Ansley 1886-1986

The Ansley of 2020 had 459 people, a little over half the 817 the plaque gives for 1930. One of its natives went far. James Bonner was born here on September 1, 1910, to two chemists, Walter and Grace Bonner, and left at six weeks old when his father took a teaching post at Queen's University in Ontario. He spent his career at Caltech, a professor from 1946, working on plant hormones and later on chromatin; with Emil Smith he sequenced histone IV from peas and calf thymus. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1950.

What the plaque says

Ansley 1886-1986 In 1886 Ansley was platted in southeastern Custer County by the Lincoln Land Company, headed by R.O. Phillips. Ansley was named for Eliza J. Ansley, who invested in real estate there. The site was purchased from ranchman Anthony Wilkinson. The Burlington and Missouri River Railroad (later the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy) reached the new settlement soon after it was founded. In 1986 approximately thirty-five Burlington Northern trains per day passed through Ansley. Ansley was the first Nebraska town west of Grand Island to own a power plant and water system. The Ansley Electric Light and Power Company, built by C. J. Stevens, was incorporated September 20, 1892. Destroyed by fire in 1904, it was replaced by another power plant, which burned in 1910. The Municipal Light and Power System was completed in 1911. Ansley's waterworks company was organized and its facilities completed in 1893. Ansley reached its peak population of 817 in 1930. In its centennial year of 1986 the town's more than 600 inhabitants continued to use the slogan applied to Ansley in 1916 by merchant William S. Mattley-- "Push, that's Ansley." Ansley Centennial Committee Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

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