About Lorton
Lorton is a village in Otoe County in south-eastern Nebraska. The 2020 census counted 35 residents, down from 41 in 2010 and 39 in 2000. The village is small in area as well, about 0.04 square miles, at an elevation near 1,020 feet. Children here attend Johnson County Central Public Schools, which took in the Nemaha Valley district in 2007.
History
The town was platted in 1881 as Delta, and the Delta post office opened on 26 June 1882. When the Missouri Pacific Railway built its line through, the railroad refused the name because a Delta station already existed in Kansas, and called its own stop Cio instead. For years mail was addressed to Delta while freight had to be sent to Cio. The community settled the matter with a new name, Lorton, for Robert Lorton, a wholesale grocery salesman from Nebraska City who called on the local merchants and was well liked. Accounts differ on the year: some give 1892, others 1894.
Boom and after
For its first 25 years Lorton did well. Four trains a day stopped here, and the town had a bank, a hotel, an opera house, a Baptist church, two elevators and a range of shops serving the surrounding farms. The 1900 census recorded 290 residents. A flood in 1950 ended rail service and closed the elevator, and the town declined through the middle of the century.
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Lorton was originally platted as "Delta" in 1881, then renamed Lorton in 1892 to resolve a naming conflict with another railroad station also called Delta. The smallest of Otoe County's incorporated villages, Lorton is served by Johnson County Central Public Schools and has a bridge individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Lorton, Otoe County's smallest incorporated village, was originally platted as "Delta" in 1881.
Navigate & Explore Lorton
Get directions: search "Lorton Nebraska" in Waze or Google Maps
Road Conditions: Nebraska 511 — 511.nebraska.gov
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