How Ainsworth, Nebraska Got Its Name (The Railroad's Engineer)
Ainsworth, Nebraska, is named for Captain James E. Ainsworth, the civil engineer in charge of building the railroad across this part of the state in the early 1880s.
Where the name comes from
A 1925 study of Nebraska place names says the town was “named in honor of Captain James E. Ainsworth, of Missouri Valley, chief civil engineer for the railroad during construction.” The U.S. Geological Survey’s record says the same thing almost word for word. The City of Ainsworth calls him the town’s namesake, and the Brown County pages on the NEGenWeb site describe him as the civil engineer for the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad, in charge of construction.
The railroad arrives
The county pages say the railroad started building west from Long Pine in the spring of 1882, and the first construction train reached Ainsworth that summer. The county pages don’t agree on the day: one says July 11, another June 11. The city’s history says the captain himself got to the townsite in June of that year. The 1925 study says the village was incorporated on December 2, 1883, the same year the legislature set up Brown County. Ainsworth is the county seat.
His name turns up in another town’s story
Ainsworth shows up in one more Nebraska place name. The 1925 study says the town of Eli, in Cherry County, was named for Daniel Webster Hitchcock, who worked for “a locating engineer (Captain J. E. Ainsworth)” and went by the nickname “Get-there-Eli.” The town first used the whole nickname and later kept only “Eli.”
Who was the captain?
The NEGenWeb pages say he was born in 1831, served as a captain in the 12th Iowa Infantry in the Civil War and died in 1909. Those genealogy pages have some obvious slips elsewhere, so take the family details with care.
Sources & further reading
- Lilian Linder Fitzpatrick, Nebraska Place-Names (University of Nebraska, 1925). A public-domain study of the state’s place names, county by county. The captain, the 1883 incorporation and the story of Eli.
- City of Ainsworth, “History.” Ainsworth as the namesake and his arrival in June 1882.
- NEGenWeb, Brown County, “Ainsworth.” The railroad, the first construction train and the captain’s background.
- GNIS feature 826919 (U.S. Geological Survey). The federal record for Ainsworth. Founded 1883; named for Captain James E. Ainsworth.
Spot something wrong? Corrections are noted here with their date, never made silently.
