Greeley County, Nebraska
1921 County History

Greeley County is situated in the sixth tier of counties west of the Missouri River, in the central part of the state, north to south, containing 571 square miles in area.

Its original settlement dates back to 1871, when S. C. Scott, A. Shepard and J. G. Kellogg, came from Illinois and located on Shepard Creek, on the north side of the Loup. Settlements followed on Fish Creek in November, 1871, Cedar Creek in 1872, Spring Creek in 1874, where a postoffice was established, but the first postoffice was established at Lamartine, on the Loup, in 1873, with Mr. A. Fish in charge.

The county was organized on October 8, 1872, and the county seat located at an election in November, 1874, as at Scotia. The county was named after Horace Greeley.

An Irish settlement was established near the center of the county in 1877, a town laid out, platted and named O'Connor, in honor of Bishop O'Connor, who was a member of the Catholic Colonization Association that fathered the colony. The Irish Catholic Association selected another site in the northeastern corner of the county, on the Cedar, and Spalding was opened up about 1881, when the first store was located.

Forty years ago before any railroad had come into the county, the towns and postoffices were Scotia, O'Connor and Spalding, with Lamartine, Summit, Chase, Ellsworth, Floss, Leo Valley.

When the Union Pacific branch from Grand Island to Ord was built, it touched at Scotia Junction, and land was given to the railroad on condition that it would run a sideline over to the town of Scotia and run all of its trains into Scotia, and all passenger and regular freight trains make that side-trip of a mile away from the direct line through the corner of the county.

The Burlington built a branch in 1887 through the county, from Aurora, on to Ord and Burwell, and on this line sprang up the towns of Wolbach, Brayton, Greeley Center, which later became the county seat of the county and the largest town in the county, and Horace.

A branch line of eighteen miles built about the same time, runs from Greeley Center through Belfast and Horace to Ericson, just across the line into Wheeler County.

O'Connor and Parnell remain as the inland settlements of the county.

This county has developed into a thriving and prosperous county, with a showing of freight shipments, bank deposits, and such criterions that hold it up even with its neighboring Loup Valley counties.

[History of Hamilton & Clay Counties, Nebraska, 1921]
Submitted by Cathy Danielson

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