About Liberty
Liberty is a village in Gage County in south-east Nebraska. The census counted 37 residents in 2020, down from 76 in 2010 and 86 in 2000. The village covers about a quarter of a square mile at an elevation near 1,300 feet. Wymore is nine miles west, Blue Springs ten miles west, and Beatrice, the county seat, about 18 miles north-west.
History
White settlement in the area began around 1855. The town itself was founded by David Palmer, an early settler who ran a trading post nearby. Palmer later drowned in a river near the village and is buried in Liberty Cemetery. The post office opened in 1865. Railroad construction brought labourers and growth, and by 1890 Liberty had 469 people, grocery stores, a hotel, a hardware store and a newspaper, The Liberty Journal. The financial crisis of 1893 hit the surrounding farms hard. Farmers left, and the village never recovered what it lost.
Kenneth Wherry
Kenneth S. Wherry was born at Liberty on 28 February 1892. He served on the Pawnee City council, was mayor there, and sat in the Nebraska Legislature before defeating George Norris for the United States Senate in 1942. He held the seat from 1943 until 1951 and rose to Republican floor leader.
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Settlement at Liberty began as early as 1855, with founder David Palmer running an early trading post there; growth accelerated with railroad construction in the 1880s, and the village was locally nicknamed "Stringtown" for its railroad-dependent, strung-out layout. At its 1890 peak Liberty had three grocery stores, a hotel, and a newspaper, but the Panic of 1893 hit the town hard and it never fully recovered. U.S. Senate Republican Leader Kenneth S. Wherry was a notable resident.
A small village, once nicknamed "Stringtown," that peaked around 1890 and never fully recovered from the Panic of 1893.