About Clatonia
Clatonia is a village in the north-west corner of Gage County, north-west of Beatrice and south-west of Lincoln. Nebraska Highway 41 runs through it. The village covers about a quarter of a square mile at an elevation of 1,385 feet. The 2020 census counted 263 residents, up from 231 in 2010 and down from 275 in 2000. The name comes from Clatonia Creek, which runs by the town.
History
Germans had been farming at the site since about 1869, and a German Methodist Episcopal church was organised there in 1871. Henry Albert and J. H. Steinmeyer had the townsite surveyed and platted in the spring of 1892, and the plat was recorded on 3 December 1893. The village incorporated in 1893. Frank W. Jones built the first house and served as the first postmaster. A grain elevator went up in 1894. John H. and William Steinmeyer founded the Farmers' Bank around 1893 and had it in a brick building by 1900. Clatonia became a station on the Rock Island line. The federal census recorded 180 residents in 1910.
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A German settlement existed at Clatonia from about 1869, but the town itself was platted in 1892 when rail service reached the area, and incorporated as a village in 1893. It takes its name from nearby Clatonia Creek, itself said to derive ultimately from statesman Henry Clay's name.
A small, incorporated German-settled village named for nearby Clatonia Creek.