Unknown County

NEGenWeb Project - County Unknown

Nebraska Features List

Statewide feature search for NE

The following is a BEGINNING of a list that we will continue to expand over time.

It includes most of the features (populated places, streams, rivers, lakes, churches, cemeteries, etc.) that are named on GNIS. Ranch names have been taken from that source & indexed by the surname (without the initial for the given name). We added places named in the 1915 "Past & Present of Platte County", some township names from census extracts & other locations we have sought for our own genealogy. It includes the "post office file" (see below).

We eliminated numbered schools and a few other things, so see the bottom of this page for the GNIS link if you are looking for more information.

We hope to eventually have all the township names for every county, both historical and current. So far, that part of the list is NOT complete.

TOWNSHIP LIST - list of names for townships or precincts in Nebraska, by Bill Oliver. These are NOT cities, towns and villages, but the geographic subdivisions of the counties. Please note - the same name may occur in more than one county!
Nebraska Place Names, 1925 - University of Nebraska, Lilian Linder Fitzpatrick - Lists of towns & villages in Nebraska by County - Transcribed by Connie Snyder.
We invite your contributions with the hope that others will find your input valuable to their own research.

to contribute known feature names.

Include: feature name, feature type, county, & dates of existence, if known.

ODDMENTS:
Kearney is in Buffalo County, not Kearney County
Lincoln is in Lancaster County, not Lincoln County
Morrill is in Scotts Bluff county, not Morrill County

Other notes -

Many early "post offices" were located at a stage stop or a farmhouse. The post office "name" might continue long after the post office moved - sometimes across a county line. The same "name" could be given to an entirely different place after a post office was discontinued.

When the railroads were built, the companies established "sidings", usually at regular intervals along the tracks. The names given to those sidings did not always agree with local usage and in some cases there were disputes about the proper postal address.

When "rural free delivery" was established about 1905, a number of rural post offices were discontinued.

Some Nebraska locations are "communities" - there never was a post office. These were often identified by the name of a church, a creek, etc. Some of those place names still appear in local newspapers.

People might identify themselves by land location or by post office. If the latter - the post office might be a town located across the county line, the closest point of trade to their farm location.

Reference

The "post office file" was found by Mr. Bill Wever while researching at NSHS, Lincoln. There are indications that the author of that file is not known (handwritten notes in margins "who did this?"). One page says "includes list from postal guides & Searcy". There is a copy of a newspaper article about Prof. Don Searcy of Kearney, who "collects" abandoned towns of NE (It was written by Dean Terrill of Southeast Nebraska Bureau. This newspaper clip does not include the name or date of publication.) The file also includes copies of file cards. We would like to credit someone for their work, so if you have any clues about who assembled the "post office file" and left it at NSHS, please let us know!

15 Jul 1998 note from Steve Leypoldt - " That publication would be the Lincoln Journal Star Newspaper. Dean wrote for them for years. ... He only retired a few years ago."

A terrific aid for Nebraska genealogists & historians is "Perkey's Nebraska Place Names" by Elton A. Perkey. Order a copy from Amazon, and keep it with your research materials.

You must wonder what GNIS is - so take a look and play a while. Use the following website to search for locations and while there, try your surname as well. You might get a surprise! GNIS is not limited to Nebraska, so dig out those other place names & experiment. (We have been informed that there is a schedule for future additions to the GNIS listings, and it includes townships for all the NE counties over the next 3 years. A few townships are already identified.)