enter County Resources and Information Here
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County Resource Guide
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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.” |
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Penn Foster High School
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