About Hampton
Hampton is a village in Hamilton County, in south central Nebraska. The 2020 census counted 432 residents, close to the 439 counted in 2000. The village covers about a third of a square mile.
History
Joshua Cox bought land here in the spring of 1879 and drove around eastern Hamilton County collecting signatures on a petition for a town. His brother James bought an adjoining tract. The town was surveyed and platted in October 1879, about when the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad finished its line west from Lincoln to this point. The post office was moved here from Williamsport the same year.
The name
The Cox brothers first called the place Plano, after the town they had left in Illinois. The railroad objected, since it already had a station by that name, and proposed Murray instead. Residents turned that down. Everyone settled on Hampton.
Grain town
Hampton grew quickly. It had more than two hundred people within a year and about six hundred by 1886. There were twenty-five businesses in 1882 and forty-nine by 1887. German, Danish, Swedish and Russian farm families nearby made it their trading point. Grain has always been the main business. In 1887 the station shipped 1,065 carloads of it.
Visitor & Travel Categories
Business & Economic Categories
Hampton was founded in 1879 when Joshua Cox purchased 400 acres and petitioned for the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad to pass through, later joined by his brother James, who added 1,000 adjoining acres. The town was originally platted as "Plano" after the founders' Illinois hometown, but the railroad objected to the name over confusion with an existing station, and the parties settled on "Hampton" instead. Grain elevators and rail shipping anchored the town's early economy.
A Hamilton County village originally platted as "Plano" before being renamed Hampton at the railroad's request.