Hartington, NE

Hartington is the Cedar County seat, a role it has held since an 1885 election moved county government to the town's central location. The townsite was laid out in 1883 as a railroad water stop and was named for Lord Hartington. The courthouse followed in 1891-92, built from locally made brick in a Romanesque style; it remains a landmark of the county seat. That courthouse is one part of Hartington's historic downtown. The city points visitors toward its Downtown Historic District, Carnegie Library, Cedar County Historical Museum, Veterans Memorial, and Hartington-Newcastle Public Schools. The county around town is farm and livestock country, with the Missouri River and Lewis and Clark Lake farther east. Hartington keeps the county's records, stories, and daily errands in the same compact town grid that first won the county seat.