Near the end of the 19th century, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad moved west and laid rails through the Sandhills of western Nebraska. This area had once been called a desert, and unfit for humans. Not suitable land for farming, it was ideal for the grazing of cattle. The cattle raisers who had begun operating in the Sandhills had to sell their livestock and small towns grew from the locations chosen as shipping points along the rail lines. Ashby was one of those towns and the railroad built a depot and hired an agent to oversee their business and to serve as a telegraph operator. They also built a house for the section boss who was in charge of a crew that kept a section of the railroad in repair.
The land south of Ashby was set aside for a time as a forest reserve, and then opened for settlement to homesteaders by way of a land drawing in 1912. With the homesteaders, the town grew and added businesses. In 1914 there were three lumber yards, two livery barns, a blacksmith shop, a bank, barber shop, post office, two grocery stores and a newspaper called The Ashby Argos. The first known graves in the Ashby Cemetery date from 1915.
In the first decade of the twentieth century, the first school was built, a 12 foot by 14 foot structure which became known as the Crackerbox. This was replaced in 1915 by the present school building. Education was provided for 12 grades from 1929, until the high school was discontinued in 1954.A church was first organized in 1918 and was housed in a building that had been one of the lumber yards. In its remodeled form it continues today as the United Church of Christ. Ashby Town Hall, which was built in 1939, became famous for its Saturday night dances and as a site for basketball tournaments, wedding receptions and other events requiring a sizable building. It is still occasionally used for social functions today.
Many of the homesteaders were unable to make a living on acres that were not suitable for farming and they sold out to others who added the land to their cattle ranches. With a decreased population, the town shrunk to it’s present size of less than a hundred people It has fewer businesses but those that remain are important to the ranchers as places to get their mail, ranch supplies, groceries and other household needs, and for the services and social interaction provided by the church, school and restaurant.
SITES TO VISIT IN ASHBY!
