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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.
Jefferson County Courthouse, Fairbury, Ne.