Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Services in Paxton, NE

Paxton is an incorporated village in Keith County in western Nebraska; the county seat is Ogallala.

Paxton began in the late 1860s as Alkali, a siding on the first transcontinental railroad with a telegraph station, water tower, and depot; the name reflected the high alkaline content of the local soil.

One of Alkali's first residents was 18-year-old telegraph operator Edwin Searle Sr., who arrived in 1867 and at first lived in a tent; his son, Edwin Searle Jr., born in 1873, was the first white child born in Keith County.

Before the siding existed, the area held Fort Alkali, a small post protecting Oregon Trail emigrants and later railroad workers.

Alkali was renamed Paxton and incorporated in 1885, honoring William A. Paxton, a prominent Omaha rancher and businessman who had acquired extensive land in the area.

Widow Ann LeDioyt filed the earliest homestead claim around Paxton in 1884, as settlers followed the railroad into Keith County.

During the drought and recession of the 1890s, the Bank of Paxton held on longer than any other bank in Keith County before finally closing.

In 1897, Paxton-area residents gathered about 86 signatures on a petition to create a new "Paxton County" — far too few — so the village remained in Keith County.

The Lincoln Highway, America's first transcontinental automobile road, passed through Paxton in the early 20th century, and Kingsley Dam's construction in the 1930s later boosted the local farm economy.

Ole's Tavern opened in Paxton in 1933, the year Prohibition ended, and became a lasting centerpiece of the village's social life.