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Kearney

Perhaps no other name has been applied so frequently, and in so many variations, to Nebraska places as that of Kearney. The name commemorates Bvt. Maj. Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny, who served in the War of 1812 and the Mexican War. In 1825 he traveled from Fort Atkinson in Nebraska on an expedition to make treaties with Indian tribes on the upper Missouri River. Kearny also led an important military expedition along the Oregon and Santa Fe trails in 1845. Kearny’s name was first applied as a place name at the first Fort Kearny, using his original spelling without an “e” in the second syllable. The name continued to be spelled correctly until about 1856, when the second “e” began to appear in popular usage. This incorrect spelling became fixed in all subsequent uses.



Fully seven places in Nebraska have been named for Kearny. The first was the 1846 Fort Kearny on Table Creek, the present site of Nebraska City. This fort, usually referred to as “old” Fort Kearny, was abandoned and a second Fort Kearny was established in the central Platte Valley in 1848. “New” Fort Kearny served as an army supply depot and as protection for emigrant trains and railroad construction crews until it was abandoned in 1871. The site is now a state historical park in Kearney County.



The first misspelled place name was Kearney City post office in Otoe County, established in 1856. A second Kearney City was platted in 1859 two miles west of new Fort Kearny at an old settlement known as Dobytown. This Kearney City became the first county seat of the original Kearney County, which was formed in 1860.



Construction of the Union Pacific Railroad began to reduce travel on the old overland trails. This led to a movement of settlers to the north side of the Platte River. In 1866 the Union Pacific established Kearney Station on the north side of the river opposite the fort. When the Burlington Railroad intersected the Union Pacific line in 1872, Kearney Station was moved to the junction and renamed Kearney Junction. The old Kearney Station was renamed Buda. In 1873 “Junction” was dropped, leaving the name Kearney the way we know it today for the county seat of Buffalo County.

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Other Publications

The Bachelors’ Protective Union of Kearney

When the Bachelors' Protective Union gave a gala reception for two of its newly married, former members and their brides in March of 1890, the social club for young, ...

U.S. Weather Bureau in 1890s Nebraska

The U.S. Weather Bureau was established by an act of Congress on October 1, 1890. It took over the weather service that had been established in the office of the Chief ...

Canning the Way to Victory

During American participation in World War I the U.S. Food Administration, under the direction of Herbert Hoover, launched a massive campaign to persuade Americans to ...

The Shoemaker’s Ashes

"Edward Kuehl, one of the most peculiar characters that ever lived in Omaha, or anywhere else, was found dead in his bed last night in the back room of his place of ...

Crazy Horse Surrender Ledger Foreward

Red Dog, an Oglala Lakota who lived at the Red Cloud Agency, Nebraska, 1876-77 (Nebraska State Historical Society RG2955.ph).   In the summer of 1876, following the ...

Darryl F. Zanuck

Darryl F. Zanuck Darryl F. Zanuck (1902-1979), a native Nebraskan, produced some of Hollywood's most important and controversial films. He helped found 20th Century Fox ...

The Burlington’s Profitable Pork Special

Nebraska railroads were much concerned with developing an adequate economy in the areas they served. The Burlington, for example, had a long history of caring for the ...

Bungalow Filling Stations

After the giant Standard Oil Company was broken into thirty-four separate companies in 1911, the newly independent Standard Oil of Nebraska dominated the state's market ...

The Bull Fight

This is the perfect time of year for a visit to the old fishin' hole. But a group of fisherfolk from Plainview discovered that this bucolic pastime sometimes has ...

Buffalo Soldiers West

African-American soldiers on the western frontier are the focus of an exhibit at the Nebraska History Museum in Lincoln. Buffalo Soldiers West, on loan from the Colorado ...

Protection for Buffalo

The extermination of the buffalo on the Plains occurred largely between 1870 and 1885. The Nebraska State Journal of Lincoln on February 1, 1874, editorialized in vain ...

Buffalo Hunting

In late October 1877 young Rolf Johnson and three friends left their homes in Phelps County, Nebraska, for a buffalo hunt in northeastern Colorado. The hunt was not very ...
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