On July 4, 1857, the settlement chose the name "Beatrice" (pronounced Be-AT'trice) for their town in honor of Judge Kinney's daughter.

Located in one of the 19 organized counties, Beatrice was named county seat by the territorial legislature. With scarcely three-dozen families living at the location, a mayor was elected, and a 320-acre town site plat was filed. The river, which supplied the power for a mill (the town's first business), flooded the lowlands on a regular basis.

Daniel Freeman was given the honor of filing the first claim under the new Homestead Act, four miles west of Beatrice, in 1863. A national monument now commemorates the significance of the Homestead Act in the settlement of the West. That year a plot to divide "old Clay County" which laid between Gage and Lancaster counties was also perpetrated by the political opportunists of that age. This made each 36 miles by 24 miles in size and gave Beatrice a more nearly central location, insuring its continued position as county seat.

There was a steady stream of traffic along the old trail from Brownville, which had become the town's major thoroughfare, Court Street. Even
before the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad arrived in 1871, from Lincoln by way of Crete, the population had reached 624. When Beatrice was incorporated as a city in 1871, the population had reached 1,500. Growth was slowed by the grasshopper plague of 1874-76, however, during the 10 years that Beatrice was "the end of the line," it more than doubled in size. By the 1880s trains were running in all directions.

Earliest settlers were descendants of the colonists from eastern states, followed by an influx of Civil war veterans. The largest group of immigrants came from Germany 1870-90. Others coming to the area included Mennonites, a colony from Wales, and many from Bohemia when the Otoe Indian Reservation was sold in the 1880s. As a result, a wide diversity of cultures and religions are reflected in the community.

In 1888 several members of the Beatrice Board of Trade purchased some land near the river and organized the "Interstate Chautauqua." A tabernacle, boat house, bandstand, and other buildings were completed in time for the opening in the summer of 1889.
Performers included:

William Jennings Bryan, Susan B. Anthony, and former-President Rutherford B. Hayes. The railroads ran excursion trains, and thousands of spectators filled the park. A steam-powered excursion boat, "Belle of the Blue," cruised the Big Blue River over a six-mile route carrying up to 300 passengers.

Reference: Gage County Historical Society
2nd & Court Streets
Beatrice, Nebraska 68310
www.beatrice-ne.com/gagecountymuseum