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Seneca, Nebraska was formed in 1887 when the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad made it a station. It has survived and suffered as a railroad town for the past 113 years. It was a railroad division for 89 years and in the pro
cess blossomed into a town of more than 500 people.
The railroad turntable, located in Seneca, operated twenty-four hours a day and employed seventy men who worked in three shifts. The railroad depot burned down twice and then a brick one was built. It was demolished just three months before the Seneca Centennial in 1987.
The stockyards east of town annually shipped up to 1,500 carloads of cattle each month during the fall. Potatoes, corn, and rye, raised by the Kinkaiders (people in 1900 taking advantage of the Kinkaid Act), were shipped out by the carload.
In the 1930s and 40s scrap iron was transported the same way. Passenger trains bustled through town until 1969. In 1973, Seneca ceased being a crew change point, and the hotels and cafe closed.
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