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Coffman, Washington County, Nebraska
Historic Towns: Coffman
-Courtesy of Washington County Nebraska History, 1980
In the beginning, it was just a level place among oak-covered hills where the railroad and the wagon road crossed each other. Then the railroad built a "flag-stop" depot and because most
of the adjoining land belonged to Dr. Victor Coffman it borrowed his name and became Coffman or Coffman Station.
A flag-stop is a station where the train will stop to pick up passengers if notified by the waving of a flag. There was no ticket agent at the depot so passengers must pay their fare to
the conductor on the train. When letting off passengers no flagging ws necessary as the conductor notified the engine crew. It was possible for students attending high school in Fort Calhoun
to catch the 6:50 morning train going up and return home on the 6:00 evening training going down. There was also the "Brandeis Special" which arrived in Omaha mid-morning and left Webster
Street Station in the late afternoon.
Besides the depot in Coffman, the railroad company had a section-house where the section foreman, Tom Hogan, and his family lived. Mr. Hogan was also the flagman. Across the tracks, a store
had sprung up along the wagon road. The store also housed the Post Office. The storekeeper was usually the postmaster. The first postmaster was appointed January 3, 1891, and the last
October 14, 1922.
In an effort to coax affluent Omahans to build iin their town or in the surrounding hills, they renamed the new town Nashville. The Nash family, part owners of the large Burgess-Nash store
in Omaha, had purchased eighty acres atop a wooded hill in 1906 and built an expensive home where they entertained extensively. After the house burned down, the Nash family sold their
property in 1920.
The name Nashville was not readily accepted. An atlas printed two years after the renaming in 1918 identifies the spot on the map as Coffman still. A news column in a 1942 issue of a Blair
newspaper was still using the header Coffman to refer to area news.
Today, there is no depot. Gone are the store and Post Office, the garage, and gas pump. Omaha, creeping northward, is now easily reached.
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