About Maywood
Maywood is a village in Frontier County, in south-western Nebraska. It sits on Nebraska Highway 23 at about 2,681 feet above sea level and covers roughly 0.63 square miles. The population was 262 at the 2020 census, close to the 261 counted in 2010 but down from 331 in 2000. Curtis lies about five miles east, Wellfleet about eight miles north-west, Moorefield about eleven miles east, and Stockville about fifteen miles south-east. The village is served by Maywood Public Schools and uses ZIP code 69038.
History
Maywood dates from the 1880s, and its post office opened in 1888. The place was first called Laird. Because another town named Laird stood on the same railway in Colorado, the name was changed to Maywood, after May Wood, the youngest daughter of Israel Wood, who owned the original town site. Some later reference works print the family name as Woods.
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Maywood is a village in western Frontier County along Nebraska Highway 23, about six miles from Curtis. Its post office first opened under the name "Laird" on February 24, 1881, but was renamed just over five months later, on August 1, 1881, to Maywood -- honoring May Wood, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Israel Wood, the original owners of the townsite. Maywood maintains its own school district separate from its close neighbor Curtis. With a 2020 population of 262, the village has lost roughly half its population since its historical peak of 533 residents in 1920.
Maywood's quick rename from "Laird" to honor a settler's daughter gives the village one of the more personal, clearly documented name origins in Frontier County. It remains a small agricultural community today, distinct from but closely tied to neighboring Curtis.