Richardson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2010 census, the population was 8,363. Its county seat is Falls City.In the Nebraska license plate system, Richardson County is represented by the prefix 19 (it had the nineteenth-largest number of vehicles registered in the county when the license plate system was established in 1922). Part of the Iowa Reservation of Kansas and Nebraska is located in the southeast corner of the county.HistoryThe Nebraska Territory, including this county, was opened for settlement through the Kansas–Nebraska Act on May 30, 1854. Richardson County was created that same year and reorganized in 1855 by the first territorial legislature. It was named after William A. Richardson, a U.S. Representative from the state of Illinois who had sponsored the Kansas-Nebraska Act; subsequently, in 1858, Richardson was appointed governor of the Nebraska Territory.The first courthouse was built in 1863. The second courthouse was built in 1873 and burned on May 7, 1919.On May 30, 1879, the "Irving, Kansas Tornado" passed through Richardson County. This tornado measured F4 on the Fujita scale, and had a damage path wide and 100mi long. Eighteen people were killed and sixty were injured in this tornado.
