Editing Kearney, Nebraska (section)

==History==
{{wide image|Kearney c1909 LOC 6a07451u.jpg|800px|alt=Three streets stretch off into the distance, with old style buildings, in 1907|Panorama {{circa|1909}} }}
[[File:"Parade of U.S. Infantry through Kearney, Nebraska, 1888." - NARA - 533173.jpg|thumb|left|Parade of U.S. Infantry through Kearney, Nebraska (1888).]]
[[File:Kearney Nebraska Housing 1907.jpg|thumb|left|Streets of Kearney, Nebraska showing houses and one person, c. 1907]]
[[File:Nebraska - Kearney - NARA - 23942153 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|Aerial view of Kearney in 1925]]
In the late 1840s, American settlers traveling westward arrived in significant numbers along the [[Mormon Trail]] and [[Overland Trails]]. This marked the beginning of Kearney's role as a crossroads on major east-west transportation arteries. In 1848, to safeguard westward migrants traveling through the region, the [[US Army]] established a military fort several miles southeast of the present city. Named after famed frontier military officer [[Stephen W. Kearny]], Fort Kearny would become the namesake of the present city and serve as a stopping-point for gold prospectors, [[Pony Express]] riders, and [[Union Pacific Railroad]] workers until 1871.<ref>
{{cite web
|title=Fort Kearny State Historical Park
|website=Nebraska Game and Parks
|date=30 October 2015
|url=http://outdoornebraska.gov/fortkearny/
|access-date=2022-03-06}}
</ref>

The first permanent settlement in the area was called Dobytown, located {{convert|2|mi|km}} southeast of the present-day Kearney. The "e" in Kearney was added by mistake sometime afterwards by postmen who consistently misspelled the town name; eventually the spelling became [[nomenclature]].<ref>{{cite book
 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9V1IAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA172
 | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States
 | publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office
 | author=Gannett, Henry
 | year=1905
 | page=172
}}</ref> 
<ref>
{{cite book
 |last=Ellis |first=Mark
 |year=2006
 |title=Kearney
 |page=7
 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing
 |isbn=9780738541280
}}</ref>
The region expanded in 1866 with the arrival of the [[Union Pacific Railroad]]. The fixing of a junction point with the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad in 1871 anticipated the establishment of a townsite in the summer of that year. The city of Kearney was incorporated on December 3, 1873, the townsite being fixed a mille north of the [[Platte River]]. In 1874, Kearney was chosen to be the seat of [[Buffalo County, Nebraska|Buffalo County]], experiencing great population, economic, and infrastructural expansion in subsequent years that transformed the nascent city into the local business, education, and transportation center it remains to this day. This boom would be sustained through the next twenty-years, fueled by a post-Civil War period of frenzied economic expansion and wealth generation ([[Gilded Age]]) that was transforming the whole nation. Enterprising investors poured into the burgeoning community from the East and elsewhere, hoping to enrich themselves through ambitious speculative development schemes that, more often than not, turned out to be ill-conceived and economically unsustainable. An irrigation canal, electric street railway, and a five-story [[opera]] house were some of the projects to ultimately make it off the drawing board. These flush times would grind to a sudden halt as a result of the agricultural depression and economic crisis of the early [[1890s]].<ref>
{{cite web
|title=Historic Kearney
|website=History Nebraska 
|url=https://mynehistory.com/items/show/35
|access-date=2022-03-06}}</ref>

In 1912, the Catholic [[diocese of Kearney]] was centered here. The diocese was suppressed in 1917, with the creation of the [[diocese of Grand Island]].<ref name=hierarchy>
{{cite encyclopedia
 |title=Diocese of Grand Island
 |encyclopedia=[[Catholic-Hierarchy.org]]
 |publisher=David M. Cheney
 |url=http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dgris.html
 |date=February 13, 2024
 |access-date=April 12, 2024
}}
</ref><ref name=giga>
{{cite encyclopedia
 |title=Diocese of Grand Island
 |encyclopedia=GCatholic.org
 |publisher=Gabriel Chow
 |url=http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/diocese/gran4.htm
 |access-date=2013-06-04
}}
</ref> In 1997, the historical diocese of Kearney began to be used as a [[titular see]] by the Catholic Church.<ref>
{{Cite encyclopedia
 | title=Kearney (Titular See)
 | encyclopedia=[[Catholic-Hierarchy.org]]
 | publisher=David M. Cheney
 | url=http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/d2k04.html
 | date=February 13, 2024
 | accessdate=April 12, 2024
}}
</ref>