How Kearney, Nebraska Got Its Name (With an Extra E)

Kearney, Nebraska, is named after nearby Fort Kearny, which honored General Stephen Watts Kearny. Somewhere along the way the town picked up an extra E that the general never had.

First, the fort

The Army built a post on the Platte River in 1848 to protect travelers on the trails west. Nebraska Studies says the officer who built it first called it Fort Childs, after Colonel Thomas Childs, a Mexican War officer who was also his father-in-law. Then the War Department stepped in and ordered that the post “will be known as Fort Kearny,” after Stephen Watts Kearny, a general who had served in the War of 1812 and the Mexican War.

Then, the town

The town came later, with the railroads. The city of Kearney’s history page says the “Junction” in the first name, Kearney Junction, came from the spot where the Burlington and Missouri railroad met the Union Pacific, and that “Kearney” was taken from the fort. The city says the town site was surveyed in the summer of 1871. The name was then shortened to plain Kearney. The U.S. Geological Survey’s record says it became the county seat in 1872 and was incorporated as a city in 1873.

Where the extra E came from

General Kearny spelled his name with no E before the Y. So did the Army, for the fort. History Nebraska’s marker page says the fort is “frequently misspelled ‘Kearney,’” and that the city near the fort “perpetuates this old error.”

Nobody agrees on who made the mistake first. History Nebraska says the extra E started showing up in popular use around 1856. The city’s own history page blames the post office: someone there made a spelling error, and by the time anyone noticed, nobody felt a change was needed. Either way, the city kept the E, and the state park nearby is still Fort Kearny, without one.

A mix-up in the old book

A 1925 study of Nebraska place names says the town was “originally named Fort Childs.” That’s not quite right. Fort Childs was the fort’s early name, not the town’s, and the town didn’t exist until the railroad came. The study does get the general right, and it says the name was spelled without the E until 1857.

Sources & further reading

• History Nebraska, “Marker Monday: Kearney – Fort Kearny.” The fort named for General Kearny and the city that “perpetuates this old error.”
• History Nebraska, “Kearney.” The misspelling spreading around 1856.
• Nebraska Studies, “Fort Kearny.” Fort Childs and the War Department order that renamed it.
• City of Kearney, “History.” Kearney Junction, the 1871 town site and the post office spelling error.
• GNIS feature 830442 (U.S. Geological Survey). The federal record for Kearney. County seat in 1872, incorporated as a city in 1873.
• Lilian Linder Fitzpatrick, Nebraska Place-Names (University of Nebraska, 1925). A public-domain study of the state’s place names, county by county. Mixes up the fort’s name and the town’s, but gets the namesake right.