efore electric streetcars, many cities used horse
railways. They appeared in several Nebraska cities in
the 1880s during a statewide urban real estate boom.
In Hastings, for example, the owners of one of the
new subdivisions boasted street cars on three sides of their
land, and the cars on one line bore the sign "Dawes and
Foss Addition." Similar situations prevailed at Beatrice,
Columbus, Nebraska City, Norfolk, Grand Island, Kearney,
Red Cloud, South Sioux City, Wymore, and York.
The promotion of horsecar lines was not limited to real
estate salesmen and investors. News items and editorials
indicate that rival towns viewed expanded street railways as
a matter of civic pride. In Nebraska's small cities, adequate
patronage for a street railway was provided, if at all, by a
park, an important institution, or perhaps a railway station
some distance from the business district. In Omaha, Norfolk,
Red Cloud, and Wymore, the principal railway stations
were at least a mile from town. In fact, the horsecar lines
in Norfolk, South Sioux City, Wymore, and Red Cloud had
little else to justify them.
As a passenger clambered aboard a horsecar (usually
at the front platform) the driver held the horses still, and
the passenger was expected to drop his nickel or celluloid
"check" into the fare box. As the car lumbered along, an
occasional passenger would "pull the bells" and prepare
to alight. In Omaha two bells meant "stop immediately"
(even in the middle of a block); one bell meant "stop at the
next crossing." The car seats, made of wood, were benches
paralleling the sides of the car, thus causing each passenger
to look across the car into the faces of passengers seated
opposite him. Early cars were without heat (though in winter
they did have straw on the floor).
Horses were usually used in pairs. The day was divided
A Brief History
Horse Railways
By History Nebraska (Nebraska State Historical Society)
B
10 NEBRASKAland • NOVEMBER 2018
"Don't this make you think of home." Nebraska City, ca. 1910. History Nebraska RG3267-1-12
As seen on Kearney's Central Avenue in 1891, electric streetcars
began to replace the horse-drawn kind, but horsecars continued
to be used for many years. History Nebraska RG2178-20
