Anselmo B. Smith

This morning I was reading about the "TINY" town of Bingham, where Dee and Cal spent last night (Wed). The population is said to be twenty, give or take a few, but it may have been as high as 200 in the 1920's. Surfing from this page, I clicked on links to Ashby, back down the road where the trikers stopped for a break yesterday, and Whitman. This then brought me to Hyannis. Hyannis, NE was named for Hyannis, MA, home town of the civil engineer who surveyed the Nebraska town, Anselmo B. Smith. End of story, except for the fact that Mr. Smith shows up in the histories of a number of Nebraska towns, including one named after the man himself, Anselmo, NE. Dee and Cal rode through this town between Broken Bow and the National Forest on Monday.

In the town of Anselmo, NE there happens to be St. Anselm's Catholic Church, nicknamed the Cathedral of the Sandhills. The church, of course, is named for St. Anselm. No one else may find this remotely curious, but it seems like a strange coincidence that the church named for a late 11th century cleric in a town named for a 19th century surveyor should have such similar names.

Incidentally, Anselmo B. Smith also platted the metropolis of Kearney, and one source I found indicates that he may have surveyed the city of Lincoln for the state.