The Tamora post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, La Fayette (1878), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 44147 years
Founding year: the first Tamora post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Tamora’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
In 1877, the Burlington Railroad extended its tracks westward from Seward, Nebraska. In 1879, four men each donated 10 acres (4.0 ha) of land for a townsite, in order to persuade the railroad to build a siding and station there.
A dispute arose over the name of the new town, since each of the four wanted it to bear his name. The name eventually chosen was a frontier pronunciation of "tomorrow", apparently because the selection of the name had to be deferred until later.
Within three years of the town's founding, three grain elevators had been constructed.
In 1884, the population was estimated at 53; the town was incorporated in 1888.
Passages that mention Tamora, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Seward county, Nebraska, together with a chapter of reminiscenses of the early settlement of Lancaster county1888 · page 202Read the page →
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parsonage valued at $4,000, a membership of 76, and in the midst of a flourishing district of country is bound to soon become a power for good. Utica, as an appointment, embraces at present the town of Tamora, has a neat and comfortable church and commodious parsonage in the town of Utica, and a church building at Tamora valued at $4,000; has over 100 membership, and is building up very ra{)idly.
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History of Seward County, Nebraska, and reminiscenses of territorial history1905 · page 251Read the page →
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Tamora was surveyed into lots in 1879 and that fall J. W. Scott built a small grain house, put in a set of scales and commenced the grain trade and Wm. Butler opened a small store. P. G. Tyler made the tirst home in the new town.
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History of Seward County, Nebraska, and reminiscenses of territorial history1905 · page 404Read the page →
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Post office — Cereal Mills— News Papers — Pleasart Dale Schools — Utica, its growth and progress — Post Office— Village of Bee— Gennantown Creamery — Germantown Post Office — Tamora Post Office — Grover Post Office — Early Railroading (story)— My first ride on a Rail. Milford was first settled by J. L. Davison in the spring of 1864. He built a log house on the site of the present hospital and opened a ranch on the steam wagon road. One of the first things he undertook was improving the ford be-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Tamora, 1878 to 1967
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (3), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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