Editing Exeter, Nebraska (section)

==History==

In 1870, Dr. Horace Greeley Smith and his wife filed a [[Homestead Act|homestead]] claim at the site of present-day Exeter.  In an earlier scouting trip, Smith had determined that the site would lie near the line of the [[Burlington and Missouri River Railroad]] as it extended itself westward.<ref name=casde/>

In the fall of 1871, the Burlington and Missouri was completed through Fillmore County.<ref name=andreas/>  To promote settlement along its line, the railroad established towns at intervals.  Towns were named alphabetically as the railroad ran westward from [[Lincoln, Nebraska|Lincoln]].<ref name=alphabetical/> In eastern Fillmore County, a town was established on land donated by Smith and by James Dolan. One of the families that had settled in the area had come from [[Exeter, New Hampshire]], and it was proposed that the town be given that name. It was adopted, as being in keeping with the alphabetical sequence: [[Crete, Nebraska|Crete]], [[Dorchester, Nebraska|Dorchester]], Exeter, [[Fairmont, Nebraska|Fairmont]], [[Grafton, Nebraska|Grafton]], [[Harvard, Nebraska|Harvard]], [[Inland, Nebraska|Inland]], [[Juniata, Nebraska|Juniata]], [[Kenesaw, Nebraska|Kenesaw]], and [[Lowell, Nebraska|Lowell]].<ref name=fitzpatrick/><ref name=calvert/>

The railroad advertised the availability of free government land in Nebraska, bringing settlers from the eastern United States, and Czech, German, English, Irish, and Scandinavian immigrants.<ref name=marker/>  The town's growth was initially slow, but hastened in the late 1870s.  In 1878, two large [[grain elevator]]s were built and a number of businesses opened; the town's first newspaper, the ''Enterprise'', was established in that year.<ref name=andreas2/>  In 1879, the town was incorporated; by that time, it had sixteen businesses.<ref name=marker/><ref name=geninfo/>