Friend Nebraska

About Friend

Friend is a city in Saline County in south-eastern Nebraska. The population was 954 at the 2020 census, down from 1,027 in 2010 and 1,174 in 2000. The city covers about 0.83 square miles and sits at roughly 1,558 feet. Friend Public Schools serves the town.

History

Charles E. Friend came to Nebraska in 1870 to work on railroad grading west of Lincoln, then homesteaded along the proposed route in Saline County. He opened a store on his land and was appointed postmaster. The settlement was first called Friendville. When the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad completed its station here in 1873, the name was shortened to Friend. That same year 56 acres of Friend's land were surveyed into 16 blocks. A grasshopper plague in 1874 stopped growth for a time. The town incorporated in 1882, the same year its first newspaper appeared and the agricultural fairgrounds with a half-mile racetrack were established. Population peaked at 1,347 in 1890.

Two footnotes

The National Greyhound Association was organized in 1906 in Friend; the association is now based in Abilene, Kansas. Friend also housed its police department in a tool shed, which Ripley's Believe It or Not reported as the smallest police station in the world. The shed was demolished in 2015.

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