The rich history of Dawson County lies ahead and behind and ever-present.
Lexington’s 150th Celebration Year
The little town of Plum Creek was incorporated in 1874 but it began a few years earlier in 1866 when it began as a refueling and water stop along the new Union Pacific Railroad. At that time it was called “Plum Creek Station” because that’s about all that was here. But by 1889, when the name of the small town of Plum Creek was changed to Lexington, it had a population of 1,392 people, a nice, mostly brick downtown district, and several large homes.
A variety of reasons went into changing the town name (if you’re curious as to why). The name ‘Plum Creek’ was distasteful to a very large majority of its inhabitants, they said it was undignified and insignificant and tended to retard the growth and development of the city. And besides, it was named after a stream and mail was constantly getting mixed up withElm Creek, a town to the east in Buffalo County. Lexington was much more dignified and there wasn’t another one in Nebraska! So, with a two-thirds vote in favor of the change the name of our distinguished little town became Lexington.
This year we are celebrating Lexington’s 150th birthday with a special exhibit in the art gallery “Building a Community” and the city will be having a whole weekend of fun June 28-30 (check out the itinerary below? Or on the events page?) If you have stories or memories of Lexington when you were a kid (or a kid-at-heart) please share them with me! You can come and visit me at the Dawson County Museum or email them to me at crystalwerger@gmail.com. I REALLY DO want to hear your stories because its your stories that make up the history of our community.
