Fillmore County, Nebraska

County Seat: Geneva
Founded: 1856
Named For: Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States
License Plate Prefix: 34
Population: 5,462 (2020 census)
Area: 576 sq mi

History

Fillmore County was established in 1856 and named after President Millard Fillmore. Early settlers were drawn to the area’s fertile prairie and access to water sources. Geneva, the county seat, developed as a center for trade and agriculture. The county’s history includes pioneer homesteads, railroad expansion, and a strong tradition of civic engagement and rural community life.

Geography

Location: South-central Nebraska
Landscape: Rolling prairie, farmland, and small creeks
Major Highways: U.S. 81, Nebraska Highways 41, 74
Adjacent Counties: York (N), Seward (NE), Saline (E), Jefferson (S), Thayer (SW), Nuckolls (W), Clay (NW)

Culture & Landmarks

• Fillmore County Courthouse (Geneva) – Historic courthouse built in 1892.
• Geneva Public Library – Community hub with local history archives.
• Fairmont Army Airfield – WWII-era airfield with historical significance.
• Fillmore County Museum – Preserves pioneer and agricultural heritage.

Notable Communities

• Geneva – County seat and largest town, known for its civic pride.
• Fairmont – Historic town with ties to military aviation.
• Exeter – Active community with schools and local events.
• Milligan – Czech heritage and cultural celebrations.
• Ohiowa, Strang, Shickley, Grafton – Small towns with deep agricultural roots.

Events & Festivals

• Fillmore County Fair (Geneva) – Livestock shows, exhibits, and entertainment.
• Milligan Czech Festival – Celebrates Czech heritage with music and food.
• Exeter Fun Days – Parade, games, and community gatherings.

Natural Attractions & Recreation

• Geneva City Park – Trails, playgrounds, and community events.
• Fairmont State Wildlife Management Area – Birdwatching and outdoor recreation.
• Local Lakes & Trails – Fishing, walking paths, and quiet retreats.

Living in Fillmore County

Fillmore County offers a peaceful rural lifestyle with strong community ties. Geneva provides essential services and cultural amenities, while surrounding towns preserve agricultural traditions and local pride. With its festivals, landmarks, and natural beauty, Fillmore County is a welcoming place to live and explore.

Fillmore County at a Glance

Fillmore County, Nebraska — created by the Territorial Legislature on 26 January 1856 and named for Millard Fillmore, thirteenth President, three years after he left office. It was not organized until 15 March 1871, when Acting Governor William H. James issued the proclamation; before that it was governed from Saline County. The first homesteaders, William Bussard and William Whitaker, filed on the West Fork of the Big Blue in June 1866. County seat Geneva. Population peaked at 16,022 in 1890 and stands at 5,551. 166 listings across 8 towns.

The county seat was called Henry first. Fillmore City, laid out in 1870, was the county’s first town and expected to keep the seat; Manleyville made its own bid in 1871, its proprietor putting up a hall and offering it to the county. Both lost. The seat was placed instead on school land at the county’s geographic center, and the raw site was called Henry until 2 July 1872, when the town was properly surveyed and renamed Geneva. The courthouse and jail contract was let that December for $3,075. The courthouse standing now dates from 1894; its clock went into the tower in 1909.

Getting there: US-81 runs north and south and US-6 east and west across the north, with NE-41 and NE-74. This is flat to gently rolling loess plain, almost all of it under cultivation, drained by the West Fork of the Big Blue and Turkey Creek — and it is Rainwater Basin country, pocked with the shallow playa wetlands that pull the spring waterfowl migration down out of the sky. Geneva sits at 1,637 feet. BNSF runs east and west across the top of the county. Central Time.

Then the grasshoppers came. In early July 1874, on top of drought, the Rocky Mountain locust arrived in numbers that obscured the light of the sun. A county relief-bond proposition failed on 16 January 1875, 200 for and 532 against — a county too proud or too broke to borrow against its own ruin. The hoppers came back in 1876 and did little.

The atomic bomb crews were chosen here. Fairmont Army Air Field, begun on 17 September 1942 across 1,980 acres, trained B-24, B-17 and B-29 crews — seven bombardment groups in all — and housed nearly 6,000 men plus a 350-bed hospital, the largest in Nebraska at the time. In September 1944 Lieutenant Colonel Paul Tibbets came to Fairmont and picked the 393rd Bomb Squadron of the 504th Group for the 509th Composite Group. That squadron dropped both atomic bombs on Japan. The field was declared surplus in 1946 and went on the National Register in 2003; a state historical marker stands on County Road H just east of US-81.

Three settlements, three churches. Czech families took the east of the county — Milligan is the center, and its Česko-národní síň, the Milligan Auditorium, is on the National Register — while Swedes settled the southwest around Shickley, where the Stockholm Swedish Lutheran Church and Cemetery is also listed, and Germans settled throughout. The railroad made the towns: the Burlington came through in the autumn of 1871 and platted Exeter, Fairmont and Grafton along it, and later lines produced Shickley, Strang, Ohiowa and Milligan.

For visitors: nineteen National Register listings for a county of 5,500 — among them the 1894 courthouse, Geneva’s Auditorium and its post office, the Fairmont Creamery Company Building, the Ohiowa Public School, the Strang town hall and jail, two 1992-listed river bridges, and a filling station with its house. The Fillmore County Museum is at Fairmont. At Fairmont the ethanol plant runs about 120 million gallons a year on roughly 42 million bushels of corn, and is the largest industrial presence in the county.

Outdoors, be honest about what is here. Fillmore County has no state park and no state recreation area. What it has is Rainwater Basin: eight state wildlife management areas — Bluebill, Marsh Hawk, Morphy Lagoon, Rauscher Lagoon, Redhead, Rolland Lagoon, Sandpiper and Sora — managed as shallow ephemeral playa for waterfowl rather than as fisheries. For birders in March this is some of the best ground in the state.

Born here. Robert B. Wilson (Geneva, 16 May 1937), Nobel laureate in Economic Sciences in 2020 for work on auction theory and the design of new auction formats — the Nobel Foundation itself gives Geneva as his birthplace. Kate Barnard (Geneva, 1875), who became the first woman elected to major statewide office in Oklahoma, Commissioner of Charities and Corrections in that state’s first general election in 1907, and a lifelong child-labour and prison reformer. And Jeff Zeleny (Exeter, 1973), raised on the family farm and now CNN’s Chief National Affairs Correspondent, previously of ABC News and the New York Times.