In 1887 the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley Railroad extended its tracks from York to Hastings. Henderson was built along the railroad on land sold by Cornelius Regier to the Pioneer Town Site Company in October 1887, for $15,000. The village, named for David Henderson, an early settler in Henderson Township, became a strong community center with businesses, homes, and a school established during the first year. The first church, built in 1906, was followed within a few years by two others.
Railroad service continued to furnish the lifeblood of the town and aid its growth. Although the depression hit the area hard and the railroad decided to remove its tracks in 1941, community loyalty and resourcefulness helped overcome adversity. The development of deep well irrigation and the establishment of manufacturing plants to supply the irrigation business brought a new era of prosperity. During the 1950s and 1960s the town doubled in population, built a new hospital, a new school, and many new homes.
The energy and cooperative efforts of its people have made Henderson a landmark among small, rural Nebraska communities.
]]>Thirty-five families comprised the original Mennonite settlement in York and Hamilton Counties, Nebraska. They were part of a large segment who left homes in South Russia in 1874 and began the trek that took them to the American plains. Originally from Holland, these people, who believed in peace as a way of life, had gone to Russia and finally to the Crimea in 1790. When their privileges of military exemption and religious freedom were threatened, thousands emigrated to North America.
The Mennonite immigrants purchased land from the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad. Generous in its services, the R. R. Company erected an immigrant house which provided shelter until individual homes were built. Its location is designated by a commemorative marker one mile east of this site. By 1878 approximately eighty families lived in the settlement, and a town established in 1887 was named in honor of David Henderson, an earlier homesteader. Faith in God and a spirit of perseverance sustained these settlers through difficult experiences.
When deep-well irrigation became widespread in this area in the 1930's, fields of corn replaced the famous Turkey Red hard winter wheat Mennonites had brought from Russia. A new era in agriculture and industry had begun.
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