Cortland, NE

Cortland is a Gage County village halfway between Lincoln and Beatrice on US 77, with 504 people in the 2020 census. Its existence is tied directly to the railroad: the Omaha & Republican Valley Railroad acquired right-of-way in 1883, the Lincoln-to-Beatrice branch was completed in spring 1884, and J. H. Millard platted the first 25 blocks. The first name was Galesburg, after landowner Alfred Gales, but the committee changed it to Cortland because Galesburg was already common in Nebraska.

That railroad beginning left Cortland with a civic story as well. The village school moved into town in 1884, and by 1898 its two-story school served about 200 students. The present district is Norris School District 160, headquartered in nearby Firth, so Cortland's school life is part of a wider rural network. The village still sits between the two larger cities, with Highway 77 carrying north-south traffic and the original railroad alignment showing why this particular grid appeared on the prairie.