Living on the corner of Douglas and Marshall

McCook is a relatively easy city in which to find addresses. After 1908, McCook streets running north and south were identified with numbers. For in-stance, First being the first street east or west of Main (now Norris) Avenue and so on. Streets running east and west were identified with letters, be-ginning with A, starting with the street just north of the depot. (After World War II in the newer additions to the city, developers again began to name streets.)

It is interesting to note the names assigned to McCook streets by the Lincoln Land Co., the agent of the railroad, on the original plat of McCook.

The original city of McCook consisted of three blocks east of Main Street, and three blocks west of Main Street, from the railroad tracks north to what is now "F" street. The street paralleling the railroad on the north (now "A" Street) was called North Railroad Street. All of the streets running east and west were assigned names beginning the letter "D." The streets running north and south were assigned names beginning with the letter "M."

A St. -- North Railroad St.

B St. -- Dennison St.

C St. -- Dodge St.

D St. -- Douglas St.

E. St. -- Dearborn St.

F. St. -- Dakota St.

Norris Ave. -- Main Ave.

East First St. -- Marshall St.

East Second St. -- Madison St.

East Third St. -- Monroe St.

West First St. -- Manchester St.

West Second St. -- McFarland St.

West Third St. -- McDowell St.

By 1886, South McCook and West McCook had been added as additions to the original city. The names of the new streets in West McCook went along with the "M" and "D" concept. In West McCook, Manitoba Avenue was the name for the present Federal Avenue (the street going south under the Railroad Tracks, connecting South McCook with McCook.

Going west from there, the North/South streets in West McCook were Minnesota Avenue, Maryland Avenue, Michigan Avenue, Missouri Avenue, and Mississippi Avenue. The East/West Streets were Dennison St. (which was not a through street), Delaware St., and Dawson St.

For some reason, in 1886, when South McCook was added to the city, civic officials did not choose to continue the practice of naming streets with names beginning with "D" and "M." Instead, in South McCook the east/west streets were First Street, Second Street, and Third Street, while the north/south streets were designated "A", "B", and "C", just opposite of the way streets were named beginning in 1908.

Since 1908, though, streets have been named as subdivisions have been added, the names of the original streets have not been changed, with the exception of Main Avenue, which was changed to Norris Avenue to honor Sen. George Norris shortly after his death in 1944.

Though the reason for naming a certain street cannot always be explained, several of the names can be linked to a historical person or place.

For instance: Dodge Street was named for Augustus Caesar Dodge, U.S. Senator from Iowa, who introduced the bill to organize the territory of Nebraska in 1853.

Dodge County, Nebraska, also was named after him, as was an important street in Omaha.

Douglas Street was named to honor Senator Stephen A. Douglas, the principal architect of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (and Abraham Lincoln's worthy opponent in the Lincoln-Douglas debates.)

Dakota Street was no doubt named to honor the Dakota (Sioux) Indians, as was Dakota City, Nebraska.

So many of the early pioneers to Nebraska came from Iowa and Illinois, so it is probable that the names of Dearborn and Dennison Streets came because of the association with those cities "from back home."

Marshall Street was named to honor Chief Justice John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice, who served in the Supreme Court from 1790 until his death in 1835.

Madison and Monroe Streets probably honored the fourth and fifth Presidents of the United States. However, there are some who believe that Madison Street was named to honor H. Madison, one of the very early settlers to Red Willow County.

McDowell was the middle name of the man who lent his name to McCook, General Alexander McDowell McCook. Alexander was one of five brothers who achieved the rank of general in the Civil War -- "The Fighting Ohio McCooks."

He was known as the Defender of Washington. When the Confederate General Early led an invasion on the nation's Capital, McCook mobilized a force of old men, boys, and convalescing soldiers who fought valiantly to save Washington from the Southern forces.

General Alexander McCook was a great friend of Alexander Campbell, who was the Superintendent of local division of the Burlington Railroad at the time McCook was founded. When it was decided to change the name of the tiny community on the Republican, originally called Fairview, Superintendent Campbell suggested the name of his friend, McCook.

The name appealed to the early settlers in McCook. Gen. McCook was something of a dashing figure. After his graduation from West Point in 1852, he was sent west to do battle with the hostile (pre-Geronimo) Apache Indians.

After a successful campaign he was sent back to West Point, where he taught until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. In addition to his defense of Washington, McCook served with distinction at Bull Run, and against General Bragg in Kentucky. As a Major General of volunteers he led his men through withering Confederate fire in battles at Perryville, Murfreesboro, and Chickamauga.

He retired from active service in1895, but was a civilian working with the Department of War during the Spanish-American War. His last service for his country came in 1903, shortly before his death, when he represented the United States at the coronation of the Czar of Russia.

It may be that naming streets after numbers and letters of the alphabet is an efficient way to simplify finding an address, yet it does not produce the little pleasure that comes as one journeys through Northeast McCook and views the street names in the "Reservation" -- names which honor the various Indian tribes that played such an important role in our nation's history, and most of all to drive down McCook's principal artery and recall for a fleeting moment the memory of George Norris, the man who is honored across the nation, but never forgot his old hometown.

Source: McCook Daily Gazette Centennial Edition 1882-1982