How Valentine, Nebraska Got Its Name (A Congressman, Not the Holiday)

Name origin: Documented5 sourcesChecked Oct 27, 2026

Detail of a 1957 U.S. Geological Survey map showing Valentine on U.S. 20 and the railroad, with the Niobrara River and Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge to the east — Valentine on the U.S. Geological Survey's Valentine sheet, 1957, in the Sandhills near the Niobrara River. U.S. Geological Survey, Valentine sheet (1:250,000), 1957. Public domain.

Valentine, Nebraska, is named for Edward K. Valentine, who represented the area in Congress. It has nothing to do with Valentine’s Day, though the town has had a lot of fun with that since.

Where the name comes from

A 1908 railroad guide to place names says Valentine “was platted in 1883 by the Pioneer Town Site Company, and was named for E. K. Valentine of West Point, Nebraska.” It lists his jobs: register of the U.S. Land Office at West Point, district judge, and member of Congress. A 1925 study of Nebraska place names says he served three terms in Congress, from 1879 on. The U.S. Geological Survey’s record agrees on the namesake and calls him a three-term congressman.

After Congress, Valentine went to work in the other chamber. The U.S. Senate’s own history pages say the Senate elected him its sergeant at arms in 1890.

Before the railroad

The USGS record says Valentine was a well-known frontier town before the railroad was finished, and that the U.S. Land Office set up a supply post here in 1883. It gives 1884 for incorporation.

The Valentine’s Day part

The holiday came later. History Nebraska says people have long mailed their Valentine’s Day cards through the town to get a Valentine postmark, and that a postmaster organized it into a program in 1941. Over the years the special designs stamped on those envelopes, called cachets, have carried slogans like “The Heart City.”

Sources & further reading

W. H. Stennett, A History of the Origin of the Place Names Connected with the Chicago & North Western and Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railways (1908). A public-domain railroad guide. Valentine was platted in 1883 and named for E. K. Valentine, with a list of his offices.
Lilian Linder Fitzpatrick, Nebraska Place-Names (University of Nebraska, 1925). A public-domain study of the state’s place names, county by county. Three terms in Congress, from 1879.
GNIS feature 834323 (U.S. Geological Survey). The federal record for Valentine. The namesake, the 1883 Land Office post and 1884 incorporation.
U.S. Senate, “Edward K. Valentine, Sergeant at Arms.” His election as the Senate’s sergeant at arms in 1890.
History Nebraska, “Send a Valentine to your Valentine from Valentine.” The Valentine’s Day remailing program and its slogans.

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