The Litchfield town site has been a favored location, evidently for centuries, as local amateur archaeologists have discovered several area campsites of indigenous peoples, with the most recent being the Pawnee tribes. Trappers and traders frequented the area as the United States expanded westward. the community as we now know it was founded by pioneers, who eventually sold their parcels to the railroad, as was the case with many Nebraska towns. Some of the earliest pioneers were John Kisling, Rebecca Powell, and L.D. Engleman. The townsite was plotted by the Lincoln Townsite Co. and with the coming of the railroad, business boomed. At the height of its prosperity, Litchfield businesses included a grist mill, a newspaper, a bank, a telephone office, real estate and law offices, barber and barber and beauty shops, a blacksmith, carpenters, masons, and painters, gas stations, repair shops, a grain elevator, pool halls and taverns, a car dealer, a farm implement store, hotel, jewelry store, opera house, dress shops, doctors, undertakers, veterinarian, and chiropractors, As with all communities the depression years and war years changed the nature of the town, but we still boast a good portion of the original businesses, and in 1986 the thriving community celebrated it Centennial.