Fairbury Nebraska Information

Fairbury Nebraska Information

This website is dedicated to those that built Jefferson County Nebraska and the towns within.

These original pioneers and current pioneers made their dreams come true.

Hard work and hardships of many kinds brought success.

When reading through the history pages keep in mind that Jones County was the original county.

In 1871 the Nebraska State Legislature split Jones County into two separate counties Thayer and Jefferson.

Both counties have histories that are connected in many ways.

Most of the Titles are Hotlinks to take to topic pages.

History of Fairbury, Nebraska

James B. Mattingly, a frontiersman and freighter from Kentucky, first settled in Gage County, Nebraska. He saw the future of settlers and the possiblity of a railroad being routed along the Little Blue River, he settled down and built a small saw mill along the banks of the Little Blue to take advantage of the town site opportunities.

Woodford G. McDowell, a capitalist from Fairbury, Illinois also saw the advantages of a railroad coming through the area and came to claim 160 acres.

Each gave 80 acres of land for a town site, the north and south streets from First to Eighth, and the east and west streets from

A to H streets.

In the middle they left a block for the Public Square, (current site of the Jefferson county courthouse). Half on Mattingly's land and half on McDowell's.

In 1869 they chose McDowell's Illinois town of Fairbury for a name for the city of Fairbury, Nebraska.