Place:Garland, Seward, Nebraska, United States

Watchers


NameGarland
TypeVillage
Coordinates40.946°N 96.986°W
Located inSeward, Nebraska, United States
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Garland, formerly known as Germantown, is a village in Seward County, Nebraska, United States. It is part of the Lincoln, Nebraska Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 216 at the 2010 census.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

In 1874, the Midland Pacific Railroad built the first railway in Seward County, laying tracks from Lincoln to Seward.[1] To finance the construction of the new line, the railroad sought money from the county. However, the residents of the southern portion of the county voted overwhelmingly against the bond issue in an 1871 election: they were displeased at having been bypassed by an earlier railroad line, anticipated no benefits from the new line, and were angry with Seward, which had won the county seat away from the southern town of Milford. The failure of the bond issue forced the railroad to seek support from the northern portions of the county; so rather than following the desirable route up the valley of Middle Creek, the company agreed to build the line through Malcolm and then up into the hills of northeastern Seward County. This measure won enough support for the bonds to be approved in 1872.[2][3]

A depot was established on a level place along the line, and the town of Germantown, named for the ethnicity of the local settlers, was platted in 1874 by Hiland Fraisure.[1][4][5]

With the entry of the United States into World War I, anti-German sentiment was rampant. German-language newspapers were closed and German-language Lutheran church services were ended. Sauerkraut was dubbed "liberty cabbage", and dachshunds "liberty hounds".[6] In this environment, the Germantown city council decided that the name had to be changed; and they resolved to rename the town after the first local soldier to die during the war. Although several residents later fell by enemy action, the resolution had failed to specify the manner of death; so the honor went to Raymond Garland, who died of pneumonia before he ever reached France.[3] On December 11, 1918, a month after the signing of the Armistice, Germantown became Garland.[7]

Research Tips


This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Garland, Nebraska. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.