Please feel free to share photos and stories if you have something to contribute. Douglas is a village in Otoe County, Nebraska that began as Hendrick's Precinct, in honor of Hiram Hendricks, a native of Virginia, who came to Nebraska in 1856 with his wife, Cicily. Hendricks became justice of the peace and his home served as a polling place for elections, where he was a judge over voting procedure
s from 1859-1861. Hiram Hendricks died November 21, 1861. On February 28, 1863 a post office was established and named in his honor. In 1864 an Irish born man named Simpson McKibbon and his wife, Harriet Douglass, settled on a homestead in Hendricks Precinct. Shortly after, part of their farm was divided up into lots where people began to settle. At this same time, the Missouri Pacific Railroad was grading it's right-of-way. In 1887 Simpson McKibbon transferred a strip of land over to the Missouri Pacific Railroad. A Nebraska City Lawyer, Thomas B. Stevenson, assisted Simpson McKibbon and Tom Smith in the platting of a village. Simpson McKibbon sold land and seven specific lots in the Village of Hendricks in June of 1887. In July Thomas Stevenson and his wife signed papers to dedicate streets, alleys and highways for public use. A week later the village was being called Douglas. Some say the village was given the name Douglas (after the wife of the land owner, Simpson McKibbon) as part of the deal when he sold the land to the railroad. Still, others suggest that the village may have been named for the first postmaster, George Douglas. Sources: Wikipedia.org & Google.com/village of Douglas, Nebraska
