Hendley Nebraska - Nebraska Directory

Hendley Area Cameras

Village · Furnas County · Population 20 (2020 census) · ZIP 68946 · Founded 1887 · Peak population 238 (1910)

About Hendley

Hendley is a village of 20, the smallest in Furnas County, on Beaver Creek and NE 89 about 7½ miles west of Beaver City.

History

The Lynden settlement grew up here in the early 1870s, and its post office opened on April 25, 1873, with Isaac S. Meyers as postmaster; mail came up the Beaver on horseback from Orleans. When the Burlington built its branch up the valley in 1887, it named the station Hendley; a 1925 place-name study says the name honored a Mr. Hendley who lived in the area. The post office took the new name on February 18, 1888, and in 1890 the village had a blacksmith, a harness maker, a hardware dealer and a station agent. It reached its largest population, 238, in 1910.

Edwin Perkins, born in Iowa in 1889, came to Hendley with his family in 1893. He worked in his father's store, where he talked his father into stocking Jell-O, became postmaster at 13, ran a mail-order business from the back of the post office and started the weekly Hendley Delphic in 1909. He moved his business to Hastings in 1920 and there invented Kool-Aid. The rail line through town has had no trains since about 2015.

Highways and trails through Hendley

Route	One way	Other way
NE 89East–west through the village	East to US 283 and Beaver City	West to Wilsonville (about 7 mi)

Nearby towns

Wilsonville	about 7 mi west	NE 89
Beaver City	about 8 mi east	NE 89
Holbrook	about 12 mi north	NE 89, US 283 and US 6/34
Arapahoe	about 13 mi north-northeast	NE 89 and US 283
Edison	about 14 mi northeast	NE 89 and county roads
Cambridge	about 15 mi northwest	NE 89 and NE 47

Things to see

Lynden Cemetery, about 1½ mi southwest · Hendley Cemetery, Pleasantview Cemetery and Rockton Cemetery · the post office in the convenience store at Grant Avenue and 3rd Street

Schools and health care

Schools: Southern Valley Schools (district 33-0540): Southern Valley Elementary (PK–6) and Southern Valley Junior/Senior High (7–12), on a rural campus on NE 89 between Beaver City and Stamford (Oxford mailing address), (308) 868-2222

Health care: No clinic in Hendley; nearest: Arapahoe Medical Clinic (Tri Valley), 305 Nebraska Ave., Arapahoe, (308) 962-8495, about 13 mi; hospital: Tri Valley Health System (Cambridge Memorial Hospital), 1305 US 6 & 34, Cambridge, (308) 697-3329, about 15 mi

Sources: U.S. Census; Wikipedia; Andreas, History of the State of Nebraska (1882); Nebraska State Gazetteer (1890); Who's Who in Nebraska, Furnas County (1940); Fitzpatrick, Nebraska Place-Names (1925); Southwest Nebraska Genealogical Society and NEGenWeb Furnas County; Furnas County website and 2025 Comprehensive Plan; History Nebraska and its historical markers; National Register of Historic Places; Nebraska Game and Parks; U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; Nebraska Department of Transportation; Nebraska Department of Revenue; Nebraska Library Commission; school, hospital and city websites. Distances marked "about" are straight-line estimates.