About Ashby
Ashby is an unincorporated community in Grant County, in western Nebraska. It stands on Nebraska Highway 2, about nine miles west of Hyannis, the county seat. The place is small today, but it still supports a post office.
History
Ashby got its start following construction of the railroad through the territory. A railroad official named it after the town of Ashby, Massachusetts. The post office was established in February 1908, though the earliest published mention of the place that has been traced is on a Rand McNally map of 1895. In its better years Ashby had a blacksmith shop, a dance hall, two stores, a town hall and three lumberyards.
What became of it
One of the stores burned. A lumberyard was converted into a church. The town hall is now the location of the Veterans Club. A school serving all twelve grades was built in 1915 and did so until 1930. Hyannis lies to the east; Bingham, in Sheridan County, lies a similar distance to the west.
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Ashby is a small, unincorporated Sandhills community about nine miles west of Hyannis, named after Ashby, Massachusetts by a railroad official during the same Chicago, Burlington & Quincy-era naming wave as Hyannis and Whitman. In its early-20th-century heyday it supported a blacksmith, dance hall, two general stores, and three lumberyards. Unlike many similarly small Sandhills communities, Ashby still has an active post office today.
Adjacent Counties
- Cherry County (north)
- Hooker County (east)
- Arthur County (south)
- Garden County (west)
- Sheridan County (northwest)
Nearby Towns
- Hyannis — the Grant County seat, about 9 miles east
A small, unincorporated Sandhills community with an active post office despite its tiny size.