Editing Duncan, Nebraska (section)

==History==
The [[First Transcontinental Railroad|transcontinental railroad]] reached the site of Duncan in 1866.  Among the first settlers in the area were Polish and Swiss immigrants.<ref name=histmark>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20040818210213/http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/markers/texts/duncan.htm "Duncan 1871-1971".]}}  {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/19990129073714/http://www.nebraskahistory.org/index.htm Nebraska State Historical Society.]}}  Retrieved April 11, 2010.</ref>
In June 1869, the post office of Cherry Hill was established on the site.<ref name=histmark />

In October 1871, the townsite of Jackson was laid out by officials of the [[Union Pacific Railroad]].<ref name=pastpresent>Phillips, G. W. (1915).  [http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/topic/resources/OLLibrary/PlatHist/Vol_I/ppp1p362.html#k ''Past and Present of Platte County, Nebraska''.]  p. 374.  Retrieved April 11, 2010.</ref>  Jackson was chosen in 1879 as the southern terminus of the Omaha, Niobrara, and Black Hills Railroad, a Union Pacific subsidiary, purportedly because railroad magnate [[Jay Gould]] was angry at the town of [[Columbus, Nebraska|Columbus]] for promoting a rival railroad in the region.<ref name=histmark />

In 1880, the settlement's name was changed to Duncan,<ref name=histmark />
owing to the existence of another [[Jackson, Nebraska|Jackson]] in [[Dakota County, Nebraska|Dakota County]].<ref name=dakotaco>O'Brien, Irene.  [http://www.casde.unl.edu/history/counties/platte/duncan/index.php "Duncan--Platte County".]  [http://www.casde.unl.edu/history/index.php Nebraska... Our Towns.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111123132824/http://www.casde.unl.edu/history/index.php |date=November 23, 2011 }}  Retrieved April 11, 2011.</ref>
The new name honored General Wood B. Duncan, a prominent onetime local resident.<ref name=curry>Curry, Margaret (1950).  [http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/topic/resources/OLLibrary/Platte/pages/hpcn0042.htm ''The History of Platte County, Nebraska''.]  Murray & Gee.  p. 217.  Retrieved April 11, 2010.</ref>
In the following year, an ice jam destroyed the Omaha, Niobrara, and Black Hills Railroad bridge across the [[Loup River]]; the line was later moved to branch off the main line of the Union Pacific at Columbus.<ref name=histmark />

A Baptist church was organized in Duncan in 1881.<ref name=pastpresent />  
In the following year, St. Stanislaus Church was built by the Polish Roman Catholics of the Duncan area.<ref name=franciscans>Hagedorn, Rev. Eugene, O.F.M. (1931).  [http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/topic/religion/catholic/Franciscans/pages/pt2/fine0017.htm ''The Franciscans in Nebraska''.]  p. 413.  Retrieved April 11, 2010.</ref>
In 1883, St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church was established.<ref name=pastpresent />

The Village of Duncan was incorporated in 1913.<ref>[http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/topic/resources/OLLibrary/PlatHist/Vol_I/ppp1p362.html#k Phillips (1915).]  p. 375.  Retrieved April 11, 2010.</ref>