Whitman Nebraska - Nebraska Directory

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Unincorporated community · Grant County · ZIP 69366

About Whitman

Whitman is an unincorporated community on NE 2 and the BNSF main line in eastern Grant County, at about 3,602 feet in the Sandhills, about 13 miles east-northeast of Hyannis. It has its own post office (ZIP 69366). The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Gudmundsen Sandhills Laboratory lies just north. Whitman is on Mountain Time.

History

The Burlington reached Whitman in 1886 or 1887, and for a time it was the end of the line before the track went on west to Hyannis and Ashby. A railroad official named the town for Whitman, Massachusetts, and its post office opened in 1887. Whitman was the first seat of Grant County, but Hyannis won an election for it; when Whitman people would not give up the records, two young men carried them off. In 1890 Whitman had about 75 people, a company coaling station, a hotel run by postmaster William Freer and a newspaper, the Grant County Republican. After the Kinkaid Act of 1904 brought homesteaders, the town had two hotels, two liveries, two doctors, two general stores, a bank, a lumberyard, a drugstore and seven saloons, and cattle trains of sixty or more cars were not unusual. About 180 people lived there in 1940. Whitman Cemetery, on a hill about a quarter mile south of town, has graves from 1888. On June 25, 2024, a tornado damaged houses, trees and communication towers at Whitman and injured one person south of town.

Highways and trails through Whitman

Route	One way	Other way
NE 2Through the community, the Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway	East to Mullen and Thedford	West to Hyannis, Ashby and Alliance

Nearby towns

Hyannis	about 13 mi west-southwest	NE 2
Ashby	about 21 mi west	NE 2
Mullen	about 25 mi east	NE 2
Ellsworth	about 39 mi west	NE 2
Thedford	about 49 mi east	NE 2

Things to see

Whitman Cemetery, on the hill south of town, with graves from 1888 · Hyannis and its state lakes, about 13 miles west

Schools and health care

Schools: No school in the community; Hyannis Area Schools, (308) 458-2202

Health care: Nearest clinic in Hyannis, about 13 mi; nearest hospital in Alliance

Sources: Wikipedia; Fitzpatrick and Link, Nebraska Place-Names (1960), as cited by Wikipedia; Nebraska Who's Who (WPA, 1940) county sketch; 1890 Nebraska State Gazetteer; Legends of America; Find a Grave; National Weather Service (2024). Distances marked "about" are straight-line estimates.