Ashland was Saunders County's first town and original 1867 county seat — then known as Saline Ford, a natural ford across Salt Creek used by Oregon Trail wagon trains — before formally establishing under its present name in 1870 and losing the county seat to Wahoo in 1873. It takes its name from Ashland, the Kentucky estate of statesman Henry Clay.

Ashland is the hometown of NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson and Jeff Raikes, former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and is home to Camp Ashland, a Nebraska Army National Guard training center. With a 2020 population of 3,086 and located about 30 minutes from both Omaha and Lincoln, it has increasingly become a bedroom community for both metro areas.