Thayer

Formed February 26, 1856 (26^th county)

Thayer County (5,032), Hebron (1,456)

A stone Romanesque Revival building is the Thayer County courthouse built in 1902 and remodeled in 1953.  It stands on a square at 4^th Street, Olive Avenue, 3^rd Street, and Union Avenue.  United States Highway 81 passes the city 9 blocks east of the site.  George A. Berlinghof is the designer.  Veteran memorials are on the grounds.  The county was formed on February 26, 1856 from Jefferson County as the 26^th county with Hebron as the only county seat.  The county is named for Governor John Milton Thayer.  Hebron is named for the Biblical town. 

The area of the county is 575 square miles.  It is 51 out of 93 in the state.  It ranks 56 out of 93 in population in the state.  It has a density of 8.8 persons per square mile making it 46 out of 93 in the state.  Thayer County has 69.6% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 81 passes through the county from north to south from Fillmore County to Kansas.  United States Highway 136 goes east to west from Jefferson County to Nuckolls County.  The county is a rectangle.  Hebron is located near the center of the county.  Hebron is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 28.9% of the county population. 

Thayer County government consists of a sheriff and 3 Commissioners.  Three District Court Judges serve Thayer, Clay, Fillmore, Gage, Jefferson, Johnson, Nemaha, Nuckolls, Pawnee, Richardson, and Saline counties and Three County Court Judges serve Thayer, Gage, Jefferson, Johnson, Nemaha, Pawnee, Richardson, and Saline counties.  The county is on the southern border with Kansas.  Grand Island, Nebraska is northwest and Lincoln, Nebraska is northeast of the county.  The county is in Hebron .8 miles Northwest of the city center.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Fillmore, Saline, and Jefferson counties and Kansas and Nuckolls and Clay counties.  The county seat is pronounced HEB-RON.