Glenvil Nebraska - Nebraska Directory

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Village · Clay County · Population 267 (2020 census) · ZIP 68941 · Founded 1873 · Peak population 400 (1920)

About Glenvil

Glenvil is a village of 267 people (2020) in western Clay County, at 1,844 feet, reached by Spur 18E north from NE 74; it is about 10 miles southeast of Hastings and 10 miles west of Clay Center. It has a Cornerstone Bank branch and the Brumbaugh Public Library, and the Theesen Waterfowl Production Area is half a mile north. Glenvil is on Central Time.

History

The townsite lies on the corners of the claims of R. S. Winters, Daniel Fitch and Robert Thompson, who organized a school district in 1871–72. The St. Joseph & Denver City Railroad reached the spot in 1873 and named its station Glenville in its alphabetical series, and the post office opened that year. The spelling was cut to Glenvil in 1914 because mail kept going astray. The two-story Glenville School, designed by A. W. Woods of Lincoln and built by Hempel Brothers in 1903, gained a high school in 1924; the high school ended in 1966 and the school closed in May 1995. Glenvil peaked at 400 people in 1920. In 1997, according to news reports, residents wrote to celebrities for playground money; Bill Gates sent $5,000 and Merle Hinrichs, a former Glenvil student working in Hong Kong, $20,000.

Highways and trails through Glenvil

Route	One way	Other way
NE 74South of the village (Spur 18E)	East to Fairfield	West to Ayr and US 281

Nearby towns

Inland	about 7 mi north-northeast	County roads
Pauline	about 8 mi southwest	County roads
Fairfield	about 9 mi east-southeast	NE 74
Hastings	about 10 mi northwest	County roads
Clay Center	about 11 mi east	County roads
Ayr	about 11 mi west-southwest	NE 74
Harvard	about 12 mi northeast	County roads
Deweese	about 12 mi south-southeast	County roads
Trumbull	about 12 mi north	County roads

Things to see

the Glenville School, 401 S. Fifth St. (1903, National Register 1998) · the Glenvil Fire Hall and Town Jail (National Register 2022) · the Brumbaugh Public Library

Schools and health care

Schools: Sandy Creek Public Schools, PK–12 campus at 30671 Highway 14 near Fairfield, (402) 726-2151

Health care: Nearest hospital: Mary Lanning Healthcare, Hastings, about 10 mi

Sources: U.S. Census; Wikipedia; Clay County (claycounty.ne.gov); City of Sutton; Andreas, History of the State of Nebraska (1882); Johnson, History of Nebraska (1880); Nebraska State Gazetteer (1890–91); NEGenWeb Clay County; Newberry Library county atlas; National Register (NRHP nominations); History Nebraska; HMdb; Nebraska Game and Parks; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Rainwater Basin WMD); USDA-ARS; SABR; Visit Nebraska; SchoolDigger. Distances marked "about" are straight-line estimates.