Cherry County, Nebraska: History
Cherry County was created on February 23, 1883 and named for Lt. Samuel A. Cherry, an Army officer who was stationed at Fort Niobrara and was killed in South Dakota in 1881. Cherry County is in the Nebraska Sandhills. It is the state's largest county, at nearly 6,000 square miles (16,000 km2), larger than three states, Rhode Island, Delaware and Connecticut.
On November 3, 1911, Cherry County held a referendum that asked whether voters wanted to split the county into 5 different sections. The measure proposed that the western 60 miles were cut from the county, and divided as follows: the 60 miles is split in half into 30 mile strips, with 18 miles being taken from the south of those strips and given to Grant and Hooker Counties. The remaining northern parts would create two new counties: Lake and Green. The proposal failed, receiving 390 votes in favor, and 1,368 against. Unofficial precinct results detail that it succeeded in only 3 of the county's 42 precincts. A map of the proposed changes can be viewed below (or above, if viewed from mobile):