Sherman County, Nebraska

Sherman County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Loup City
Year Organized: 1871
Square Miles: 566

Court House:

630 O Street, PO Box 456
County Courthouse
Loup City, NE 68853-0456

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Namedafter Civil War hero Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who once commanded cavalry troops in Nebraska.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

The origins of Sherman County are said to have begun with a group of men who lived in Grand Island in the early 1870s. These men organized a settlement plan for the Middle Loup River Valley and secured the necessary authority from Gov. Robert Furnas and the Legislature to proceed in early 1873. When the county was formally organized it was named after Civil War hero Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who once commanded cavalry troops in Nebraska.

In the county's first official election, held on April 1, 1873, a mere 13 votes were cast. Elected to office were three commissioners, a clerk, judge, treasurer, sheriff, surveyor, coroner and superintendent of public instruction. By the following year the county had its first courthouse, built at a cost of $5,000. But on the same day commissioners accepted a bid to furnish the building, it was destroyed by fire. It would be four years before the structure to be replaced.

The Loup River, which cuts across the county diagonally, was responsible for attracting many of the area's first settlers. The fertile valley soil and the plentiful supply of water made the area a prime location for early farmers. Irrigation further enhanced the county's farm economy when it made its first appearance in 1895. This early irrigation system consisted of a ditch being dug between Arcadia and Loup City and water being diverted from the Loup River.

Irrigation would once again become an important part of the county's history in 1932 when the Middle Loup Power and Irrigation Company was created and in 1959 when work began on the Sherman Dam and Reservoir.

The courthouse that was built in Loup City in 1878 would be outgrown by the county as the 1900s began. Efforts would begin to replace the existing building with a courthouse that could accommodate all county offices and the expanding volume of records. Construction began in 1920 on what is the present courthouse. The tan brick building with terra cotta trim was formally dedicated on Oct. 8, 1921.

Neighboring Counties:

Insert Counties Here

Cities and Towns:

- Ashton	village	Incorporated Area
- Elm	township
- Hazard	village	Incorporated Area
- Litchfield	village	Incorporated Area
- Loup City (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Oak Creek	township
- Rockville	village	Incorporated Area
- Webster	township

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this 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."