Jim McKee: Varied past of York's towns
Bradshaw is shown in June of 1890 when the entire downtown section of the York County town was destroyed by a tornado. At least five, and possibly eleven, people were killed.
COURTESY PHOTO
I’ve already covered the city of York in previous columns but never the entire county itself. The history of the name York is interesting to trace, but only to a point. A.D. Jones of Omaha, a historical figure himself, was on the territorial legislature’s committee that was charged to name Nebraska’s counties. Jones, even when approached directly, was mute on the name’s source, but several others, quite reasonably, put the origin on York, England. York County was created and named by the territorial legislature in March of 1855 but, having no population, it was attached to Greene County (later renamed Seward) for judicial and administrative purposes. With the establishment of the Oregon Trail Cut-Off, which connected Nebraska City with Fort Kearny, U.S. Indian Agent Ben Lushbaugh created the first of five road ranch/stage stations in York County’s Brown Township in 1863 and built the first building in the county there.