Westerville Nebraska 68881

Westerville holds a distinctive place in Custer County history: platted on August 11, 1880, under the original name “Elm Bridge,” it was the first town established in the county — predating even Broken Bow. Its post office opened in 1882, and the community was renamed for James Westervelt (also recorded as “Westerville” in some sources), a storekeeper who became the area's first resident when he opened a store there in the fall of 1880. Westerville hosted a string of county firsts: the first frame church (Methodist), the first newspaper (The Custer Leader), the first doctor, lawyer, banker, and monument cutter, and the county's first two fairs in 1881 and 1882, along with its first teachers' institute. The town's fortunes faded after the railroad was built farther south in 1886 and after it lost the county-seat designation; it became formally unincorporated in the 1960s. Notable resident John W. Speese (also spelled Speess), an African American homesteader who settled there in 1881, later documented his experiences in the Omaha World-Herald. Westerville sits at the junction of US Route 183 and Nebraska Highway 70, and today is tracked by the Census as a small community with a 2020 population of 31, down from 39 in 2010.

Westerville, platted in 1880 as “Elm Bridge,” was the first town founded in Custer County — predating Broken Bow — and hosted the county's first church, newspaper, and fairs. Notable homesteader John W. Speese settled there in 1881. Population has fallen to 31 (2020) from 39 in 2010.

Adjacent Counties & Nearby Towns

Custer County is the largest county in Nebraska by area, covering 2,576 square miles of the central part of the state, with Broken Bow as its county seat. It borders Valley County and Loup County to the northeast, Sherman County and Buffalo County to the southeast, Dawson County to the south, Lincoln County to the southwest, Logan County to the west, and Blaine County to the northwest.

Nearby towns. Westerville stands at the crossing of US Highway 183 and Nebraska Highway 70, east of the county seat. Weissert is about 6 miles north-north-west, Berwyn about 7 miles west-south-west, and Ansley about 7 miles south where US-183 meets Highway 2. Broken Bow is roughly 13 miles west along N-70, and Arcadia, in Valley County, about 13 miles east on the same road. Comstock lies some 13 miles north-north-east and Mason City about 13 miles south-south-east.

For a place of thirty-one people, Westerville sits on a remarkably useful pair of roads — which is exactly why it was platted where it was.

Points of Interest & Events

Westerville is very small, and honest description serves it better than padding. The 2020 census counted 31 residents. It is an unincorporated community and census-designated place; it gave up its village incorporation in the 1960s. There are no attractions in the usual sense, no museum and no annual celebration listed by Custer County tourism.

What it does have is a real history. The townsite was platted on 11 August 1880 and a post office followed in 1882. It was named for James Westervelt, a local storekeeper on whose land the town was laid out. And in 1883 and again in 1884, Westerville hosted the Custer County Fair — this village, not Broken Bow — which says something about how open the question of the county’s centre still was in those years.

The I.O.O.F. Hall and the post office building are named as the community’s landmarks. The Odd Fellows hall is the kind of building that marks a town which once expected to grow.

Country Partners Cooperative keeps an agronomy location at Westerville, (308) 935-1217 — the working business at the crossroads today.

Annual events. None is listed. If Westerville holds a gathering we have missed, we would be glad to add it — there is a link at the foot of this page.

Education & Health

Schools. There is no school at Westerville. The nearest are Ansley Public Schools, a K–12 building about 7 miles south, and Broken Bow Public Schools about 13 miles west; Arcadia Public Schools, in Valley County, is about 13 miles east. We have not been able to confirm from a published source which district a Westerville address falls into, and prefer to say so rather than guess.

Health care. The nearest clinic is Central Nebraska Medical Clinic, 706 Main Street, Ansley, about 7 miles south. The nearest hospital is Jennie M. Melham Memorial Medical Center, 145 Memorial Drive, Broken Bow, (308) 872-4100, roughly 13 miles west — a 23-bed critical access hospital with a 24-hour emergency room.

Highway Access

Westerville sits at the junction of US Highway 183 and Nebraska Highway 70. The two run together for about a mile just north of the village before N-70 turns east.

US-183 runs north to Comstock’s spur and Sargent, then Taylor and Rose, reaching US-20 at Bassett. South it drops to Ansley in about 7 miles, where Highway 2 and N-92 cross, and continues past Miller toward Holdrege.

Nebraska Highway 70 runs west about 13 miles to its terminus at Highway 2 and N-92 just east of Broken Bow. East it goes to Arcadia, then Ord, Ericson and Bartlett, running concurrent with US-281 for some fourteen miles before ending at N-14 in Elgin.

Reaching the Interstate. South to Ansley, west on Highway 2 to Broken Bow, then south on N-21 to Lexington — about 70 miles to I-80. Grand Island, south-east by Highway 2, is roughly 70 miles.