In 1974, sisters Mrs. Dwight Burney and Mrs. Irvin Anderson, edited a centennial celebration for the town of Polk Nebraska titled Polk Memoirs: Where Corn is King, 1874-1974. In this manuscript they and other townsfolks provide a look at the people and businesses that made up Polk in both the past and present. Genealogists should pay special attention to the families section.
We begin our story in the year 1854 when the United States Congress organized the Nebraska Territory. Four years later, a law was passed defining the boundaries of its counties and locating their county seats. Merrick County now had a name and a county seat — Elvira. To the present day no one knows the exact location of Elvira, but many pioneers believed it was located two miles southeast of Clarks. The county received its name from the wife of the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Her maiden name was Elvira Merrick. The volume “History of Nebraska” tells us … Read more