Chapter 19: I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes

I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes Chapter Nineteen The Lord and I have business— (Jog along old marel) There will be a marrying or a burying or a christening When we get there.

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills— of sand For my flock is scattered through this lonely land . . .

Some are white sheep along the way A few are black, but most are grey . . . Now the white will pray while the black one bleats But the grey will fill up the meeting house seats …

Meeting house? Schoolhouse? We don’t need a steeple Just the Lord and me and a handful of people…

Dearly Beloved we are gathered together. . .

There’s bound to be a wedding in this fine spring weather.

Marrying, burying, joy and sorrow . . . Here today and gone tomorrow.

The Lord and I have business— (Jog along old mare!) There will be a marrying or a burying or a christening When we get there.

H. A. Ott.

Exodus 25:8 And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.

Pioneer people took this admonition literally. No sooner where they unloaded and “set up” in their new homes than they sought a place to hold religious services— to give thanks to God, to praise Him and to bring their petitions before Him. The following records describe how the pioneers of Holt County did it and, in one way or another, delineates most of the difficulties, problems, trials and victories the people experienced. Although the Methodist church was not the first one built in O’Neill, the first religious services, so far as history records, were held there, in the home of J. T. Prouty, in the little settlement then known as Rockford, on December 14, 1873. This was a Sunday school service, which was followed by a prayer meeting at the same place a week later. From then on Sunday schools and prayer meetings were held every week until the spring of 1875, when Rev. S. P. Van Doozer came to Rockford and preached the first sermon on April 20 at the home of Elijah Thompson. From there the minister went on to Paddock and preached another sermon.

While the Rev. Van Doozer was at Rockford a Methodist church was organized. Its six charter members were Frank Bitney, Class Leaser, Clara Bitney, Will Dickerson, M. S. Prouty and Jennie Schults. From then on a minister from Oakdale, southeastward in Antelope County, came once every three weeks to preach at Rockford. In the summer of 1876 Rev. J. B. Maxfield, presiding elder of the district, came to Rockford and held the first communion service. At this time the people made plans to build a log church— but they came to nothing for, more than a year earlier, the townsite of O’Neill had been laid out and by 1876 most of the original members had moved away and the population of the town had become predominently Roman Catholic. Although the building plans were dropped, church services were still held in the few Methodist homes of the area as often as possible. The first Methodist church building in O’Neill came about through the arduous labors of the Rev. Bartley Blain, a colorful frontier preacher believed to have been the first protestant minister to settle in Holt County. Bartley Blain, the son of James and Nancy Blain, was born in Steuban County, New York, in March, 1832. His father was a carpenter and Bartley learned the trade from him. The family moved often and Bartley’s education was obtained from a variety of schools, including the Grand Rapids (Michigan) Union School. He also taught school. In 1856, while attending school in Albion, Michigan, he married Miss Mary Burritt, but had to leave school the next year because of poor health. He then filed on a claim in Steel County, Minnesota and attended the Methodist Conference at Winona in July, 1857, where he was recommended for admission to the “traveling connection,” in other words, the “circuit.” For two years he walked his circuit. He then came into possession of a horse (in payment for some carpentering) and became a circuit rider instead of a walker.

While the Blain family lived in Wells, Minnesota, their newly built parsonage burned down during a snow storm when the temperature stood at thirty-two below zero. The minister was away at a meeting and when he returned home the next day he found both his older sons had frozen their hands and ears. “Charles’ ears were swollen as big as his hands and as black as his boots. Nine-year- old Willie’s fingers were frozen their entire length and swollen as large as the skin could stretch. Both recovered with no permanent ill effects.” In 1862 Bartley joined the volunteers to help put down the Minnesota Indian uprising, then moved to St. Cloud. From 1865 to 1877 he rode several circuits, preaching often in southern Minnesota churches. Due to continued ill health he was forced to resign and, in 1879, came to Holt County “to do nothing for awhile,” as ordered by his doctor. Upon landing in the county he spent a night in the home of George H. Jones on the Middlebranch— and at once decided to locate there himself.

The following spring he brought his family out and he and his oldest son Charlie filed on adjacent claims a mile west of the Middlebranch. He later wrote that “farming on the frontier is a good means of restoring physical vigor.” He also wrote, “Wherever the Sabbath found me I found people who wanted to hear the Gospel, and I wanted them to hear it for I knew it to be the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believed. Before the roof was on my house (near the old Middlebranch mill) I had four preaching places. As soon as my house was under a roof preaching and Sunday school were held there.” That fall he rode horseback to Kearney to attend the first session of the Western Nebraska Conference of the Methodist Church. When he left on the two hundred mile trip his youngest son George was sick in bed with typhoid fever. When he returned two weeks later the lad, completely recovered, came running over the snow drifts to meet him.

By 1882 Reverend Blain was preaching regularly in fourteen places, three in Knox County and eleven in Holt. In March, 1883, Rev. T. B. Lemon of Kearney, Superintendent of the Western Conference, called a meeting of preachers of the northern section at Atkinson. There the section was divided into seven charges, Inman, Ewing, Atkinson, Stuart, Keya Paha, Middlebranch and Scottville. O’Neill was left out, as the nearest preacher refused to go there because he would have to build fires and sweep the 142 meeting room. Whereupon Blain, who was “doing nothing for awhile,” said, “That won’t do. I would rather take it than leave it out, for it is the principle town in the upper Elkhorn Valley. As well leave the hub out of a wheel and expect it to run well.” So O’Neill became his fifteenth charge— and he was told to go there and build a church.

It is interesting to note that most of these early preachers literally got in “on the ground floor,” for many of their first preaching places were log or sod houses, with only the ground for a floor.

Reverend Blain immediately selected a building plan for his O’Neill church and asked for bids from builders who would furnish the materials and erect the building. The only bidder he found would not furnish any materials. When the preacher returned home and told his wife he had failed to get a satisfactory bid, she replied, “You’ll have to go and build the church yourself.” The preacher then organized his married daughter, her husband, his son Will and “three other fair carpenters” into a construction crew. He and Will went on ahead and, thirty hours after unloading his tool chest in O’Neill, had a twelve by sixteen foot board-roof shanty, with floor and beds, built for his son-in-law, his daughter and their baby. The church was started the next day and soon completed.

The membership of this first church consisted of Dr. and Mrs. S. M. Benner and Miss Sadie Coykendall. Mrs. Ellen Patterson, Miss Mary Sackell and Mrs. Alberta Uttley joined a little later. A donation of $250 and a loan of the same amount, all from the Church Extension Board, was used to buy the building materials. The loan was soon repaid.

During the time he was building the O’Neill church, Mr. Blain was appointed Superintendent of the Holt County schools, and was later elected to that position by the county voters. While he was in office he formed one hundred and twenty new school districts and changed the boundaries of forty others. To secure money to pay the last of the debt on the O’Neill church he leased the building to the school district for use as a schoolhouse. Reverend Blain held church and Sunday school in his own house until a schoolhouse could be built at Middlebranch, late in 1882. Church services were then held in the schoolhouse. During his early years there he was the only minister for miles around and many young people came to him to be married.

Mrs. Blain died in January, 1892, and was buried in the Lambert Cemetery, which the minister had helped lay out on a site seven miles northeast of Page. In August, 1893 Mr. Blain married Sarah Jane Phelps, and four years later “retired” at age sixty- five to live in Page— where he almost immediately took over the job of building a Methodist church in that town. After the death of his second wife in 1907 he lived alone for two years, then married Matilda Hilburn of Plainview. They lived on in Page until November, 1918, when the minister died of the flu. He preached his last sermon in 1915 at the age of eighty-three years.

Since no “inside” public meetings were allowed while the flu epidemic raged, the old minister’s funeral service was held in the yard of his home and he, too, was buried in the Lambert cemetery.

Mr. Blain had preached at O’Neill for only a year or so after building the church. By then his school superintendent duties kept him too busy and a regular minister was secured for O’Neill. A Reverend D. C. Winship is listed as preaching there in 1886 and for awhile thereafter. The Reverend E. T. George served the pastorate from August 1895 to October, 1897. “Those were especially trying times,” this minister wrote later, “as they followed the drouth and bank failures. But one thing impressed me, and that was the courageous and optimistic spirit of the people, both of the church and city. It was a pleasure and an inspiration to labor with such people. In spite of the fact that laboring men were glad to get one dollar a day, and board, and that corn was selling First Methodist Church built in O’Neill in 1882. Parsonage on the right. Clay Johnson Collection. for ten cents a bushel and baled hay for three dollars a ton, yet the church prospered in every way and the membership grew from sixty-five to one hundred and five, and the Sunday school enrollment from one hundred to one hundred and thirty- five and the Junior League from fifteen to sixty-three. I remember the years I spent in O’Neill as among the happy, fruitful years of my ministry.” The Rev. William Gorst, who served as Presiding Elder of the Neligh District from 1896 to 1902, wrote of the O’Neill church when Rev. Bruce was planning to build a new church house there, “Because O’Neill is largely an Irish community and the little Mother Church there has all the elements of courage, nobility and love of the Irish, I often refer to the church as ‘our Irish Methodists at O’Neill.’ ” The second Methodist church, which replaced Bartley Blain’s little church, was built in 1914-‘! 5. Forty by sixty feet in size with a full basement, it was a stucco and frame building costing upwards of $7,000. The labor was furnished by the pastor and his congregation. Pastor Bruce and Charlie Millard wired the entire building, painted the walls and stained the woodwork. “We were well acquainted with every inch of the building,” the minister stated. The membership at that time was one hundred and sixty-eight and the building was dedicated, debt free, and without taking a collection on the opening day in 1915.

A parsonage had been added to the church plant during its early years. In 1920 the building was remodeled, and further modernized with a new 143 Church where O’Neill Methodists observed their seventy-fifth anniversary. A fine new church replaced it in 1966. Clay Johnson Collection. furnace in 1947, just prior to the sixty-fifth anniversary of the church, observed on November 23 with an all-day service and the publication of an elaborite Anniversary Booklet. During the next ten years this busy church added an electric organ to its furnishings, enlarged its basement and modernized its kitchen. Rest rooms were installed and the church painted. In 1957 it celebrated its seventy-fifth year of service to the community. But this church home, too, was eventually outgrown and outmoded. In 1966, under the leadership of Dr. Melvin Cammack, a third building was erected at a cost of $180,000— more money than the Rev. Bartley Blain spent in his whole long lifetime.

The handsome new church was consecrated on February 22, 1967. By 1973 thirty-nine ministers had pastor- ed the O’Neill First Methodist Church and its membership numbered almost five hundred.

THE O’NEILL CATHOLIC CHURCH On January 6, 1858, while Franklin Pierce was President, Pope Pius IX issued a decree establishing Nebraska’s first ecclesiastical division, the First Vicariate of Nebraska, which included all of Nebraska, Colorado (above the Arkansas River), Wyoming, Montana and all of North and South Dakota west of the Missouri River.

With the coming of the first Catholic colonists to the area that was to become O’Neill, the need for Catholic observances was immediately apparent and the first service was held by one Father Peter J. Bedard at the home of John Hannigan in the summer of 1875. Father Bedard was pastor of the French-Canadian settlement of Frenchtown in Antelope County, and when the O’Neill Catholics sought a way to get the priest to their location they asked Mr. Mc- Evony, who had a fine driving team, to bring him. Mr. McEvony was not a Catholic but his wife spoke French and the couple enjoyed the priest’s company.

Even so, Father Bedard seldom came to O’Neill, and when Bishop O’Connor had been in Nebraska but a short time he heard of this disturbing state of affairs. General O’Neill had promised his colonists the frequent services of a priest and this condition could not be tolerated. Accordingly, Father John Curtis of Lincoln was deputized for visitation in Holt County in 1876, the year Father Bedard is believed to have died, although it is said that the first Catholic edifice in O’Neill was started under his direction. The church committee included John Grady, Patrick McCoy, John Cronin, James Enright and a man referred to as “Kelley.” John May- berry was the builder. The frame building measured eighteen by thirty- six feet and stood on a location that would be “somewhat in front of the present St. Mary’s elementary school.” The building materials were hauled by ox team from Wisner, 125 miles away, and there were no pews or seats. The little church cost $535, high for those times because of the long distance over which the lumber had to be hauled. It was said that Mayberry had trouble collecting his pay and had to appeal to Bishop O’Connor for help. At any rate the simple structure served its purpose until 1884, when it was sold to the school district and a new church built. The official organization of the parish is believed to have been effected in 1877, after which Father John Smith was appointed the first permanent pastor to St. Patrick’s Church in O’Neill in August. The young priest, born in Ireland, came to America in 1870 and had been ordained the previous June in Buffalo, New York. His parish embraced all of Holt County from the southeast county lines to the Niobrara on the north and was bounded on the west by a line bisecting Range 13. Everything west of that line was attached to a mission at Atkinson, for which, together with missions at Battle Creek, Frenchtown and Oakdale, Father Smith was also responsible.

During his first two years in O’Neill Father Smith lived at the homes of John Cronin, Dennis Daly and J. P. O’Donnell, while waiting for the rectory to be completed. The frame 144 rectory stood a little west of the church and cost $1,400.

Not far from the church two men by the names of Moffat and Tuhill ran a livery barn which was a popular gathering place for the lads of the town. Under the supervision of these two men the livery stable in off- moments put on attractions in the form or a series of boxing matches. At times these conflicted with Father Smith’s Catechism classes. On one occasion the priest visited the barn while a match was in progress. He took in the situation, then called for the gloves. He first took on Moffat, then Tuhill, pummelled both of them to a fare-ye-well, then left the stable— and a stunned group of boys who had suddenly developed a healthy respect for their pastor, and for the importance of attending Catechism classes.

In the summer of 1880 O’Neill received its first episcopal visit when Bishop O’Connor came from Omaha to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation to ninety-one parishioners on September 5. The church was much too small and plans were immediately drawn for a new church. The $6,000 needed for the second church were raised by subscription and the parish’s good fortune in receiving at this time a legacy of $2,000 from the Hughes estate. While construction was going on a violent storm almost razed the building to the ground. The damage was repaired and the work went on. The forty by eighty foot building was completed in time for its dedication in July, 1882. And shortly afterward another furious storm wrenched it from its foundation. This, too, was repaired and the church stood.

In the meantime Atkinson had been Father Brophy— early missionary priest.

Catholic Church in center foreground. Parsonage at left. Old public school at right. About 1894. Clay Johnson Collection. established. The first Mass celebrated in the new village was, of course, offered by Father Smith. It took place in the spring of 1878 in the O’Connell log cabin, and one of the first fund raising campaigns in the new church brought in the price of a horse which was presented to Father Smith to use in his work among his far flung missions.

Until a church could be built in Atkinson the home of Patrick Hayes was the one most frequently offered for use when the priest came to town. The first small mission church in the village served until 1885, at which time Atkinson acquired its first resident priest, Father Patrick Brophy, appointed as assistant to Father Smith at O’Neill, with directions to attend to Atkinson as well.

In July, 1886, Father Smith was transferred to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and the pastor at Rawlings, Father Michael Cassidy, was assigned to O’Neill and its outlying missions. Father Smith left his parish in a flourishing condition, debt free, with a commodious church and a handsome parochial residence. The church had a fine organ, an excellent parish choir, a balance of $430 in its treasury and, best of all, 165 families enrolled on the parish register.

Father Cassidy immediately began keeping a complete handwritten parish record. In view of his forty-seven years of service in O’Neill, this record has become an invaluable history of almost half the present life of the church. Born in Ireland, Father Cassidy had lost his mother while yet an infant. Ordained to the priesthood in 1878 by Bishop O’Connor, his first parish had been the one at Rawlings where, at that time (1879-1886) there were only three priests in all of Wyoming and his parish was 400 miles across.

Father Cassidy wrote, “Upon assuming charge of this parish I at once set about to increase the seating capacity of the church by adding ten new pews and thereby enlarging it to a seating capacity of 500. The church being without a tower or— bell, I caused to be erected in the fall of 1886, in the center of the front of the church, a substantial tower twelve by twelve feet at the base and ninety feet in height to the top of the large gilded cross . . . A bell was purchased and placed in the tower. The new bell, with its iron frame, weighs four thousand pounds and was tolled for the first time for the early Mass of Christmas, 1886. The cost was $1,125 for the tower and $594 for the bell. “The parochial residence then in use, proving inadequate for the decent accommodation of the pastor and assistant and the numerous visiting clergy, it was decided to remove and sell the same and replace it with one which would comport more fully with the importance and dignity of the parish and meet the requirements of a modern residence. Accordingly, in the summer of 1888, the old residence was removed and (in 1890) was’ sold for $900, and the present residence, a frame building 45 by 54 feet, two stories high with attic, was erected on the site— at a cost of $3,500.” About 1888, too, there began to be “a universal feeling throughout the parish” that an academy for young ladies should be established at O’Neill. Subscription books were opened to the public and contributions solicited, all of which met with prompt success. In the late 145 Church where O’Neill Methodists observed their seventy-fifth anniversary. A fine new church replaced it in 1966. Clay Johnson Collection. furnace in 1947, just prior to the sixty-fifth anniversary of the church, observed on November 23 with an all-day service and the publication of an elaborite Anniversary Booklet. During the next ten years this busy church added an electric organ to its furnishings, enlarged its basement and modernized its kitchen. Rest rooms were installed and the church painted. In 1957 it celebrated its seventy-fifth year of service to the community. But this church home, too, was eventually outgrown and outmoded. In 1966, under the leadership of Dr. Melvin Cammack, a third building was erected at a cost of $180,000— more money than the Rev. Bartley Blain spent in his whole long lifetime.

The handsome new church was consecrated on February 22, 1967. By O’Neill United Methodist Church erected 1966. 1973 thirty-nine ministers had poster-ed the O’Neill First Methodist Church and its membership numbered almost five hundred.

Even so, Father Bedard seldom came to O’Neill, and when Bishop O’Connor had been in Nebraska but a short time he heard of this disturbing state of affairs. General O’Neill had promised his colonists the frequent services of a priest and this condition could not be tolerated. Accordingly, Father John Curtis of Lincoln was deputized for visitation in Holt County in 1876, the year Father Bedard is believed to have died, although it is said that the first Catholic edifice in O’Neill was started under his direction. The church committee included John Grady, Patrick McCoy, John Cronin, James Enright and a man referred to as “Kelley.” John May-berry was the builder. The frame building measured eighteen by thirty- six feet and stood on a location that would be “somewhat in front of the present St. Mary’s elementary school.” The building materials were hauled by ox team from Wisner, 125 miles away, and there were no pews or seats. The little church cost $535, high for those times because of the long distance over which the lumber had to be hauled. It was said that Mayberry had trouble collecting his pay and had to appeal to Bishop O’Connor for help. At any rate the simple structure served its purpose until 1884, when it was sold to the school district and a new church built. The official organization of the parish is believed to have been effected in 1877, after which Father John Smith was appointed the first permanent pastor to St. Patrick’s Church in O’Neill in August. The young priest, born in Ireland, came to America in 1870 and had been ordained the previous June in Buffalo, New York. His parish embraced all of Holt County from the southeast county lines to the Niobrara on the north and was bounded on the west by a line bisecting Range 13. Everything west of that line was attached to a mission at Atkinson, for which, together with missions at Battle Creek, Frenchtown and Oakdale, Father Smith was also responsible.

In the meantime Atkinson had been Father Brophy— early missionary priest.

Father Cassidy wrote, “Upon assuming charge of this parish I at once set about to increase the seating capacity of the church by adding ten new pews and thereby enlarging it to a seating capacity of 500. The church being without a tower or— bell, I caused to be erected in the fall of 1886, in the center of the front of the church, a substantial tower twelve by twelve feet at the base and ninety feet in height to the top of the large gilded cross . . . A bell was purchased and placed in the tower. The new bell, with its iron frame, weighs four thousand pounds and was tolled for the first time for the early Mass of Christmas, 1886. The cost was $1,125 for the tower and $594 for the bell. “The parochial residence then in use, proving inadequate for the decent accommodation of the pastor and assistant and the numerous visiting clergy, it was decided to remove and sell the same and replace it with one which would comport more fully with the importance and dignity of the parish and meet the requirements of a modern residence. Accordingly, in the summer of 1888, the old residence was removed and (in 1890) was’sold for $900, and the present residence, a frame building 45 by 54 feet, two stories high with attic, was erected on the site— at a cost of $3,500.” About 1888, too, there began to be “a universal feeling throughout the parish” that an academy for young ladies should be established at O’Neill. Subscription books were opened to the public and contributions solicited, all of which met with prompt success. In the late 145 Burning of St. Mary’s Convent in 1891. The parsonage at right was later moved to make room for new brick parsonage. Clay Johnson Collection.

summer of 1890 a contract was drawn for the erection of a large brick building of four stories (basement, two full stories and attic), to be equipped with all modern appliances and heated by steam. It was to be built on the west half of block four and known as St. Mary’s Academy. Because of the recent death of Bishop O’Connor, Father John Jeannette of Omaha came out to lay the corner stone in September, 1890. Work proceeded rapidly and the handsome building was almost finished when, at high noon on February 19 , 1891, it was almost completely destroyed by fire. The “school that never was occupied” had cost the parish $18,000 and there was no insurance. The Sisters of St. Dominic of Sinsinawa, Wisconsin, were due to arrive the next day to take possession, but nothing remained but ashes, stark ruins and deep sorrow. The cause of the fire was never descovered. The O’Neill Frontier described the calamity as follows: “At precisely twelve o’clock noon the alarm of fire was given in our midst and a moment later the terrible fact was revealed that St. Mary’s Academy, the pride of the town and the very heart, as it were, of the Catholic society, was all in flames.

“Crowds of men and women rushed to the scene but it was too late to save the building and nothing could be done except to watch it burn and try to prevent the buildings around it from catching, which was done in a heroic manner. The wind was favorable, being from the south, and as soon as the roof fell and the northeast corner burned out the danger to other buildings was over. It was a sickening and painful sight to see that grand structure go up in smoke and there were many sad hearts in O’Neill because of the fire.” “That awful calamity,” wrote Father Cassidy, “for the time being shattered the fondest aspirations and most cherished ambitions of the parish. But, severe as the shock was, it did not entirely annihilate the hopes and determination of the people to replace the beautiful structure.” By the spring of 1898 only the small sum of $1,200 had been accumulated in the treasury for the rebuilding of the academy. Nevertheless the men of the parish began to tear down the ruins of the school, still standing since the fire of 1891. Hopes were high that the school could be rebuilt in the fall, but the harvest that year was smaller than usual and, once more, it seemed that the plan must be laid aside. Then help came from an unusual quarter. The Sisters of St. Francis, having a mission at Rosebud, South Dakota, had visited O’Neill from time to time. They liked the place and decided it would be a desirable location for a house of their order. That fall of 1898 they offered to build the academy if the parish would donate them the burnt out ruins of the old building and the ground on which they stood. “The parishioners lovingly acceeded to the request,” wrote Father Cassidy. In May, 1900, the beautiful convent began to rise from the ashes of the first one. School opened on September 10 with an enrollment of 106 on the first day.

Back in Father Smith’s time General O’Neill and Patrick Hagerty had donated a plot for a Catholic cemetery. Now, in 1901, the beautification of the plot was undertaken and $600 raised to put up a windmill, install water pipes, plant trees, build walks and pay a man to care for the cemetery in summer. Senator Kearns of Utah, a former Holt County lad, sent $500 for the erection of a good fence around the plot.

On August 4, 1909 the corner stone was laid for a new St. Patrick’s Church, with the celebration of a solemn High Mass at ten in the morning and many dignitaries presiding during the service. At 2:30 in the afternoon a procession formed at the Knights of Columbus Hall and marched to the site of the new church. Old soldiers in carriages led the line, the Sodality of 134 members of the Knights of Columbus 148 and the members of the congregation followed. The small girls of the parish, dressed in white and carrying flags and banners, joined the procession at the Academy. Judge J. J. Harrington was the Marshal of the Day.

The old church was moved to the rear of the lot and the new one erected on the original site, which had also been the location of the first little church. The new church, fifty- one by one hundred and thirty-six feet in size and built at a cost of $435,000, was dedicated in October, 1910. Senator Kearnes had given $5,000 toward its building and a 146 t St. Mary’s Academy from the front, soon after completion single Sunday’s fund drive had raised most of the rest of the money. Senator Kearns and his family were among the near one thousand people seated in the new church at its dedication. Father Cassidy’s notes encompass many small happenings in the life of the parish: “A widespread and severe drought,” he wrote, “extending over several states of the NW occurred in 1894, causing a total failure of crops and inflicting much suffering generally even severe destitution among several of the poorer families of the parish. The charity of the well-to-do and more fortunate, both at home and abroad, was diligently invoked in behalf of the suffering poor and, I am proud to acknowledge, responded to with noble generosity.

“From the first settlement of the parish to the first of May, 1898, there have been recorded 1,412 baptisms, 189 marriages and 326 deaths.

“The census of October, 1897, shows families in the parish: 125 Irish, 3 German and 4 Bohemian.

“In June, 1905, Bishop Keane of Cheyenne, (an intimate friend of Father Cassidy’s) preached a rare and successful week-long mission.

1906, Bishop Scannell confirmed 212. Cement walks laid in front of the church property in April and May. “1907, the sanctuary of the church was redecorated by Fricho at a cost of $45.

“Need for a hall was imperative and in 1907 the KC’s formed a stock company and built the 2 storey brick structure at 3rd and Douglas. It opened in 1908 with an interesting program.

“1914, fine men’s retreat conducted by noted S. J. Father Rosswinkel. “1925, a new statue of St. Patrick was purchased for $82, with pedestal $49. Three-day celebration to honor Silver Jubilee of St. Mary’s. $3,000 was contributed to the Sisters in gratitude.

“July 20, 1927, Monsignor M. F. Cassidy was elevated to Domestic Prelate by Pius XI.” (Although entitled to the appelation of Monsignor, he always preferred the familiar, intimate title of “Father.” Father Cassidy’s last big project was the redecorating of St. Patrick’s Church in 1931. Financial problems had held up the work for several years, then in 1931 a bequest of $2,301.28 came to the parish from the estate of John Carlon. Mrs. Patrick Hughes gave $1,000, the parish raised $1,016. Work began on May 11 and included the repair of the roof and the installation of new electrical fixtures.

On December 1, 1933, Father Cassidy died.

All succeeding notes in this history are taken from pages entitled “St. Mary’s Chronicle.” The following is one: “July 20, 1934, was the hottest day in the recorded history of O’Neill. The temperature reached 117 degrees during the day and was 101 through the night.” And “The winter of First St. Mary s Academy. Partly built new St. Patrick’s church in foreground. Courtesy Jerry Graham. 147 1948- 49 will long be remembered for its vast and utter whiteness and for the wide extent of the snow peril. The snowfall of November 18 was the heaviest in history.” Father John G. McNamara from Bloomfield succeeded Father Cassidy and served the parish until his death seventeen years later. In 1935 he was invested as Domestic Prelate, “becoming our beloved Monsignor McNamara, but sometimes just ‘Father Mac.'” “In 1947 Father Eugene Gallagher, S. J., celebrated his first solemn High Mass. St. Patrick’s is his home parish and he is an alumnus of St. Mary’s.” “May 30, 1957, Mr. William J.

Froelich was named a Knight of St. Gregory, a Papal honor.” Father Timothy O’Sullivan was appointed pastor in 1949. Ten years later he was named a Monsignor, and in 1965 celebrated his Golden Jubilee in O’Neill.

Back in 1910 a large new wing had been added to St. Mary’s school under the direction of Mother Leonie Haid. This addition gave the school room to hold classes from the kindergarten through high school and was modern in every respect. The enlarged structure, housing the convent and chapel, the studio, reception rooms, music rooms, dining rooms, dormitories and gymnasium, easily became northern Nebraska’s largest building.

St. Mary’s Silver Jubilee year, 1925, saw the admission of boys to the school’s high school classes. Three years later the addition of a cloister wing, running back from the original building, gave the Sisters individual sleeping rooms. The first four Sisters who came to O’Neill in April, 1900, had lived in a two story frame house, four blocks from the ruins of the burned academy, until the new convent could be finished. A stove, three beds with blankets, two wash tubs and some groceries had made up the total of their first furnishings and supplies. And they had supported themselves “by teaching music and fancy work” until school opened. By 1928 the staff of St. Mary’s had grown to number more than twenty Sisters. During the drouth years when the frightful dust storms blew endlessly across the prairies, two of the Sisters at St. Mary’s died of dust pneumonia, one in February and one in March of 1935. Both were elementary teachers. St. Mary’s beautiful new convent was completed in the fall of 1961 and the Sisters moved in. The following January the parish laid the cornerstone for the new half-million dollar highschool. Three months later Archbishop Gerald T. Bergan, with some forty priests, Mother Elma Vifquain of Denver and Mother Agnesine Har- gareton present, dedicated the building. The parish now owned a most impressive plant combining the convent, schools, church and rectory, all situated on splendidly landscaped grounds.

And then came Holocaust again. Under the date of February 16, 1965, in the “St. Mary’s Chronicle” is the terse notation, “This is the date that old St. Mary’s went down in a blaze of glory.” A souvenir edition of the Holt County independent, February, 1965, carries the red-lettered headline— “MYSTERY FIRE DESTROYS ST.

AAARY’S ACADEMY.” A smaller banner reads, “The Day St. Mary’s Burned.” “A devastating fire, probably the bigest and costliest in northern Nebraska history, ended an’ era and transformed into rubble a’once proud and imposing institution. The blaze was discovered near a basement shower room at 4:08 p.m. The alarm was sounded by a highschool student, John DeWitt, who had left the new half-million-dollar high school to go to the original portion of the Academy to practice piano. The flames spread rapidly, fanned by drafts created in the thousands of square feet of hallways, corridors and passageways. “O’Neill’s Fire Chief, G. E. Miles, immediately invoked the county-wide mutual fire defense ‘ plan which brought firemen and equipment from Atkinson, Chambers, Page and Stuart. All three O’Neill trucks were quickly on the scene. For a little while it was thought the blaze could be brought under control, then within seconds the flames roared to the top of the east wing and the entire three stories erupted into a roaring inferno. At 5:15 the bell tower crashed and the Angelus bell, which for years had sounded the call to devotions, was silenced forever.

Father Cassidy’s Altar Boys, St. Patrick’s Church, 1914. Left to right, top row: William Murphy, William Froelich, Francis Mullen, John Harrington, Francis Cronin, John Mullen. Bottom row: John Regan, Terrence Morrison, Leonard McBride, Patrick Keyes, John Murphy. Courtesy John Harrington. “Flames and smoke in the winter nighfs sky were visible as far away as Lynch and Butte. Metropolitan news media sent airplanes to the scene. Thousands of persons congregated in the school playground, on the church parking lot and in the streets to witness the fierce and relentless punishment being absorbed by the Mother school, the old St. Mary’s. On many lips were prayers as brave men risked their lives. Many wept. Only the day before the fire Civil Defense Department officials had stored supplies and equipment for an emergency hospital in the basement of the east wing. Included were twenty-eight bottles of oxygen. The presence of the oxygen caused grave concern and volunteers immediately formed a human chain, entered the burning building and relayed the bottles out safely. When arrangements were made for storing the equipment Father O’Sullivan had warned that there could be fire risk. The materials were valued at $49,000.” Although more than one million gallons of water were poured on the fire by seven trucks and sixty men, who fought the flames until 2:30 in the morning, the sun rose upon the awe-inspiring ruins of St. Mary’s standing stark and black in the trampled snow. The wonder was that the rest of the plant— the new high school, the parish house and church, the new convent and the new hospital— were not also consumed. As it was thousands of dollars worth of musical instruments, graduation caps and gowns, books and other articles, stored in what had become the elementary school and music department were gone. This time, however, there was insurance in the amount of $307,000 and almost immediately plans were laid for rebuilding the school. In the meantime school for the 338 grade 148 Interior of St. Patrick’s Church, 1964. Clay Johnson Collection.

schoolers started the following Monday in the National Guard Armory and the old O’Neill Public School. By September a new elementary school had replaced old first St. Mary’s. But Father O’Sullivan was not there to see it dedicated. After sixteen years as pastor of St. Patrick’s, he had died in April, 1966.

Father John Connealy, who came from Wisner to fill the pastorate in June, 1965, was sent on to Boys Town in November, 1969, and Father Peter F. Dunne took his place. He, too, was replaced three years later by Father Martin Conley from Newcastle, while Father Dunne went to Omaha to pastor St. Margaret Mary’s Church. The first boarding student at the original St. Mary’s Academy was Agnes Clark, born in January, 1882 in a sod house north of O’Neill. Her father was Andrew Clark of Ireland, her mother Agnes Davidson of Dun-dee, Scotland, and Father Smith baptized her. After her 1903 graduation with St. Mary’s first high school class, she entered the Franciscan Order and became Sister Mary Alma, devoting her life to the houses of her order as a teacher and art instructor. She died January 29, 1961.

ATKINSON The first Mass to be read in the new town of Atkinson was celebrated in the log home of John O’Connell in the spring of 1878. A shortage of priests prevented the appointment of a resident pastor there and Father Smith continued to serve the town once a month for the next four years. A temporary mission church was built in 1882. In 1885 Father Patrick Brophy was assigned to Atkinson and the next St. Joseph’s year St. Joseph’s Parish was built and Father Englebrecht appointed as pastor. This came about because the settlement was predominently German and the people had petitioned Bishop O’Connor for a German-speaking priest. The land on which the buildings of St. Joseph’s Parish stand was donated by John Carberry and a permanent church begun in 1886. It was barely completed when a severe windstorm damaged it considerably. It was repaired at a heavy cost, resulting in a burdensome debt on the young parish and its pastor. Seven priests served the parish during the next decade, a period plagued by the debt, the drouth and other turbulent frontier conditions.

Hall and Church, 1911.

As matters settled down somewhat and farming became better established, affairs improved. Father Edward Muenich, a young, energetic, friendly priest and an able musician, came to Atkinson in 1899 and stayed six years. He promoted many fine plays and entertainments, one of the most popular being his own lantern slide exhibitions.

Father Henry Loecker, too, was an able and popular priest. He came in 1905 and stayed until 1928. A builder, horticulturist and linguist, he was, above all, a zealous, self-sacrificing man. Greatly desiring a parish school for the children of his flock, he was hampered by the old debt that was still to be cleared. By 1910, however, he realized his dream in the building Father Edward Muenich 149 of St Joseph Hall at a cost of $18,700. The school opened in 1911 with classes through the eleventh grade, all under the Ursaline Sisters of York. Father Loecker also built an imposing brick rectory in 1925, then died at the age of sixty-eight in 1928. He was buried in his own parish cemetery. To Father Pieper, who succeeded Father Loecker, fell the heavy burden of guiding the parish during the years of the Great Depression. He is especially remembered for the great kindness he showed the aged, sick and dying during the eleven trying years of his tenure.

Father Alphonse Lehman came to St. Joseph’s in 1939. He inherited many problems: the liquidation of debts, planning for a badly needed new church building and renovating of the old that it might serve until a new one could be built. A great lover of sports, he dedicated himself to that part of his school’s program and it was a great satisfaction when “his boys” won the State Championship Class C Basket Ball Tournament in 1946 and again in 1947. These teams also won the State Cathedral Tournaments in 1946 and 1947. His last work was the planning and building of the present grade school, a work not yet completed at the time of his sudden death in May, 1951. He, too, is buried in St. Joseph’s cemetery. In June Father Richard J. Parr came to St. Joseph’s. He oversaw the completion of the grade school and the remodeling of the high school. The Knights of Columbus Hall was built during his pastorate. The building served as parish hall, basket ball practice court, and even a temporary church while the present edifice, often called “the most beautiful church in the Ranch Country” was under construction. His last building project was the present handsome Sisters’ Convent, completed in 1963. Father Paul Peter came to Atkinson in 1963, replacintg Father Parr who became pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in Omaha. Father Peter was especially outstanding in his zeal for the beauty of the Liturgy. In the spirit of Vatican II both the parish and school cooperated in carrying out the liturgical service of the church with a beauty, dignity and reverence not always found in much larger parishes.

Father Edward Gill served St.

Joseph’s from 1968 to 1971. A warm and kindly priest, he oversaw the closing in 1970 of the high school founded by Father Loecker fifty-nine years earlier. Changing times and conditions were responsible. A year later Father Gill exchanged parishes with Rev. Leo A. Kuhn, a skilled craftsman who immediately saw the need for refurbishing the various buildings in the St. Joseph complex and set about getting it done. A willing and efficient administrator, he has accomplished much.

STUART Precisely when the first Holt Mass was offered in Stuart is not known today, but it is quite probable that it was offered in a sod or log house, owned by John Carberry, as early as 1878. And it is known that Father Smith came to Stuart to hold services in 1885. In May, 1890, the Catholics of that area bought the school building belonging to District 44 and located it on a site east of the present rectory. Before that date services were held in homes and in a vacant store building. When St. Boniface Parish was officially made a mission of St. Joseph’s Parish of Atkinson about 1890, the need for a permanent church building became evident. By 1896 the parish was able to build a frame church on the site of the old public school. Father Emil Klemenz of Atkinson supervised the project. In 1899 Bishop Scannell of Omaha appointed Anthony Birnback as first resident pastor of Stuart. A new rectory, built the next year, has been considerably remodeled but is still in use today. Father Charles Breitkopf, also formerly of Atkinson, came to Stuart in 1901 and remained six years. Father Julius Hettwer, appointed to St. Boniface in 1907, supervised the purchase of a two-story store building directly across the street from the church. This was remodeled into a parochial school plant, where classes were held on the ground floor and the upper story was made into living quarters for the Sisters of St. Francis of Milwaukee, who came to teach.

These quarters had neither central heating nor indoor plumbing, and kerosene lamps, or candles, furnished the only light.

Laying corner stone of St. Boniface Church, 1911. The present brick church was built in 1912, with the basement designed as a school to replace the old store building. School was held there until 1962, when a new school was built and dedicated.

father Hettwer was transferred in 1917 and his place taken by Father Jungels, who had earlier served at Atkinson. Father Jungels remained in Stuart for thirteen years. In 1920 the parish purchased the home of Mrs. Mary Flannigan for a convent and the nuns moved in early in 1921. The purchase price was $16,000 and the house was furnace heated. The Sisters still live there. The old store building was then sold to the Catholic Knights of America, who tore it down and made the lots into a playground for the school.

When Father Jungels retired in 1930 he was replaced by Father John Hilt, who, with his parish, struggled through the “dry thirties.” Somehow the church and school survived to enjoy better times and, after sixteen years in Stuart, Father Hilt was transferred and the present pastor, Father A. J. Paschang was appointed. Under his supervision a new school was built and dedicated in 1962. By 1973 St. Boniface Parish numbered some 650 members and its school, with an enrollment of 158 in the eight grades, employed four teachers.

In its seventh-five years as a parish the church has had only six pastors and each remained longer than his predecessor. Of the six, the only living pastor is the present one, and none of the deceased priests is buried in the Stuart cemetery.

EWING As in the other communities of Holt County, Mass at Ewing was first celebrated in log cabins or dugouts. From 1884 to 1886 the new home of J. B. Spittier was the regular meeting 150 place. In 1885 Mr. and Mrs. B. L. Simpson donated three and one-half acres of land in the northwest quarter of the town for a church. St. Peter’s Parish was founded the next year by Father Ferdinand Lecheitner and a church built on the site.

From 1891 to 1899 the Ewing Mission was attended by priests from Atkinson, and from 1899 to 1904 by priests from Stuart. In 1903 the church was moved to a new site. In the process it sat on moving blocks in the middle of a Ewing street for many Sundays— while final details of the purchase of the new location were cleared up. The following year a rectory was built just north of the church. The building blocks used in its construction were handmade beside the old Sanders mill. Ed Chase, Dominick and Louis Bohn were some of the boys who helped make the blocks.

Father August Heines, the first resident pastor, served the parish from 1903 until 1907. Father Kortes succeeded him for one year. Father Rose came in 1908 and remained ten years. In 1909 the old church was sold to Dominick Bohn for $390 and in 1913 the present church was begun. By this time St. Peter’s had grown to a sixty family parish and the new church was badly needed, as was a new rectory. Some of the material for these new buildings, and most of the labor, was donated. John Sanders, the hardware dealer, gave the nails and other hardware. Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Bauer, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Spittier, Mrs. J. P. Spittier, Casper Kubacker and the Evo Vandersnick and Frank Bauer, Sr., families donated the beautiful stained glass windows. The old bell, too, was moved to the new church and, with great difficulty, finally hoisted into the tall new tower by George Latzel. Father Rose left in December 1918, before the new rectory was completed, and Father Anthony Alberts, who came the next month, finished the rectory. In May, 1921, the parish acquired a cemetery, and that same month buried two of its members, Joseph Klein and Mrs. John Vander-snick, there. The Sanders brothers, Leo and Sylvester (Cap), killed in World War I, were moved to the new cemetery in July.

Father Alberts left in 1930 and was replaced by Father Peter Vanderiaan, who stayed until 1942. Father O’Flynn came that summer and died in December, 1943. Father Peter Burke followed him in January, 1944 and stayed until his retirement in 1973. Father Malvern Weise is now serving St. Peter’s parish which numbers about 450 members.

CLEARWATER St. John’s Catholic church is located on a gently rising slope in the beautiful Clearwater Creek Valley, one mile west of the Antelope-Holt County line and two miles north of the Wheeler-Holt County line in the southeast corner of Holt County. The early Catholic settlers in this locale had to attend Mass at Clearwater village, Ewing or Elgin. Due to the hardships of travel, the need for a church closer to their homes was evident.

On June 23, 1910, Mr. and Mrs. John Funk deeded two acres of land to Bishop Scannell of Omaha, on which to build the first Catholic church in their vicinity. Joe Knievel, Sr., with the help of carpenters and future parishioners, built the church. Since there were so many “Johns” (John Funk, John Quinn, John Sehi, John Thiele and others) among those who helped plan and build the church, it seemed proper and fitting to name it “St. John’s.” St. John’s church was dedicated in November, 1910. From then until 1920 it was a mission of Ewing, with Father Rose as its first pastor. He was succeeded by Father Alberts in 1919. The first nuptial Mass celebrated here was that of John Funk, Jr., and Minnie Klein in October, 1910. The first baby baptized was John Thomas Rother-ham, youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. Micheal Rotherham. The first funeral Mass was for John Quinn. Father Rose officiated at all these functions. The burial was in St. Patrick’s Cemetery, a short distance north of the church. The first resident pastor appointed to serve the parish was Father Bussink in 1920. While a parish house was being built for him the church burned down on February 4, 1920. The church had been heated for three consecutive days— for Candlemass Day on February 2, the nuptial Mass of Catherine Sehi and Albert Schueth on the third and the funeral Mass of Matilda Funk on the fourth.

By the time the fire was discovered the building was too far gone to be saved, although Father Bussink was able to rescue the Blessed Sacrament while others carried out the Statue of the Blessed Virgin holding the Christ Child. This beautiful masterpiece was ordered from Germany by Father Rose and has now been saved from two church fires, the second on December 14, 1941.

A parish hall built by the young men of the parish on land given by Mr. and Mrs. Clemens Muff served as a temporary church until the second church and a parochial residence could be finished in the fall. Father Griffin succeeded Father Bussink in December of 1920, and was succeeded in turn by Father Albert Zemp in April, 1923. He retired in 1936 and Father Beyersdorfer came to take his place.

During the next five years many improvements were made in the church, all in anticipation of the Silver Jubilee of the second church in 1945. By this time the parish hoped to be debt free and to repaint both the interior and exterior of the church, but on December 14, 1941, fire again razed St. John’s to the ground. The first Mass on that Sunday morning had been at 8:30, after which everyone left the church and the priest had gone to the parsonage. At ten o’clock John Hupp and Andrew Mueller came running to tell him his church was on fire.

Although the Clearwater and Ewing fire departments were called, all efforts to save the church were futile. Most of the church furniture was carried out before an accumulation of smoke and gas inside the building blew open the front doors, after which the belfry buckled into the church roof and the bells fell into the basement. The parish hall was again used for a temporary church while parishioners, starting on Monday St. John’s first frame church. Burned in 1920.

St. John’s second frame church. Burned in 1941. St. John’s third church, built of brick. 151 morning, repaired the smoke blistered parish house.

The third Church of St. John’s was built and dedicated, debt free, on May 18, 1943. Father Liborius Morgen- schweiss succeeded Father Beyers- defer in 1944, and Father Vaclav succeeded Liborius in 1946. Father Anthony Urbanske was appointed pastor later that same year, and succeeded in turn by Rev. C. J. Kaup on December 2, 1948. Due to the frightful snows and blocked roads of that winter, however, he was unable to be canonically installed until July 1, 1949. Three more pastors served St. John’s before Father Paul Dicsky, the present pastor, was appointed to the parish in September, 1972.

There have been three Religious vocations from this parish: Father Robert Hupp, now Director of Boys Town; Sister M. Armella Weibel O.S.F., stationed at Alverno College in Milwaukee; and Sister Mary John Heumesser of Scottsbluff, Nebraska. EMMET The Church of the Epiphany at Emmet was built in 1910 and dedicated January 6, 1911. Prior to this the Catholics of Emmet had worshipped in O’Neill or Atkinson. From January 1911 to August 1917 Emmet was a mission attended every other Sunday from O’Neill. August 1, 1917, the Most Reverend J. J. Harty made the church a parish and appointed Father M. F. Byrne its first pastor. Father Byrne, longest in residence of any Emmet pastor, served until 1938.

The second pastor, Rev. John J. O’Brien, left in 1943 to serve as a Chaplain in the Armed Forces during World War II. He returned in 1945 and resumed his duties, replacing the Rev. Vaclav Kovar who served Emmet in his absence. Father O’Brien had water and plumbing installed in the rectory in 1939, and a parish hall built under the church and a new furnace installed in 1941.

Father Joseph Lane and Father Anthony Urbanski served it in the years from 1947 to 1953, when the Rev. Francis Price came to Emmet and devoted himself to making the Church’ of the Epiphany into a very beautiful building. Father Ralph O’Donnell was pastor from 1960 to 1963. Then came Father Robert Schmitz, who installed the beautiful marble altar in the church. In June, 1969, the parish again became a mission of O’Neill. The present pastor is Father Martin Conley.

AMELIA The Catholics of the southern Amelia territory had a chapel at Erina which was attended to by priests from Spalding, Greeley and Burwell, far to the south. In 1925 the chapel was sold to Ballagh for use as a hall. The Catholics north of Amelia were attended by Father Cassidy of O’Neill and Father Loecker of Atkinson until Father Byrne was appointed to Emmet, after which a chapel was built in Amelia.

This chapel, built in 1919, looked so muck like a barn when it was finished that the parishioners decided to add a tower to it. Mass was celebrated there about once a month, usually on Thursday. A priest was twice appointed to St. Joseph’s of Amelia; one did not come and the second could not reach the town due to the terrible state of the roads, and so was given another appointment.

Finally, in June, 1923, Father P. J. Vanderlaan was appointed pastor and moved to Amelia. On Sunday, September 23, a class of twelve children received their first Holy Communion. The next day the Rev. G. Sunday C.S.S.R.. began a mission. Although the roads were terrible and the weather very bad, attendance was exceptionally good.

After retiring the church debt and building a rectory, the Pastor began saying Mass in Inez every Sunday except the first one in each month. This was done because at that time (1925 ) three of the five families in Inez had no car. A storeroom on the west side of H. E. McDonald’s store was used as a chapel.

During those first years the Amelia parishioners sponsored picnics to raise money for church expenses. At a picnic in August, 1927, they made a profit of $430.28. A raffle and dance held in September, 1928, cleared $321.

Rev. William J. Borer succeeded Father Vanderlaan in 1930 and remained until 1933, at which time Amelia became a mission of Atkinson and was served by a number of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church at Amelia. pastors until 1938. When the Amelia people had been without Mass for one whole summer, Father O’Brien of Emmet began coming there to hold services and the Sisters from O’Neill came to teach catechism to the children. In January, 1940, Duane Carson bought the unused parish rectory for $1200 but, because of the wet spring, was six weeks in moving the building to his farm. (Remember the hay haulers difficulties on these same roads?) Father O’Brien served Amelia until he left Emmet to enter the Service in 1943. Until 1960 the succeeding pastors at Emmet continued to serve the Amelia mission. Many improvements were made in the church during these years, including “a combination cry room and sacristy,” built onto the east side of the church while Father O’Donnell was pastor (1960-1962).

When Emmet lost its resident pastor in 1969 Amelia became a mission of Atkinson once more. From the time Amelia lost its resident pastor, forty years ago, until now Mr. and Mrs. Art Waldman, Mr. and Mrs. Miles Mina- han and Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Peterson, faithfully took turns in serving breakfast to the priests who came to the village to say Mass. In January, 1971, Amelia became a mission of O’Neill. STAFFORD Since the Valley had no church in the early days, and many of its residents were Catholics, Father Cas-sidy came from O’Neill and held services in Peter Ryan’s house until 1894, when a church was built— a “fair sized church for such a small town.” Since it drew from a large territory all around the town, the congregation was good sized.

For years, when Father Cassidy Courtesy Mrs. Edwin Nachtman.

152 came with team and buggy, he always had dinner at Peter Ryan’s home. Later, when other priests came, the parishioners took turns entertaining them for Sunday dinner. On some occasions the priest came down on the morning train and one or another of his flock took him back to O’Neill in the afternoon. As roads and transportation improved, it became more convenient for the Valley residents to go to O’Neill to church and the “fair sized” church was sold to Frank Froelich, who moved it to his farm near Chambers, sometime in the 1930’s.

The history of the Stafford church closes the account of the Catholic churches in Holt County— except for one unusual bit of information which belongs here.

In 1912 the Omaha Bishop notified his Nebraska parishes that the New York Foundling Home was overcrowded and was looking for homes for some of its babies and small children. People in the Atkinson, O’Neill and Stuart areas responded generously and within a few months a train with three coaches filled to capacity with orphans left New York.

Some of these children had been orphaned by the sinking of the Titanic, some by the loss of both parents from other causes, others by the loss of the father, leaving the mother unable to provide for her family.

The children were cared for on the long journey by a priest and several nuns of the Sisters of Charity Order, operators of the orphanage. The children were placed in homes throughout the midwest, many in Nebraska, and twenty in Holt County. Each child wore an identification number pinned to his clothing, and when accepted by his new parents papers corresponding to the numbers were given to the adopting parents. The following Holt County families adopted children: In the Atkinson area Mr. and Mrs. Donat Seger took a boy, Ed, and a girl, Anna. John Gallagher a boy, Steve, and a girl, Margaret. Henry Winkler one girl, Theresa. Otto Gardner, a girl, Maria, and a boy, John.

In O’Neill Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Donlin took three boys, Arthur, Bill and Jim, and two girls, Katherine and Jeanette. Bill and Jeanette were natural brother and sister. In Stuart Mr. and Mrs. Herman Kaup adopted a girl, Mary. Mr. and Mrs. John Laible a girl, Mary, and Mr. and Mrs. Ed Timmerman a girl, Elizabeth. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Timmerman took one girl, Dora. Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph Kramer a girl, Mary, and Mr. and Mrs. Karl Deermer a boy, Charles. Mr. and Mrs. Joe Kaup took a boy, James, and a girl, Anna.

In 1962 a fifty-year reunion of the orphans was held in Grand Island and sixty-five of the former orphans attended, some coming from as far away as Montana and Illinois. At this time it was learned that seven of the orphans had become Nuns, two had entered the priesthood and one was a medical doctor. Father Fangman, who had come to Nebraska with this trainload of orphans and was present at the reunion, had been an assistant pastor at St. Joseph’s church in Atkinson at one time.

Most of these children had grown to adulthood in the community into which they had been adopted, many had become successful and had found life very good. Quite a number, too, over the years had been able to trace their ancestry and learn something of the circumstances that had made it necessary to put them up for adoption. Since 1962 the group has held an annual reunion.

Of those who came to Holt County, Jim Donlin is still in O’Neill, as is Katherine, who became Mrs. Harry Sullivan. Mary Kaup of Stuart married Ed Hamik, and Mary Laible became Mrs. Mark Busher, now of Bekenridge, Minnesota. Dora Timmerman, now deceased, became Mrs. John Kirsch of Gregory, South Dakota. Mary Kramer is now Mrs. Emil Teniper of St. Paul, Nebraska. James Kaup lives in Ains-worth and Anna Kaup, now deceased, married Raymond Wedige. Charles Deermer, who furnished these facts, still lives in Atkinson.

And with the close of this Catholic church history we turn again to the history of the Protestant churches of the county. Those of the Methodist persuasion seem to have been most numerous among the early settlers, and the village of Inman was one of their earliest centers. Shool houses very often served on Sundays as the first churches in nearly every settlement and In September, 1881, the Inman Methodist Church was organized and dedicated by Dr. T. B. Lemon, Superintendent of the West Nebraska Mission Conference. At this time the circuit was extended from Oakdale, in Antelope County, to Atkinson. The Inman church had thirty-six charter members and its minister, Rev. Wilson, rode circuit to Atkinson, O’Neill, Stuart, Blackbird and Big Sandy, in addition to his Inman station. A Mrs. Halloran solicited funds for a bell for the church tower and bought the bell from Sears Roebuck. The bell is now mounted on cement supports in the yard of the present Inman Methodist Church. In 1884 two persons were expelled from the church (cause not given) but reinstated at an adjourned Quarterly Conference at Neligh in 1885. During the years 1889-1895 the Rev. Bartley Blain baptized many people in the Inman area, some of them in the Elkhorn River.

Through those early years ministers were paid very small salaries and many took part of their pay in fuel and produce furnished by their parishioners. Some had to “work out” in the community to eke out an existance. The Rev. A. A. Kerber (1921-1924) worked for Earl Watson at inventory time in his Inman Fair Store. One afternoon he climbed upon a ladder to reach some bolts of cloth. Several rolls got away from him and unwound around him and the ladder. When the store owner found him he was struggling to free himself from his “winding sheets,” all the while exclaiming “Oh, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy.” During the “terrible thirties” the Ladies Aid of the Inman Methodist Church enabled the parish to stay afloat. Mrs. Margaret Moor was president of the Aid and Mrs. Ethel Tompkins was church treasurer. In 1933 the church acquired the property that came to be known as the “Ladies Aid Parlors.” Half of the building was a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Ira Watson and Mrs. Joe Gallagher, the other half was purchased by the Ladies Aid. Here the ladies held bazaars, auction sales, quilting parties and church suppers, taking in enough money to support the pastor and the church until times got better.

The ten years (1936-1946) in which Rev. Eugene B. Maxey gave loving pastorial leadership to the church were a period of rebirth and great activity. More than one hundred new members were received into the church and the Young Adult Fellowship (the first in the state) was organized with Harvey Tompkins as president. Although more than seventy years old, Mr. Maxey participated in the youth activities and, while attending a roller skating party, fell and broke his hip. Throughout World War II the good minister kept in close touch with the Inman boys in the armed services.

In 1945 the Young Adult Fellowship began promoting the addition of a room to the north side of the one-room church. The Ladies Aid Parlors were, by now, dilapidated and unsafe and there was need for a new church parlor. Rev. Maxey circulated the first petition to raise money for the building and an anonymous donor bought the land north of the church on which to build it. Today the Maxey Memorial Addition to the church is a much used unit of the plant. In 1947 the parsonage was modernized by the addition of a bathroom and the 153 installation of hot and cold water. Since Inman is located in the center of a great wild hay area, the church hit upon a unique way of making money and, in 1949, leased the hundred and fifteen acres of the Napp hay meadow on the south edge of town. When the hay was ready the men of the church turned out to cut and stack it, while the ladies furnished the meals. This was such a popular project that others, not of the church membership, turned up to help, too. About $650 was realized from the sale of hay and blue grass seed the first year, all of which helped in the construction of the Maxey Addition. This project has continued through the years and in 1962 was written up as a feature article in the Methodist Together magazine.

In anticipation of its seventy-fifth anniversary in 1956, major remodeling was done to the sanctuary. Because of the weakened condition of the steeple, the bell tower was torn down. The new chancel, with its glass brick cross, was installed in the opposite end of the church and a plate glass wall inset to divide the two main rooms. A new entrance and vestibule were added and, on December 11, 1955, the people held their first service in their new sanctuary. A very hard working member of this church is Harvey Tompkins, grandson of pioneer Archibald Tompkins who helped found the original church. Harvey was a member of the Annual Conference Board of Trustees for nine years and was secretary of the Board for three years. He has attended a part of every annual conference session since 1944, always “plugging” for the rural church. During the 1955 session he was elected one of the four lay delegates from Nebraska to the General Conference which convened in Minneapolis in 1956. He was also a lay delegate to the Jurisdictional Conference in Wichita, Kansas, in 1952, New Orleans in 1956 and San Antonio in 1960, and was one of five lay delegates attending the General Conference in Denver that same year. Members of the fourth and fifth generations of some of the pioneer founding families are now enjoying the opportunities and responsibilities of this church as it approaches its first centennial. They include the Clark, Smith, Keyes and Tompkins families. The membership, which was fifty in 1893, is now approximately three hundred and fifty. The church budget has been raised from $1200 in the early 1940’s to almost $7000 in 1973. Following the Rev. John De Los Wilson (1880-1882), forty-six ministers have occupied the pulpit. The present incumbent is the Rev. Donald H. Rollstin.

CLEVELAND – DUSTIN Methodist services were also held in 1880 in the community that was later to be known as Cleveland. Here, in the Charles Hudson home, an itinerant Methodist minister conducted the first formal worship service of the denomination. A church was later built and it is recorded that the first funeral held there was that of a small boy who drowned in an open well. The first wedding in the church did not take place until June, 1948, when a Rev. Graff united Valera Lofquest and Dwayne Philbrick.

A few miles to the north at Dustin services were held in a dirt floored log schoolhouse in the winter of 1882-1883. Another church was organized on the Sandy in 1886 by the Rev. Calvert, a bachelor, living on the big Sandy near the present bridge. The Cleveland church records have been lost but a history, compiled by Vesta Adams who moved to the area as a child in 1902, casts many interesting sidelights on the communities of those days. It can readily be seen that rural ministers did not have an easy time— and one may conclude that they were indeed dedicated to put up with such conditions. Wrote Vesta, “When we moved to Holt County there was a pastor living in Dustin with his family. I think he preached at a school house, too. The church building was being remodeled and we went to services in the lower story of the Odd Fellows hall. The pastor, a Mr. Ellis, believed the church house should be much nicer than the parish homes and wanted stained glass windows, an elevated pulpit and class rooms, but the congregation took a dim view of stained glass windows. He was unhappy at the refusal to buy them as he had gone to a good bit of trouble to get good price offers on them.

“The repair work on the church was done mostly by volunteer labor, and while they were still using the lodge hall Mr. Ellis had a lady evangelist come there to hold a revival meeting. Some time after this the Congregational church bought the Dustin Methodist church; for the congregation was of many different donomina- tional persuasions. Lee Cosner was a Baptist, Wefsos were Congregationalists, others were Methodists, but there were always dedicated people willing to try to teach classes— or to argue endlessly in the classes.

“There was no Dustin cemetery and when Margaret Wefso’s grandmother died in 1909 she was buried in the Cleveland cemetery. Rev. J. R. Hammond officated. The Hammonds lived on a farm across the road from Wefso’s and Mr. Hammond oreached at the church and farmed for a living; as most pioneer pastors had to find other means of support. The Home Mission Boards usually paid them what little salary they received. “The Rev. Hammond bought one of the first two cars in the area, a topless, doorless, “Open” Flanders. The family was very proud of it. In the summer of 1909 Mr. Hammond held a baptisimal service at the river crossing near the Cosner place. It was a beautiful day— and the only baptism by immersion I ever saw, although others were held from time to time after revival meetings hereabouts. The Sunday school carried on after Mr. Hammond left and, now and then, some minister came to hold a worship service.

“For awhile we had an outstanding Sunday school teacher, Mrs. Grant Elliot. When I was twelve the Sunday school had a Bible memorizing contest to see which of the junior high students could learn the most Bible verses in a certain period of time. I didn’t get to enter at the start because I had no shoes and it was not considered proper to go bare-footed to Sunday school. It was the busy season and by the time my folks could get around to taking me to town to get a pair of shoes the others were ahead of me. Even so, I missed the prize by only twelve verses.

“I had never seen a green Christmas tree until Mother took us older children to the Christmas program at Dustin. Mother had made us new hoods and mittens and we wore them. I took mine off and laid them on the chair beside me. As the church filled a strange man picked them up and sat down, holding them in his hand. I was sure he was planning to take them home to his little girl when he said to Mother, ‘Is she worried about these?’ and handed them to her.

“There was an artificial chimney and fireplace beside the tree, and when it was time for Santa to come there was a great jingling of bells and the chimney began to shake. Santa was too big for it and was stuck in it. Maybe it was all make believe, but I believed it then.

“In 1909 a Rev. Mr. Gaines lived between Cleveland and Dustin. He drove a single-seated top buggy. Both he and his wife had been widowed and each had some children about the same ages. In nice weather the children took turns walking along with the buggy. In 1913 a Mrs. Everetts lived in Dustin and postered the church. She officiated at the marriage of a young Dustin couple while there, and after she moved on arrangements were made with the Stuart churches 154 to allow their pastors to preach at Dustin and Cleveland on Sunday afternoons.

“At one time we had a missionary who had served in South America. One day he told of visiting in a village where some lepers lived, and described how ‘leprosy had eaten away the patients’ fingers and toes.’ He made it quite vivid, and afterward one little boy asked his mother, ‘What do those animals look like, the ones that eat the fingers and toes off South American children?’ “Dustin was without a pastor for some time in 1917, then a young minister, Luvern Hicks, and his wife came to Stuart. In the spring he began coming to Dustin to hold Sunday afternoon meetings. During the first World War Dustin became an active center for its support. Home Guards organized and drilled and Red Cross sales were held in the church whose people could not raise enough money to pay a pastor but could raise plenty to fight a war.

“After Rev. Hicks was sent elsewhere the district superintendent found a young brick layer, newly converted, who wanted to become a preacher, and sent him to Dustin. Mr. Slawyer could have better served the Kingdom with his bricks and trowel. He was supposed to earn part of his living by working out, but he irked the farmers who tried to employ him by his late rising and irregular hours. Influenced by a popular Harold Bell Wright novel of the time, he seemed to think the first duty of a new minister was to change the leadership of the congregation and put in beginners like himself. “He called an election and talked against the “ring” that had been running the church, and the need to put them out. Naturally, those who had labored faithfully and long were not happy about that, so of course Mr. Slawyer’s pastorate was not much of a success. Some of the members felt they would be more welcome at another church and went there, but a few stayed faithful to Dustin. “Then a young unmarried man, Harry E. Patterson, was appointed to Stuart and Dustin, too, if he wished. He used to come out and bring other young folks along to help with the music. Eventually he selected one to be his helper for life. He needed one! In The fall of 1920 an evangelist, Rev. John M. Johnson, came from Lincoln and held a series of meetings at Dustin. Things picked up after the meetings.

“The young widower who was the next pastor began by holding a series of evening meetings. He got the people to hold a Sunday school at Southside, too, and went visiting in the homes. He rode a motorcycle with a sidecar and took the kids for rides. This pastor, Roy Q. Whiting, made the parsonage in Stuart a ‘home away from home’ for the country young people if they had car trouble or other difficulties.

“After a year or two Mr. Whiting decided to go back to school. He had innocently provoked gossip in Stuart by doing what some of the town people should have done. He had called one evening on a sick man who was being cared for at the home of his widowed daughter. Finding that the patient would likely die before morning, he stayed to help the daughter when the end came.

“As a few people continued to meet in Dustin, Elmer McClurg and his wife were invited to come over to help out. Elmer, a born preacher, was soon preaching there. Then, finally, services ceased to be held and the Congregational Board sold the building and it was torn down.” ATKINSON A Methodist group started a Sunday school and organized a Methodist Society at Atkinson in the spring of 1881. Services were held in a small one-room building northeast of the present town in 1882 by a traveling missionary, a Mr. Wilson. In May, 1883, lots were donated for a church and parsonage (where the present church now stands), and lumber was hauled from Butte by ox team. Joseph Bruder, his neighbors and practically the whole community, regardless of religion or creed, helped in hauling the lumber and building the church. Working together, these people completed a one-room church that served the area for thirty-one years. At the annual Conference session of 1883, A. C. Spencer was appointed pastor and came with his family to occupy Early Methodist Church at Atkinson. Courtesy Atkinson Township Library. the new parsonage.

The original building was outgrown by 1912-1913 and plans were laid for a new and larger church. The new church was assured when the Ladies Aid pledged $500 to the “cause,” to be-paid at the rate of $100 annually. Church services were held in the Opera House while the new building took shape. W. S. York was pastor during this time (1911-1915).

The second church remained adequate until the 1950’s, when crowded conditions and the necessity for repairs on the old building demanded some changes, either remodeling or an all new building. During the pastorate of Ellsworth G. Hughes (1950-1957) both plans were carefully considered. Part of the congregation favored remodeling, the rest a new building.

The new building faction won and solicitation of funds began in 1955. An annual fund drive the following two years brought in enough money to make it feasible to begin laying plans for the new church. The Rev. Charles Gates succeeded Rev. Hughes in 1957 and in 1960 construction on the building began. On May 28, 1961, the cornerstone was laid at the conclusion of the consecration service, the first meeting held in the fine new church. From 1883 to 1969 thirty-seven pastors have served this church. The Rev. Hughes stayed the longest, seven years.

CHAMBERS In 1884 a group of Methodists in the Chambers area began meeting for services in homes, schools or any other available buildings. Their first pastor was the Rev. Sackett. Early in 1896 Rev. W. M. Newman helped this group organize a church, with twenty- nine charter members. They then held their meetings upstairs in the John 155 Doherty building. At Conference that fall Rev. H. G. Kemp was appointed the first resident pastor of the new church.

Before year’s end they had purchased two lots from R. C. Wry, just across the street south from where the church now stands. The next summer they built their first church. Next a farm house was moved in from Dry Creek and fitted up for a parsonage. In 1923, under the leadership of Rev. Richard E. Carlyon, the big task of moving and remodeling the church was undertaken. The present property was purchased from the Chambers school district and a part of the high school building was joined to the east part of the church. In 1935 the congregation built a new parsonage just east of the church.

The Chambers Methodist Church celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary on October 7, 1972. Dr. Carlyon, who had preached his first sermon in September, 1922 in the first little church, was guest speaker in the church he had helped build half a century earlier. He was also celebrating his fiftieth year in the Methodist ministry, that day.

Today the oldest living pastor of this church is Dr. Basil R. Truscott, who served the First Methodist Church of Buenos Aires, Argentina, for many years. Retired, he now lives in Florida. MAXFIELD The people of Maxfield, a community northeast of Page, decided to build a church in 1884. James Kennedy donated an acre of land for the purpose and a Rev. J. R. Gortner helped lay the plans for the building and for a church program. The building was dedicated in November, 1885, and Rev. Gortner was its first pastor. Rev. Bartley Blain and Rev. H. H. Chappel also ministered in this church.

After a church was organized at Page, the resident minister of that place also had charge of the Maxfield parish until 1920 when, with the advent of improved roads and transportation the Maxfield church united with the Page church.

EWING The railroad reached Ewing April 1, 1882, and that same spring William Harvey put in a lumber yard and undertook to arouse interest in building a church. But the town was new and small and somewhat slow to accept the idea. Finally, however, the village agreed that a church was needed and work began on a small one-room frame building, located on the same site where the present church stands today.

J. C. Cortelyou donated the bell and Dr. Sackett was the first minister to occupy the pulpit. August 18, 1885, the church was reorganized. At that time it had a membership of thirteen. In 1887-1888, when Rev. T. Wolcott was pastor, the parsonage was built at a cost of $750. For this project the congregation raised $300 and borrowed the balance from the bank on a three-year note.

By 1915 the congregation had grown to the point where a larger and better church was needed. The present church was built while Rev. A. G. Foreman was pastor. It cost $4,400 and the debt was paid in full in 1917. During all these years the church supported (or was supported by) the Ladies Aid and the Dorcas Society, now combined to make up the Women’s Society of Christian Service. The Sunset Club, sponsored by the Women’s Society was organized in 1917 by Rev. J. E. Jones for members and friends of the church who had reached the age of seventy. (Most Methodist churches sponsor such a club.) This church celebrated its Golden Anniversary in 1935 with a special dinner and program. Numerous visiting pastors and former pastors delivered addresses.

On December 16, 1945, during the Sunday school hour, that church Nemesis, fire, was discovered. All the people were evacuated and there were no injuries but the building was heavily damaged by smoke and water. While church members and friends were cleaning the church basement services were held in the Ewing Episcopal church. By December, 1947, the building had been rebuilt and decorated, and on the twenty-eighth of that month dedication services were held for the third time since 1885.

During these many years thirty-five ministers have pastored the Ewing Methodist Church. Three were named Smith. One, J. B. Stoner, served in 1911, gave way to M. C. Smith ini 912, then came back again in 1913. The last regular pastor was the Rev. Mrs. Virginia Myers (1967-1969). In the spring of 1970, with the cooperation of the District Superintendent and the Strategy Committee of the Presbytery of Niobrara, an agreement was worked out under which one pastor would serve both the Ewing United Presbyterian Church and the Ewing Methodist Church.

David A. Cunningham, a Presbyterian minister served the two churches for several years. At the conclusion of his term a Methodist minister was to be appointed and, according to the agreement, pastors will be supplied alternately by the two denominations. PADDOCK According to information supplied by Axel Borg, the Paddock Union Church was located sixteen miles north of O’Neill in Paddock Township in the early nineties. It still stands on the same location, is structurally sound and well maintained. Rev. Marquette, a Methodist elder, conducted the dedication services. Consequently, it was known for many years as the “Marquette Chapel” and was a prominent and well attended church.

At this late date accurate records are no longer available but it is certain that the first minister there was Rev. Bartley Blain. About the turn of the century a Rev. Koontz ministered at the chapel. His son, born in 1890, passed away in 1902 and is buried in the nearby cemetery. Next came a Rev. Mike Miller, a pioneer in the northern part of the county. Several of his grandchildren still live in the county. Axel Borg as a lad attended the church at that time. Then came a Rev. DeWitt and a Rev. Edward F. Hammond. The DeWitt family were residents of the area and Rev. DeWitt no doubt ministered in other churches besides this one. Rev. E. E. Dillon, a representative of the American Sunday School Union, whose home was in York, covered much of the state at that time, traveling by team and buggy and holding meetings at the chapel whenever he was in the area. It is quite certain that Rev. George Bressler was a regular minister at this church about 1911-1912. He and his family made their home in the parsonage. He also had four horses and some machinery and, by borrowing more machinery and renting thirty acres from Dude Harrison nearby, he planted and raised corn.

About 1913-1914 a Rev. Almond was a regular minister at the chapel. He and another minister, Rev. Aucock had recently come to the United States from England and Rev. Aucock ministered some at Bristow. The Inman records show that Rev. Almond also ministered there in 1914. He had a team and buggy and may have served each church every other Sunday. Then there was a period when no regular services, other than Sunday school, were held in the Marquette chapel unless some visiting or traveling missionary held meetings for a few consecutive nights, as did a Rev. Jurgensen.

In the late twenties or early thirties Rev. Stevens got permission from the Board to move into the parsonage and minister in the church for about two years. Rev. Steiner, the Methodist minister from O’Neill, served this church too, but never on a regular basis. Near the end of the thirties the Methodists decided to dispose of the church building. At a community meeting to consider it, Mr. Frank 156 Nelson, Mr. Elmer Rouse and Eric Borg were appointed a board to negotiate with the Methodists. The purchase price agreed on was $500 and the amount was raised by donations. Under the new organization the church was called the Paddock Union Church, by which name it has ever since been known. It is still used regularly for Sunday school services. Some of the people who have been Superintendent of the Sunday school through the years are: Fred Lindberg, Faye Puckett, Paul Nelson, Edward Kaczor, Virgil Hubby, Austin Searles, Marriedy Hubby and myself, Axel Borg.

This old church, now past eighty years of age, still stands as a light and a reminder that God still rules the universe, and this writer hopes that it will be repaired and maintained for another eighty years.

PAGE METHODIST CHURCH The Page Methodist Church was organized about 1896 through the efforts of Bartley Blain, who worked tirelessly for more thap thirty years to extablish and strengthen the Methodist Episcopal Church in Holt and Knox counties. On November 22, 1897, the Quarterly Conference authorized a committee consisting of L. T. Fench, George Hunter, Bartley Blain and Rev. W. A. Chappel to deal for the lots on the southeast corner of Block 8 in the village of Page and to investigate the possibility of erecting a church there. As a result of this action the first church building in Page was dedicated there on June 26, 1898, with 350 people in attendance. Rev. Chappel was the minister.

Thirteen years later the present church building was dedicated. Following Rev. Blain and Rev. Chappel, twenty-five other ministers have held pastorates there, including Don Roll- stein who came in 1970.

AMELIA Hazel A. Ott, who compiled the following information, wrote “After some fascinating research through old church records (I find) the earliest account is dated 1898.” Several small communities had been served by a common pastor and Amelia, along with Mari ng, was a part of the Inez charge of the Long Pine District of the Northwest Nebraska Conference. P. H. Eighmy was the Presiding Elder, L. T. Taylor was the preacher.

These pastorates were divided by many miles of sandy trails and bad weather had often to be reckoned with, so it was not surprising that the number of sermons delivered in any of the churches varied from six to thirty-six per quarter. When thirty-six are listed they are likely the result of a camp or revival meeting at one of these points. During the quarter when thirty-six were listed for Amelia it was also noted that there were thirty-six pastoral visits, with six children and eight adults receiving baptism. Four members were taken into the church on a probationary basis.

The pastor, Mr. Taylor, had no parsonage in which to live and no church in which to preach, homes and school houses serving in the later capacity. His allotted salary was $250 per year. Of this he received only $177. The difference was made up in farm produce, chicken dinners and good will.

There were fourteen members in the Amelia church, seventeen at Maring and twenty-three at Inez. During the ensuing years, as membership shifted or grew, new communities were formed and old ones disappeared. In 1914 Amelia obtained and moved a church from Green Valley to its present location. A well built frame church, twenty-four by thirty-six feet in size, complete with belfry and bell. It was moved a distance of about twenty miles.

This was accomplished by loading the building on long timbers laid on the running gears of four wagons, then pulled across country by horses and mules. Scouts rode ahead to select the best route and take down fences where necessary. Fully furnished with pulpit, a reed organ, a huge pot bellied stove and oak pews, it was set down on its new foundation, where it is still in use.

Rev. and Mrs. L L. Chambers came to the church in 1914. They were succeeded the next year by Rev. M. L. Massie, a bachelor, who walked or rode horseback to hold services in Inez, Blake, Kellogg and Ballagh, as well as in Amelia. From an expected $400 salary he received $320. By this it will be seen that if a minister were blessed with good health and an economical bent concerning worldly goods, he would find life hard— but rewarding. All too often the services of these men went financially unre-warded, but their faith and kind hearts made them remarkable people.

About this time a parsonage was added to the church property, making it a more desirable charge for ministers with families. Of the ten pastors who served the church after Mr. Massie left in 1937, one was a woman, Miss Marion Holborn.

Rev. A. L. Lindsey came in 1929 and left in 1932, after which the church was served by a minister who lived at Emmet. For the past several years it has been affiliated with the Chambers charge and ministers from there have served both village churches. Consequently in 1954 the unused parsonage at Amelia was sold and the money applied to a fund that was used for constructing an annex to the church building, making it into an educational and recreational unit. The Annex has continued to be used as a social center for the whole community. BETHANY FREE METHODIST CHURCH The Bethany Free methodist Church was located two miles west and two miles south of Amelia. It began in 1901 with the organization by Thomas Moss, a representative of the American Sunday School Union, of the Bethany Sunday school. Money to organize was donated by a woman in the East who named it, and Sunday school was held in School District 216, known as the Scafe school.

Rev. Thomas Moss was born in Illinois in 1862 and was only forty years old when he died in 1903. He came to Holt County in 1887 and in 1892 took up the work of Sunday School Missionary, covering sixteen counties in Nebradska as his territory. He was an ordained minister of the Church of God and accomplished much good during the eleven years he spent in the missionary field, often doing double the amount of work allotted to him.

During his missionary years he started 225 Sunday schools, preached 2,653 sermons, traveled 76,272 miles; sold or donated $2,011.12 worth of books and periodicals; made 725 conversions, organized 43 churches, assisted 800 destitute families with food and clothing and distributed 10,000 pounds of reading material. He had just moved to California at the time of his death.

Following Rev. Moss a local preacher by the name of P. E. Fisher held services at the Bethany school. In 1908 Rev. Lee Dailey helped hold a revival meeting there, at which Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Reimington, Mr. and Mrs. Harry White and Mrs. Goeler prayed through in the old fashioned way. They then organized the Free Methodist Church and Mr. and Mrs. Fisher joined. Rev. Fisher continued as preacher until 1912, when Rev. T. Rutledge was sent to pastor the church.

In 1915 a two-room parsonage was moved to the location and in 1916 the Haile house was bought and moved near the parsonage and made into a church. In 1918 Rev. Darley became pastor of this church and the Riverside church at Ewing. Due to the distance between them, and to travel difficulties, services were not too regular but Sunday school was never neglected.

The old church was finally sold to a rancher near Atkinson in 1948 and the present church built. Since then the parsonage has been enlarged and both buildings equipped with modern conveniences. Now, in 1973, the 157 church membership is steadily increasing and the church is still an important part of the community. EAAMET The first protestant church and parsonage to be built in Emmet were located one block south of the railroad tracks. In the early years the church was not a member of the Methodist Conference. Some of the organizers were Grandma Cole, the Fred Beckwiths, Andrew Johnsons, Earl Houts, Homer Lowerys and Sexsmiths. Mr. Beckwith often did the preaching and Mrs. Beckwith played the organ. Mr. Beckwith was also the Sunday school superintendent.

In 1920 Grandma Cole, Rev. E. O. Richardson, who was the minister at that time, and the others finally succeeded in having the church accepted into the Methodist Conference. From then on it was known as the Emmet Methodist church. Rev. S. G. Rasmussen was the resident minister in 1922 when the church and parsonage burned. The pastor, his wife and three little children barely escaped the burning building.

The loss of their property was a bitter blow to the congregation but, while the fire still smouldered, a faithful few circulated a subscription paper and started a fund for the building of a new church. The new building, located in the north part of town, had stained glass windows and comfortable pews. Its cost was $7,500 and the last $2,000 of the debt was retired just before the church’s dedication on April 29, 1923. The crowd that turned out from the countryside and neighboring towns, as well as Emmet, for the dedication was so large that all the children had to be taken to the basement rooms to make room for the adults in the auditorium.

For the next few years the little church flourished, then the older members passed on and not enough new ones took their places to keep the church active. When the congregation could no longer afford its own pastor, the church was served by ministers from Atkinson, and then from O’Neill. Finally, in 1967 the few remaining members merged the church with the United Methodist Church of O’Neill. Although the pretty little church was sold, it still stands on its original site, a reminder of better times in the history of the Emmet Methodist Church.

MINEOLA The Methodist church at Mineola was built during the early settlement years of this community. The money for its erection came in the form of a loan from the Methodist Headquarters and a number of men, one of whom was Swan Alm, just arrived from Sweden, hauled the lumber by ox team from Niobrara. The building was about thirty feet wide by forty feet long, with windows on two sides, and was heated with a big wood stove. The debt occasioned by the loan hung over the church for several years, then an “interested woman of the neighborhood drove around and gathered up enough money to pay it off.” Mineola was one of three charges in a circuit, all postered by one minister. Each was supposed to pay him a certain amount each year for his services. The parsonage was located at one of the other churches and the pastor drove to Mineola on its scheduled Sunday, held the service, and then was invited to one of the homes for dinner before going on to another church for an afternoon meeting. “Sometimes,” wrote Mrs. Arthur Alm, “the ministers received their promised money but in some of the drought years it was quite a bit short.” A pastor from O’Neill, Rev. Steiner, preached at Mineola one year during the early nineteen twenties but the next O’Neill pastor would not take on the extra charge. One of its numerous ministers was George Bressler of Marquette, who preached at Marquette and Joy, as well as at Mineola. To serve these three parishes he The Mineola Church and congregation. Courtesy Dena 158 Brady.

drove forty miles by team and buggy every Sunday. In 1916 the Bressler family moved to O’Neill so that the older children could attend high school. There one of the sons was drowned in the Elkhorn River while on- a school picnic.

The little Mineola church filled a vital need for the people of that area and the few members still there when the Methodist Conference sold the church building to the Wesleyan Methodists of Page were sorry to see it moved from their midst.

PAGE WESLEYAN CHURCH A tent meeting, held in the fall of 1928 near Venus for about six weeks, was the beginning of the Page Wesleyan Church. Rev. Crouch then held meetings northeast of Page and, later, helped Rev. Clifford Dean hold a .meeting in the old Presbyterian church in the west part of Page. The two ministers, working under the Faith Missionary Association, had by then worked up enough interest that a church was organized in Page.

In the early thirties a one-room rural school house was moved into town and set down a block east of the present church. A few years later the present church was built where it now stands and a parsonage east of the church purchased. In 1935 the Elkhorn Valley Holiness Association and Prayer Conference was held here, with the intention of holding it every year in Page.

However in 1948 the church, with its ten charter members, voted to join the Wesleyan Methodist Church. Twenty years later the Pilgrim Holiness Church merged with this church and was thereafter known simply as “The Wesleyan Church.” This church has had two women ministers and three husband and wife ministerial teams.

ATKINSON A three-weeks long revival meeting held in Atkinson in the old Gamble building on Main Street by Rev. A. W. Marts, long-time minister and missionary of Long Pine, led to a desire by a small group of people to organize a Wesleyan Church. Thirteen people, chaired by Miss Agnes Fullerton, then met at the H. F. Anderson home to decide on a place of worship and arrange to call a minister. As a result Rev. G. M. Hubby was called as pastor and the Lodge Hall became the meeting house until June of 1936. James and Bertha Fullerton then donated an old icehouse for a meeting place. The congregation moved the building into town, renovated it and dedicated it in October, 1937. It was known as the “Gospel Chapel” and the first wedding held there was that of Helen Murray and David Adams.

Two years later the members organized as a Wesleyan Methodist Church. There were then twenty-nine persons on the membership roll. In 1949 the congregation held a groundbreaking ceremony and began the construction of a new church. Many friends helped and the new building was dedicated in October, 1950. The parsonage was built in 1968. In June of that year, as related above, the church merged with the Pilgrim Holiness group. Eight ministers have served the church since 1934, the present (1973) being Rev. Duane Lauber.

This church has been outstanding for its large youth organization. In 1965 a Bible Quiz team of four young people won the Nebraska District Bible Quiz and competed in the National Quiz in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1970 a girls trio won the Nebraska District Teen Talent contest and represented the Nebraska District in the National contest in Dayton, Ohio. During the summer of 1972 eight youths, the pastor and an adult sponsor attended EXPLO 72 in Dallas. The next year the “Teen Sounds,” the ‘teen choir of the church, were very active in singing for camps, conventions and services and in touring Nebraska and Kansas to present their service of testimony in song and in the John Wilson musical “Man Alive.” O’NEILL The Wesleyan Methodist Church of O’Neill had its beginning in 1936, following a revival meeting held in a large tent near Venus by a returned missionary, J. M. Zook. The new church services were held in a school house about eight miles northeast of O’Neill, with Elton Clyde, a local man, as the first pastor. After a few weeks in the school house the congregation, on August 9, 1936, found a note on the blackboard informing them they could no longer use the building for worship. They then held services in the Herman farm house for awhile, and then in Grandma Bowens home in O’Neill.

When Mr. Clyde moved on to a church in Niobrara, Leonard Reckard came from Mitchell to pastor the O’Neill church. Since the group did not yet have a parsonage, the Page family gave the minister and his wife a room in their farmhouse. Times were hard and some of the young women of the congregation loaned Rev. Reckard money from their meager school teaching wages to enable him to buy a second-hand Chevrolet to drive to his second charge at Opportunity, several miles to the north. Later Mr. Reckard moved to Opportunity, but drove back to the O’Neill community to hold meetings in the homes.

Then an old house at Gross was given to the church. Some of the Methodist men “bached” in the house for a week while they took it apart into sections that could be moved to O’Neill, where it was used as a parsonage. By this time the congregation had outgrown the homes and services were held in the little O’Neill Episcopal church, which was then empty.

In 1938 the members undertook to rebuild the old house. Most of them were farmers and times were very hard. A widow in the group who had succeeded in getting welfare for her six small children then loaned the church money for materials to build the basement. Another woman got a refund on her engagement ring to make a loan for the installation of electric lights. When the work was done Rev. Elton Clyde and his family came back to live in the basement and hold services on the upper floor. In early 1945 these Wesleyan Methodists, by means of great sacrifice, built a new church. That December it was dedicated, debt free, and the old building became a full time parsonage.

Throughout the years revival and camp meetings have played an important part in the life of this church. Meetings were held in a large tent and when wind and rain storms damaged the canvas services were interrupted until repairs could be made.

By 1962 a new church building was badly needed. The people had nearly $2,000 in their building fund, about a fifth of the amount necessary. That July the WMS ladies dressed and sold 359 frying chickens and donated the money to the fund, thus sparking the determination to start the new church. The old building was promptly razed and the new one begun on the site. During the following six months, while services were held in an empty basement, another $7,000 was raised. The victorious members held a revival meeting in their new church in January, 1963, and dedicated their building on the final Sunday.

Five years later the church merged with the Pilgrim Holiness group of O’Neill and has since been known as the Wesleyan Church. In 1972 the Dr. Carstens home was purchased for a parsonage and the old one, built with so much toil and sacrifice, was razed and the space made into a parking lot. In the nearly forty years since the church was first organized ten pastors have served it, the present one being Rev. Lloyd Phipps and, as the recorder of this history, Mrs. Harry Page, wrote, “We have loved them all and each has been a blessing to our work for the Lord.” 159 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES In the year 1882 Presbyterian churches were organized in O’Neill, Cleveland, Atkinson, Dorsey and Stuart. The Dorsey church antedated the others by a few months. The meeting at which this church was organized was held on a March evening and the covenant of faith was signed by fourteen men and women, of whom Rev. D. W. Rosen- krans was one. George Williams of Omaha, a home missionary who had been working among Standing Bear’s people of the Ponca tribe, preached the sermon at this meeting. Rev. Rosenkrans, elected pastor that evening, was also one of the church’s elders for the rest of his life. The original church, built on a hill across Steel Creek, northwest of the cemetery, and known as the Apple Creek church, was small, only twenty- four by thirty feet in size. It was dedicated in October, 1885. Since it lacked a belfry and a bell, subscription lists were circulated for supplying these and for the support of the minister. As with so many other pioneer churches, this one, too, had difficulty with the latter and the old records show a number of occasions on which it was necessary to apply to the Board of Home Missions for help with the pastor’s salary.

The first twenty-five years of the life of the church paralleled the last twenty-five years of the life of Rev. Rosenkrans, who died in 1907 after serving the church most of that time. The last recorded Session meeting he attended was in December, 1906. He died of La Grippe at his home the following March, aged eighty-one years, and was buried in the Dorsey cemetery.

Born in Stuben County, New York, in 1826, he was educated in Ohio and settled in Wisconsin, where he married and began his Christian service, entering the ministry in 1873, probably in Missouri. He came to Dorsey in 1881 and homesteaded near Apple Creek. As pastor of the Apple Creek church he preached there in the morning, then drove to Scottville for an afternoon service, and on to Pleasant Valley to preach in the even- ing.

The congregation lived within walking distance of the church during most of its first twenty-five years. In 1908 the members voted to move the church, as the knoll on which it stood had become dangerously eroded by time and weather. Too, the population had shifted so much that a location on the northeast corner of the northwest quarter of Section 9, Township 31, Range 9 was more nearly in the center.

The church was moved in December by twelve teams of horses. Still on blocks at the new location, the church ladies cleaned it the next day and made it ready for the Christmas Eve program that night. After the move the Scottville people transferred to the Apple Creek church.

V. V. Rosenkrans, son of D. W., had a great deal to do with the activities of this church over the years. His grandson, Roger Rosenkrans, who supplied this history, wrote that his earliest childhood memories are of Sunday school at Dorsey, where his grandfather was superintendent. He recalls many a wedding, funeral, ice cream social and program at the old church and writes in conclusion, “The Dorsey church is the only one that lasted to celebrate seventy-five years of service to the community. The horses that moved the building were long ago replaced by cars and tractors and today the church stands deserted and alone.” The Rev. Joseph Walstead was installed as pastor of the church in 1952 and was still there when it celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary. Apparently he was the last pastor.

CLEVELAND In this community Charles Hudson was the first homesteader, followed by two Scotch Presbyterian brothers, Aaron and Gilbert Cleveland. These families came from Pontiac, Michigan, and Aaron, past sixty, was probably the oldest settler in the community for a time. Mail addressed to Celveland came to his home by horseback from the nearest town, Niobrara.

By the spring of 1880 there were ten families in the settlement, most of them Scotch. G. M. Bastidos and David Whitaker Rosenkrans, 1826-1907 early Presbyterian pastor at Dorsey, Scottville, Pleasant Valley, O’Neill and Atkinson. Courtesy Roger Rosenkrans Jacques, who arrived in 1878, built a dam and flour mill on Beaver Creek, southwest of the present church. Some of the other first families were the Will Rays, who donated the land on which the church stands; the Gulicks, who lived in a dugout on the south slope of the cemetery hill; Adison Monroe, the first Sunday school superintendent, Andrew Robertson and Wilson Brodie. Brodie became one of the strong leaders of the community, both in spiritual and civic affairs. He built the old house (still standing) that was known as the “Brodie Half-way House” for so many years. Through his determination the Sunday school, organized in Aaron Cleveland’s home in 1879, was kept alive and growing. The first members of this Sunday school were thirteen adults and their children. They attended regularly for a year before the first itinerant Methodist minister came to the community to hold the first formal worship service in the Hudson home. Through correspondence with their church Synod, these Scotch Presbyterians, Wilson Brodie and the Cleveland brothers, obtained the occasional services of the Rev. George Little, who preached in the homes in 1880. The church body was organized on March 20, 1882, with twelve members. Rev. Christopher Smith came to help the church make building plans and borrow $400 from the Board of National Missions for building materials. He became the first resident pastor.

In January of 1883 an evangelist from Niobrara, the Rev. George Williams, came for a two-weeks long series of meetings. The following month the men, women and children of the community gathered at the Wixon home for the purpose of organizing a Ladies Aid Society. The people were building a new church and “there had to be a way to furnish and equip it.” And what better way than to put a ladies’ organization to the task! Four days later the Society held its first meeting; read, discussed and approved the constitution and then laid plans to hold their first public entertainment on February 22 at 7 p.m.

Sixty people turned out for the sociable and “the goodly sum of $8.15” was realized. Thus the pace was set for many social and money raising functions. One of this group’s first purchases for the new church was a stove. Next they paid for chairs, and then, with a huge Fourth of July picnic, raised money to pay for painting the church. During the next few years they sponsored oyster suppers, basket suppers, a “pink supper,” a carpet ball supper, a New . 160 Dorsey Ladies Aid meeting at home of Judith Pickering (now Claude Pickering Home). 1904. Courtesy Dena Brady. Dorsey Ladies Aid, 1927.

161 England dinner and a strawberry festival. It is interesting to note that the men attended these meetings and paid their dues. Although they did not hold office they helped with the sociables. (This history of the early church, all neatly hand written by the first Clerk of the Session, Wilson Brodie, in an old record book has been of inestimable service to this Holt County history project.) By January, 1883, membership in the Celveland church had more than doubled. The resignation of Pastor Smith in May necessitated the calling of Rev. W. W. Jones who came in the fall and stayed two years. Some of the recorded collections of this period are listed as follows: March 16, 1883, collection for Home Missions $1.50. April 13, collection $1.45. July 6, collection $2.07. In December of that year $1.18 was sent to the Board of Education. It took thirteen cents to register and mail the money.

In 1885 times got better and on January 4 a collection of $9.05 was apportioned four ways to meet the church’s obligations. In March the church was able to give $8.79 for Home Missions. Thus each struggling little church gave of its scant means to help start and suport other churches in spiritually needy communities. In January, 1899 the Stuart and Cleveland churches called B. J. Brethawer. A salary of $50 was offered, each church to pay half as “their fair share.” In October, 1903, Rev. Samuel Light was called to pastor the Cleveland Presbyterian church of Brodie, Nebraska. Three years later he “was warmly called for another year and a collection of $65 taken for his support.” This pastor was so well liked that some of the old church members who had transferred to Dustin now transferred back to Cleveland. The old church records show that Mr. and Mrs. J. A. McClurg were church members at Cleveland for six decades, their last transfer by letter being dated in 1961. By 1911, Rev. Light’s last year at the church, his salary had been raised to $125 and he was still preaching in Cleveland and Stuart on alternate Sundays.

Rev. Burke then came from Stuart to preach, perhaps on alternate Sundays, too, and on one day in 1915 seventeen new members joined his church. Among them the Lofquests, Demings, Allyns, Munsons, Andrew Chenoweth and George Robertson. Rev. Burke left in 1919 and from then until 1932 only two more ministers, Rev. C. E. Morrison and Rev. John Caldwell, served this church.

After 1932 there were only occasional preaching services until 1944 and, of course, a funeral service now and then. When John Montgomery’s funeral was held in the church in 1936 the church was filled with friends and relatives. As the pianist walked forward and stepped up to the piano the whole floor emitted a groan and then a splintering roar— one of the beams that supported it had broken. The church was quickly evacuated, after which the men temporarily propped up the floor and the funeral service went on. Major repairs to the church were soon under way.

From 1941 to 1944 a sandhills missionary, Ralph Chamberlain accompanied by his wife and son, preached several times a year at Cleveland and also organized a two-weeks summer vacation Bible school. For children who had no transportation the Chamberlains drove a circuit of homes, picking them up and taking them to the church, where they ate sack lunches and spent the day in study and play. This beloved missionary was badly needed at this time, as Cleveland had had only three ———————iile in the 1890’s. Another name for a Ladies Aid or Bible study group. Courtesy Dena Brady. King’s Daughters of ScofT 162 recorded Session meetings since 1932, when John Caldwell had had to resign for lack of a sufficient salary. In July of 1944 the congregation held a meeting to consider calling a minister to preach in Atkinson, Stuart and Cleveland each Sunday. With better roads and cars this plan was now feasible. When Rev. Orin Graff, a young minister just out of seminary, came with his wife they were greeted with “Hello and welcome— you are the answer to our prayers.” Rev. Graff stayed to minister to the three churches for eight good years. At the end of Pastor Graff’s third year the church, which had been in debt for sixty-four years, paid off the last dollar. The Ladies Aid helped by serving lunch at the farm sales of families who sold or lost their farms during the Depression and left the country.

While Rev. Graff and his family were picnicking on the banks of beautiful Beaver Creek one day, he decided to invite children to camp there with them for a week in summer. And so, in 1949, the Cleveland Bible Camp was started. There was no camp building, just a spot, and no money in sight for anything more. The first two years the boys and girls slept in the church and an old house, hiking to the camp site and back. The third year, with the help of the Ladies Aid, a cook house and girls’ dormitory were built. In 1952 a chapel and boys’ dorm were added.

Rev. Graff was called to Illinois after the summer of 1952 but the camp work went on, and still continues as a vital part of church programs in that area. Eloise Rustad carried on the work the Graffs had started, preaching and teaching for a year before Rev. D. D. Su was called to serve the churches at Cleveland and Stuart.

Many years earlier a young woman, Esther Morse, had gone from the Cleveland community as a medical missionary to China. The Communist take-over that drove her out of China also forced Dr. Su from his homeland. A Chinese educator, he studied in a seminary and became an ordained minister and, in 1953, accepted his first charge, that of the Stuart – Cleveland churches. After five years of sharing his life with Cleveland, the popular Su left to serve the Presbyterians and others in western Nebraska at the little town of Sutherland. The new minister, Rev. Herbert Young and his wife, Laura, led their church members in the addition of many improvements to the church and the camp.

The next pastor, Rev. Herbert Sytrauss, came to Stuart and Cleveland in 1967. A year later, while on the way to Cleveland for the morning service, he was in a car accident that injured his spine so severely that he never walked again. The churches were without a minister until 1969 when the present pastor, Harold Wylie and his family arrived. By then Atkinson, Stuart and Cleveland had joined to form one parish, which is its status today.

ATKINSON The Atkinson Presbyterian church was organized on June 4 by a small group of people who met in Bitney’s Hall for that purpose. The first copy of the Atkinson Graphic (August 10, 1882) noted that “a Protestant church is one of the projects on foot among our citizens. A decided move should be made in that direction.” A missionary minister, the Rev. John Sylvannus of Inman, met with the group that day, and thereafter occasionally ministered to Atkinson’s first Protestant church during the next few years. Meetings were held in the Hall or in the homes until a church was built in 1883 or 1884.

The first regular pastor, Rev. C. A. Graves, was called in 1887. The new church first stood on lots owned by the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley railroad, which later released them to the church. In 1914 the little building was removed to its present site, remodeled and enlarged. By 1961 it was time to remodel and enlarge again.

Five young people from this church, David and Keith Cunningham, Laura MacLachlan, Alfred Parsons and Henry Warren, have dedicated their lives to God as ministers or missionaries, and twenty-nine pastors have served the church since its inception in 1882. It has always had a strong Sunday school and Christian Endeavor youth program. Its Westminster Fellowship, organized in 1947 is still active and includes young people from Cleveland who attend high school in Atkinson.

Seventy young people attended the first Bible Camp for intermediate and high school age youths of the Presbyterian churches of Atkinson, Cleveland and Stuart in 1949. The attendance has grown each year and in recent years has numbered more than one hundred.

O’NEILL In December of 1882 eight people met in O’Neill to sign a petition to organize a church in that town. In January they came together again in a meeting moderated by Rev. Sylvan-us to sign the covenant and articles of faith of the First Presbyterian Church of O’Neill. Rev. Sylvanus served this church, too, until Rev. A. Doremus was called as its first regular pastor, later in the following year.

The foundation tor the first little church cost $14 and its windows were plain glass, which some of the members painted white and covered with colored paper to simulate stained- glass. It was heated by a pot-bellied stove which blew up during one service and caused quite a disturbance.

In 1900 Charlie Pettijohn dug a basement for the church and in 1907 Neil Brennan presented a thousand pound bell to the members, requesting that it be rung every twelfth day of May at ten in the morning to commemorate the day he landed on his homestead south of O’Neill. In 1913 the church was remodeled and real stained glass memorial windows donated by Mrs. Andy Potter were installed. Additional beautiful furniture was given by other members. A new educational unit was added in 1956 and a new sanctuary a few years later. In March, 1966, the church burned its mortgages, declaring both the church and its manse to be debt free.

Since Rev. Doremus served the parish in 1883, eighteen other ministers have filled its pulpit. Rev. George Longstaff served the longest, 1912 to 1925. In January, 1970 its members numbered 303.

STUART Stuart’s church was also organized in 1882 but the month is not recorded. Its first pastor, too, was the missionary, John Sylvanus, and of its first five members only one was originally a Presbyterian. The others were Congregationalists. From the late thirties until 1950 the members federated with the Stuart Methodist church, then dissolved that relationship and joined the Stuart Community Church, which then continued under Presbyterian rule.

SOUTH FORK In 1883 Mr. and Mrs. John S. Kellar and their six children came by train from their home in Illinois to the new home in Chambers Township which Mr. Kellar and his bachelor brother, Thomas, had built the year before from a carload of lumber he brought with him. He built the house with sliding doors between the kitchen and living room so that the entire space could be opened into one large room. Before moving to Holt County the Kellars had envisioned a home on the prairie where worship services could be held.

As soon as she was settled, Mrs. Kellar began visiting her neighbors on horseback, riding sidesaddle, to invite them to meetings in her home. Soon a sizable group was gathering each Sunday. On May 11 the First Presbyterian Church of South Fork was 163 organized, with the Rev. Sylvanus as pastor. Every Sunday morning for the next fifteen years the wide double doors were opened and the big room filled with worshippers.

When the Kellars sold their ranch in 1899 and moved to Florida they donated one acre of it to be used for the site of a new church— which was soon built and named the “Kellar Church.” The little rural church served its community for more than half a century before it was disbanded in 1953 and its members dispersed to other churches.

EWING The Ewing United Presbyterian Church was organized in February, 1886, with fourteen charter members. Rev. T. H. Pollock preached the opening sermon and the first ruling Elders, John Napier, Alexander Napier and Adam Hohman, were ordained and installed. The congregation worshipped in the old schoolhouse in the east part of Ewing for a time. The school building was then moved to the site where the present church stands. Rev. Pollock pastored the church for three years, after which supply ministers filled the pulpit for the next five years.

When Rev. J. E. Black came in 1894 the church bought a parsonage and located it a block west of the present manse. Rev. Black left in 1903 and Rev. H. B. Tyler came in 1904. That year the old church and parsonage were sold and moved away and a new eight-room parsonage and a $3,000 church built in their places. The church was dedicated, debt free, on April 8, 1906.

The Rev. and Mrs. R. E. Lackey came in 1909 and remained eight years, after which J. Alfred Heasty, a student minister, served the church during the summer of 1917. Following his graduation from the seminary he came back to Ewing in June, 1918, to be ordained and installed. While in this pastorate he married Hannah Adams and in May, 1920 resigned to accept a call to the Mission Field in the Sudan. The parsonage burned in 1921 and the Jonas Lowery home, north of the church, was purchased to replace it. Rev. and Mrs. John B. Porter came that July and under his three years of leadership the Young People’s Christian Union was very active, boasting the largest membership on record in the church.

Rev. and Mrs. J. B. Story came to Ewing in 1930. During their residence Mrs. Story became an invalid and had to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. Even so, she sponsored the Junior Missionary Society, conducted church services and played the piano. Dr. Thomas J. Kong, a Korean, pastored the church during the fall O’Neill Presbyterian Church, 1892-’93. Clay Johnson Collection. and winter of 1938-1939. Rev. J. Dallas Gibson came in June, 1939, and the following January married Ann Hoffman. The first Daily Vacation Bible School was instituted under their three years of ministry.

Several other ministers served the church in the ensuing years. The large Annex was added to the growing church in 1950 or 1951. Dr. and Mrs. William Ross, retired missionaries from Pakistan, came in 1956. Mrs. Ross passed away suddenly in 1961 and in 1965 Dr. Ross married Miss Vivian Trimble, a retired missionary from India.

An early morning fire on November 28, 1958, burned the Annex and did extreme damage to the church sanctuary. The church built a larger annex, enlarged the choir loft and refinished the sanctuary. In 1963, with $12,000 in New Presbyterian Church at O’Neill, 1966. Clay Johnson Collection. donations, the people built their new parsonage. The Rev. David Cunningham, who came to Ewing in December, 1970, served both the United Presbyterian and United Methodist churches until his retirement in January, 1974.

BETHANY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF EWING This rural church was organized in February, 1887, by Pastor Sylvanus. One of its nineteen charter members, Mrs. Charlotte Honeywell, is still living (1973). Worship services were held in the homes or in a schoolhouse until early 1891, when a committee was appointed to collect funds and build a church. The committee was successful and on November 8, that same year, a new church was dedicated on a site five miles east of Chambers.

164 Twelve years later the customary shift of population and the usual poor condition of the roads brought about the abandonment of the building. Services were again held in a schoolhouse, this time some three or four miles southeast of the church. In 1911, under the leadership of Rev. Samuel Light, formerly of Cleveland, now a Pastor-at-Large and a Sunday school worker in Nebraska, the church building was moved three miles southeast to a more central location. For a good many years Sunday school services were held regularly and preaching services whenever a supply pastor could be obtained.

By 1942, when the fifty-one-year- old building began to show the wear and tear of time, and heating and keeping a roof on it became a problem, the congregation started a building fund. Ten years later there was enough in the fund to make it possible to begin to plan the new church. A donation sale, held in November, 1951 raised $6,550. The following May ground was broken a mile south of the first building and construction began. A second donation sale, a year after the first one, raised another $2,700, enabling the members to complete and dedicate the new church in 1953. It bore the distinction of being the first air-conditioned church in Nebraska. Twenty pastors have served this church, the present one being Rev. Richard H. Skelley. Its present membership numbers sixty-two. INMAN As previously recorded the Methodist church was built in Inman soon after the town was founded. But Inman also had some ardent Presbyterians, who began agitating for a church of their own. Two of the leaders were Dwight S. Pond, a farmer, and J. H. Meckling, depot agent for the F.E. and M.V. railroad. The Inman Index of 1886 carried the following notice: “Presbyterian Church Services. Preaching by Rev. J. C. Sylvanus in the depot waiting rooms every other Sunday at 10:00 A.M. Sunday school every Sabbath at 11:00. J. H. Meckling, Supt.” A church building was started in 1886 or ’87 on land donated by Mr. Pond at the north end of Main Street. Mr. Meckling persuaded the railroad to haul most of the lumber for it free of charge. Mr. Pond, also a carpenter, designed the church after the ones he had known in New York, with high ceilings and many big windows— too big and too expensive for a frontier town.

Levi Van Valkenburgh organized the members so that each could do the job he knew best and everyone pitched in and helped. The masonry work was done by Charles Mason. Every man who could handle a saw or drive a square nail did so, including most of the town people and many from south of town as well. The bell was donated by a larger church. The members held a mush and milk supper in the depot to raise cash for the project.

Rev. Sylvanus preached in the Inman church for two years, then Rev. N. S. Lowrie of Pennsylvania sec- ceeded him. Rev. Lowrie also preached at O’Neill, Bethany and Lambert, east of Page. Two of his sons also turned to the ministry and took turns relieving their father in Inman. Clinton, rather staid and conservative; and Will, as fiery as his red hair, were both well liked.

The drouth of 1894 was too much for the small church group to handle and the church all but faded away. With better times, however, it revived and Rev. McLaughlin preached in Inman for awhile. The Jason Smith family was a big help in keeping the church going. Edith Smith and Miss Grace Conger were organists. Wilbur Wilson, a music teacher and the son of the retired Methodist minister, Rev. De Los Wilson, helped them.

When the C. C. Leidy family came from Iowa in 1893, Mr. Leidy was appointed bell ringer. When he pulled the bell rope down his sons would grab it. When the bell turned the boys would sail up to the ceiling— fun for the lads who knew how but potentially disastrious to the greenhorns who tried it. On several Hallowe’ns a group of daring boys gathered at the church after dark with lengths of baling wire which they dragged up the belfry stairs and fastened to the bell. The free end was thrown down to pranksters waiting on the ground. At midnight the strident clang of the bell brought the townspeople out of bed in a hurry— but by the time anyone reached the church the bell was silent and the wire gone.

A cemetery, started near the church after the manner of eastern churchyards, did not work out as the water level was too near the surface of the land. A woman and baby, buried in this first churchyard, were soon moved to higher ground south of town.

Rev. Hayden postered the Inman church in 1901 and 1902, but lived in O’Neill with his wife and family. By the time he left old age had overtaken many of the original members and the few remaining Presbyterians decided to disband. Finally Mrs. Fanny Leidy, the only living member still in Inman, was asked to sign the document that would permit the sale of the church building. With mixed emotions of joy and grief— joy in the memories of handing over her babies for baptism, grief when she saw her tall young son carried through the church door to the cemetery— she put her name to the paper that dissolved the Inman Presbyterian Church.

Dan O’Donnell, Jr., bought the church, tore it down and used the lumber in his farm buildings west of town. The treated timbers that supported the big bell had been driven into splinters by the weight of the bell and the strain of swinging small boys. Pleasant Valley The Pleasant Valley church, located sixteen miles north of O’Neill on Highway 281 in Paddock Township, was also organized in 1887. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church provided some of the funds for the building, which was dedicated on June 4, 1887, and at the time known as the Blackbird Presbyterian Church. J.H. DeYarman was president of its board of Trustees. Rev. Rosen- krans was its first minister. Rev. Samuel Sharpless replaced him in 1896 and served until 1904, when Rev. Rosenkrans came back for two more years.

By the 1940’s it was no longer practical for the larger denominations to support the small outlying parishes such as the Blackbird church and the Presbyterian General Assembly sold the building to the Pleasant Valley Cemetery Association in 1944. From then on, until it was destroyed by fire of unknown origin in October, 1959, the building was known as the Pleasant Valley church and was so dedicated.

Many of the pioneers of the northern part of Holt County are at rest in the beautiful little cemetery near the spot where the church stood for seventy-two years, helping to weld the community together.

Baptist churches, numerous in most Nebraska communities, seem to have been relatively scarce in Holt County, where Catholics, Methodists and Presbyterians predominated. CHAMBERS MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH This church was founded by the Rev. J.L. Coppoc, with the aid of R.C. Wry and Dr. and Mrs. T.V. Norvell, in 1884. Sometime earlier a copy of Doc Mathews vivid word picture of “God’s Country,” carried in the Frontier, fell into Mr. Wry’s hands. As a result the three families named above came to Holt County, where Wry homesteaded the land on which the town of Chambers took root. The others filed on claims close by.

Wry was a graduate of Amherst College, Nova Scotia, and a teacher with twenty years experience in 165 Canada. Dr. Norvell was a graduate of Ann Arbor, Michigan, medical college and Mr. Coppoc was a Baptist minister. August 30, 1884 was the date set for holding a meeting to organize the church. Mrs. Norvell and her daughters made such preparations as they could for hosting the meeting in their fourteen by sixteen foot new sod house by taking down one of the beds.

When the crowd gathered as many as could sat on the other bed. Others brought in the spring seats from their wagons, some sat on the floor or stood crowded along the walls. Rev. Coppoc stood by the cook stove which had been converted into a pulpit by spreading a white cloth over it and placing the Bible on it. The song books, brought by the visitors, were of many kinds.

The group met again on September 27 in the same sod house. This time a colored minister from Wheeler County, Rev. Woody, came to help Rev. Coppoc organize the church. It was first named the “Palmer Baptist Church” because one of the members had belonged to a church by that name in Illinois. Meetings continued in Dr. Norvell’s sod house for nearly a year. The following autumn a Sunday school was organized with Mr. Wry as superintendent and Dr. Norvell as Bible teacher.

In July, 1885, the services were moved into town into a “bowery,” an open-sided shelter with a roof made of willows, cut and hauled from the south fork of the Elkhorn on hayracks. The congregation sat on planks laid across nail kegs. The church proper was built and dedicated in 1886 and Rev. Coppoc was its pastor. The bell, donated by Neil Brennan, still hangs in the belfry. During the year 1887 forty-one new members were received into the church. The Methodists of the area worshipped with the Baptists until 1896, when they organized and built their own church. School was also held in the Baptist church while an aban- donded house was being moved into town and made into a schoolhouse. This church was twice remodeled and enlarged. In 1926 the Harold Baptist church, several miles to the southeast, was moved into Chambers and joined to the first church. Its members transferred with it.

About 1950 the old church was sold and a new brick one built on the same site. It was dedicated as the Memorial Baptist Church in memory of Jennie Adams. In 1962 the members built a fine modern parsonage across the street from the church, which is now served by Rev. and Mrs. Earl Schwenk.

GOOSE LAKE CHURCH The people in the Goose Lake area built a church in 1893 about a mile east of the John Dierks ranch buildings. After a few years it was moved away. The Negro cemetery was near this church until about 1910, when the sandy soil became so badly eroded as to expose the decaying caskets. They were then taken up and reburied in a common grave in the Valley View (Trussell) Cemetery. MIDDLEBRANCH BAPTIST CHURCH The Baptist church at Middlebranch was built about 1910 on land donated by John Eberly, who operated the flour mill there at that time. The Rev. Luther Hendrix, just out of William Jewell College in Missouri, came as a resident pastor in 1918 and stayed for more than a year. While there he married a local girl, Blanche Clyde. The Rev. Ayres then came and conducted a very well attended revival, meeting, which resulted in a baptismal service “through the ice” in the late winter. The pastor remained through the summer. Rev. D. Eller and his wife came that fall and stayed two years. Mrs. Eller taught the Middle-branch school one year and the Ash Grove school the next.

Rev. Earl Brock of the Creighton Baptist church then supplied the church twice a month for awhile. During the ‘thirties C.J. Terrill, who had a local preacher’s license, held regular services. Sunday school was continued most of this time until after 1940 and for many years the Rural Sunday School Convention was held here and attended by people from Walnut, Enterprise, Venus and Eden Valley. These were all-day sessions with a picnic dinner at noon.

When the church was finally disbanded the building was torn down and the lumber used in building cabins at the Baptist Youth Camp at Cedar Rapids, Nebraska.

IMMANUEL LUTHERAN OF CONLEY This church was organized in 1886 in the District 121 schoolhouse. Services were held in the schoolhouse until the next year, when charter member Casper Hoerle, who had come to Holt County the year before, helped largely in building the church and its parsonage. He also laid out the cemetery where his infant son was buried on August 30, 1887, the second burial in the new graveyard. The first was that of the Dreher baby, interred there a month earlier. The church and parsonage stood some nine miles southeast of Chambers until 1915, when the parsonage was moved into Chambers. The church continued active until 1947, after which the building stood idle until 1963 and was finally torn down. The members transferred to the St. Paul Lutheran church in Chambers but burials are still made occasionally in the Conley cemetery.

IMMANUEL LUTHERAN CHURCH OF ATKINSON This church had its beginning in 1888, when services were held in the homes by Lutheran ministers who traveled through the Sandhills region. The first church built by John Harley, Sr., and August Walter, stood about six miles southwest of Atkinson. Pastor Koester officially organized the church, which was regularly served by the Conley pastor for some time. Under Pastor L.A. Grolheer (1904-1906) the congregation became an organ of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. The church building was then moved four miles east, where it was known as the Holt Creek Church. In 1920 or 1921 a prairie fire destroyed the church and all its records.

Until 1926 the members held services in the Atkinson Presbyterian church, then in the Fellowship Lodge. However Rev. F. J. Scheef was called that same year and a new church promptly built. John Harley, Jr., was a member of this building committee. The church was dedicated in July, 1927, and served the people until 1970, when a larger building became necessary. During all these years Immanuel had been a joint parish with Christ Lutheran of O’Neill, but in 1974 it passed a significant milestone and became a self-supporting church. Back in the period from 1911 to 1920 another pastor, Immanuel’s A.H. Grossee, also ministered to the Russian settlement north of Atkinson, driving his horse and buggy to preach in the Krumm, Frickel, Kahler and Braun homes on Sunday afternoons. ATKINSON St. John’s Lutheran Church of Atkinson was established in 1900 with the help of the Iowa Synod. Its first church and parsonage were built in 1904. A second congregation was organized in Emmet, nine miles east, and was served jointly with the Atkinson parish. After fire destroyed the church at Emmet its people came to the Atkinson church.

Among the early pastors were a Rev. Busholm, Sam Nicolviski, Walter Fleischmann, A. H. Buddenhagen and Jensen. In 1921 Pastor William Vahle was installed, and remained until his death in 1944. During his tenure the present church was built in 1924. Pastor Vahle also held services in Phoenix, O’Neill and Bassett, a large territory to cover.

During the next quarter century several pastors served the Atkinson and neighboring parishes. In January, 1971 Pastor William Fink accepted the call to St. John’s, where he still serves, and a new church home was 166 Christ Lutheran Church of O’Neill, 1966. Clay Johnson Collection. soon in the planning stage. No doubt it has been finished by now.

CHRIST LUTHERAN OF O’NEILL Immanuel Lutheran of Atkinson felt the need for establishing a sister congregation in O’Neill. It therefore gladly resolved to share its pastor with the county seat congregation. This young church had rough sailing for awhile. Eighteen people attended the first worship service held in the Court House in October, 1938. From there they moved into the Episcopal church building for a yearly rental of $100. On January 8, 1941, with Rev. Frickel of Chambers officiating, Christ Lutheran became a legal organization. In 1945 the congregation bought six lots for $300 and planned to build a church thereon. Two years later, faced with the prospect of buying the Episcopal church building, or moving, they bought the church for $3,000. To do this they had to sell the six lots. The next milestone was the purchase of a parsonage, which was done jointly with Immanuel of Atkinson. Rev. C. O. Cress was the first pastor to live in it.

Under Rev. Cress new lots were purchased and building plans laid. The new church basement was built in 1951, with Rev. E. G. Smith, the new pastor, in charge. The church people did not like walking down (into a basement) to worship and resolved to walk UP instead, and that as soon as possible. But matters moved slowly and a new minister, Rev. A. S. Gedwillo, had come before the cornerstone was laid in April, 1957. The church was dedicated on May 11, 1958.

The present pastor, Rev. Clarence A. Stenbeck, came to O’Neill in November, 1963, and today Christ Lutheran looks forward to steady growth, along with the city of O’Neill. An educational wing addition to the church building should be finished by the fall of 1975.

ST. PAUL’S LUTHERAN CHURCH OF CHAMBERS This congregation was called into existence by a group of Lutheran Christians, formerly members of the Holt Creek and Conley congregctions. The first service was conducted in the John Wolter schoolhouse northwest of Chombers. The first pastor wes Rev. Rupphoff. Later the group was served by a postor of the Iowa Synod from Atkinson. After his deperture from Atkinson the new flock wes without a minister for some time.

Then Pastor L. A. Grotheer of Conley was osked to serve the small group for awhile, and services were again held at the Walter schoolhouse. In January, 1906, the congregation was organized with twenty-one communicant members. During a period in 1911 when the church had no regular pastor, student A. J. Lutz, now a missionary in India, served the congregation temporarily.

Candidate A. H. Grosse succeeded Mr. Lutz as pastor. During his pastorate the members decided to build a church in Chambers, as the parsonage had already been moved from Conley to that place. The first move was made at the celebration of Jakob Walter’s birthday, December 25, 1911. A subscription list was passed among the guests and, on the strength of the results, work was begun. The dedication took place in the fall of 1912. In addition to his charge in Chambers, Pastor Grosse served at Conley, Holt Creek and Atkinson, and also preached in the homes in the Russian settlement. Enlarged and improved over the years, the church installed a pipe organ in 1950 and, under the leadership of the Rev. Howard Clay- combe, in 1955 celebrated its Golden Anniversary. At the close of that year Mr. J. W. Walter retired after forty- three years of faithful service as custodian of the church.

A variety of minority denominations had a part in the history of Holt County. One of the early ones was the AMISH MENNONITES C. B. Yantzi and his family came to northeast Holt County from Seward County in 1883 and settled on the quarter section where the church and cemetery were later located. Christian Ernst and his son, Christian, built the church in 1888. The elder Ernst also built the benches. Among the first preachers was Christian Ernst II, who preached in German. The first Bishop to serve this church was Joseph Schlegel of Milford, Nebraska. The men and boys sat on one side of the church, the women, girls and younger children on the other. The married men wore beards. The men and boys wore broad brimmed black hats, the women prayer caps. Following their ancient custom, hooks and eyes, rather than buttons, were used on their clothing and all dressed very plainly.

Some of the families who attended this church were the Spenlers, Os-walds, Otts, Reisers, Toths, Erbs, Griesers, Shipmans, Huberts, and others. Most were farmers and ranchers and quite a number gave up during the drouth of the thirties and moved away. With the dwindling of the community the church stood unused for a number of years. When a group from the new Wesleyan Methodist church wanted to buy their pulpit and pews the Mennonites decided they would rather see their church torn down and used to build another house of worship. Accordingly they sold the building and its contents for $28 in the fall of 1940. The lumber from the church was then used in building the basement of the Wesleyan church in Spencer, where some of the original handmade benches are still in use in the basement. INAAAN REORGANIZED CHURCH OF LAUER DAY SAINTS The work of this church began with the location of Emery Downey in the community in 1890. His home was always open to the Elders who passed through from time to time. James Caffall preached the first sermon in the town in 1892. He was followed by Evan A. Davis and W. E. Peak. A series of meetings held by H. O. Smith in March, 1898, resulted in several baptisms and the firm establishment of the work. The Inman branch was organized in March, 1899, by Levi Famet and W. W. Whiting.

The present chapel was built at a cost of $600-$700 in 1898. The members added a kitchen and a small educational unit in the early 1950’s, then enlarged both and installed restrooms in 1965. Emery Downey was the 167 first priest and president of this branch. The first camp meeting or “reunion” was held on the church lawn west of the chapel in June, 1897. These meetings continued down through the years until June, 1929. At a special service on April 26, 1964, several members were honored for fifty or more years of faithful membership in this church. Elder Donald Keyes is the present pastor and president of the branch.

ATKINSON The Atkinson Mission of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is one of the newer worship centers in town. Mrs. Charley Peterson and the John Schrunk family were the only members representing the demonination in Atkinson for some years. They first attended a community Sunday school northeast of O’Neill, then later attended the Inman branch.

The new Atkinson Mission building, begun in the fall of 1957, was formally opened with special services and an open house on May 18, 1958. Fred R. Horne of the local Mission presided at the two-hour morning dedicatory event. Wallace Smith, president of the Reorganized Church, was the main speaker. Serving as pastor at the present time is Roy Ries of Atkinson.

CENTER UNION CHURCH Northeast of O’Neill lay a region of fertile farming land bordered by a stream of clear blue water called Eagle Creek. Here the Center Union Church and Sunday, school was organized in May, 1903, by Rev. E. E. Dillon, a Union Sunday School missionary. Rev. S. M. Omart was its pastor from 1912 to 1937. The first meetings were held in a schoolhouse through the summer but, as with many Sunday schools, it had to suspend services in the fall because of bad weather and poor heating facilities.

The Sunday school was reorganized in another schoolhouse in the summer of 1904. After the school board gave notice on the first Sunday in September that they could no longer use the building, the church met in the homes until Christmas. In 1905 the group built the little Center Union Church on a site five miles northwest of O’Neill. J. K. Ernst served as Sunday school superintendent for many years, and attended services there until his death in 1943.

The angle and bracket kerosene lamps that first lighted the church were later replaced by gasoline lamps, and still later (after REA) by electric lights. The original wood stove gave way to a gas floor furnace, and that in turn to a wall furnace. This “Little Church by the Side of Pleasant Hill Church, built in 1912. Now “Schraders” Corner Museum, four miles north of Neligh on Highway 14. Courtesy Grace Utterback. the Road” has continued as a house of worship, without interruption, since it was built in 1905. Back in 1935 Rev. Dillon, with the assistance of Rev. A. W. Marts, held the first Annual Home- coming Service. In 1955 the Home Coming was combined with Golden Anniversary services on April 30 and May 1.

Center Union is an interdenominational church. Missionaries were always welcome, as were ministers of various denominations. Its first resident minister, Rev. S. M. Ohmart, served from 1912 until 1937. Nine other men have pastored the church from then until the present, Rev. Roger Green being the last one listed. CHURCH OF CHRIST In August, 1908, a group of Holt County residents met at the Fairview Baptist church southwest of Clear-Center Union Church and congregation. Courtesy Mrs. Homer Ernst. water to organize a Church of Christ. Two years later John L. Stine, an evangelist, held a protracted meeting in the Deloit schoolhouse. The result was seventeen baptisms. That same year Mr. Stine held an evangelistic meeting for a Sunday school group that met in the Pleasant Hill schoolhouse. Due to these meetings interest grew until the people resolved to build a church home. Mr. and Mrs. William Walters donated the land in 1912 and carpenters John Miller and Ben Babclock of Clearwater began the construction. The building took shape a short way down the road from Pleasant Hill school, under some large, friendly cottonwood trees. Soon after it was completed Evangelist Stine, with Albert Mueller as his singer, held another series of meet- 168 ingsthere.

The young people of the congregation had purchased the pews with funds raised by producing a play, “Dot, the Miner’s Daughter,” which they staged both at Pleasant Hill and at the Clearwater auditorium.

The first regular minister was J. W. Elliot, who came by train from Creighton. Members of the Pleasant Hill group took turns meeting him at the Clearwater depot with their teams and buggies. He came on Saturdays and spent the evenings and Sunday afternoons with Pleasant Hill friends, then was taken to Clearwater to hold evening services for the Church of Christ there. For thirteen years Mr. Elliot faithfully served the two congregations. By the time Pastor Elliot was no longer able to serve the Pleasant Hill membership, many of the parishioners had cars and began driving to Clearwater for services. The building stood idle then for a few years; the prairie grass grew up about it and it was now and again vandalized.

In the meantime Guy B. Dunning and his family returned from Ham- . mond, Indiana, to organize and serve Church of Christ congregations in the Elkhorn Valley. One of these, the Neligh Church of Christ, needed a church building. Arrangements were made to move the Pleasant Hill church to the new site in Antelope County.

The biggest obstacle to the move lay in crossing the Elkhorn River, since the only bridge with sides low enough to permit clearance was the “Billings Bridge,” northeast of Ewing. From its original site in the southeast corner of Holt County, the church must take a long roundabout way to cross the bridge and then angle southeast again to its new location in Antelope County.

The moving got underway in the fall of 1930, but winter snows came early and the church had to sit out the winter on a road north and a little west of Neligh until spring. Eventually it was relocated on its new site— and dedicated that same spring.

More years went by and by 1966 the Neligh congregation had outgrown the little church. At this time it was decided to sell the building and erect a new one on the same site. At this point two members of its congregation, Mr. and Mrs. Carl Schrader, bought the church, moved it to their farm four miles north of town and turned it into “Schrader’s Corner Museum.” Today the former country church houses some 4,000 items of historical interest. It is one of the few outgrown church buildings that has not been incorporated into various farm buildings, the fate of so many early church homes.

JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES Jehovah’s Witnesses activity in this area was begun by Mr. and Mrs. Hud Thompson, former co-owners of the famous White Horse Ranch. In order to share the work of the Witnesses the Thompsons turned their share of the ranch over to Hud’s brother, at considerable loss to themselves, and became full time workers in 1937. Since then they have lived about twenty miles north of O’Neill and covered a large territory in door to door evangelism.

Between 1955 and 1958 a meeting place was established in O’Neill in the old Dr. Carter building a half block south of the stop lights. The work continued to progress with the building and dedication of a new Kingdom Hall in the county seat in 1968.

ASSEMBLY OF GOD Early in 1944 Harry Walker moved his family to O’Neill and set about establishing an Assembly of God Church. He secured an old store building and cleaned it up until it was suitable for worship. Evangelistic services helped get the church started. Before long a church of their own became a necessity for the congregation. Mr. Walker helped select a lot for the new church before he left in 1945.

The new pastor, J. M. Cummings was voted in that same year, and construction on the new church was soon under way. The completed building was dedicated in May, 1946. The Cummings remained in O’Neill only one year and Howard, the only son, well remembers their lean existence in the parsonage that year, and the joy he felt when a farmer came along with milk, eggs, meat or vegetables for their table.

In the fall of 1946 Rev. and Mrs. Joe Clapper took over the pastorate. To save parsonage rent, they moved into the church basement, where Mr. Clapper spent most of his year partitioning the space into suitable living quarters.

Rev. and Mrs. Jonah Hamburger and their two musical daughters accepted the pastorate in 1948, and remained one year. The Rev. Wayne Hall and his wife replaced the Hamburgers. The Halls, child evangelists, soon won the hearts of many in the town. They also instituted the building of a parsonage, and saw it completed before they moved on in 1955.

Rev. Egon Kirschman of Aurora, Nebraska, was the next pastor. Living a straight-laced life in the parsonage was not to this minister’s liking. Instead, he enjoyed visiting farmer friends where he could relax and be himself. His reserved wife, Betty, was often embarrassed by his clowning but his parishioners found him entertaining. Rev. Kirschman started the first religious radio program in O’Neill, which hadn’t had a radio station very long at that time. Another pastor to this church, Ivan Christoffersen, “would get a bit excited and jump around at times,” when he preached. At first the workers in the “Childrens’ Church” in the basement wondered what was going on upstairs, “but soon learned it was just a happy preacher.” Rev. Duane and Mrs. Falser came to O’Neill in 1966. Theirs was an outstanding ministry of visiting the sick. When, on a Saturday afternoon, the Rosenkrans received word of the critical condition of their daughter, Deloris Smeeton, the Palsers found someone to take the pulpit the next day and left in the early hours of the morning to take the family on the six hundred mile drive to Deloris’ bedside. Before he moved on, Rev. Falser made the blue prints for the present church building, and stayed long enough to see the new sanctuary finished. The history of this church would not be complete without mentioning the many camp and revival meetings that characterized its activities. Camp meetings at Burton, Bassett and Ainsworth; revival meetings in the Scottville, Meek and Dorsey communities all had their influence on the community.

THE FULL GOSPEL CHURCH OF EWING The Full Gospel Church of Ewing literally began with a dream. Rev. Chester Anderson of Butte had for several years been holding gospel crusades in various towns in north central Nebraska and south central South Dakota. In early 1944 he was pondering where to hold his next crusade when a teenage girl, Mari- ester Wuest of Lake Andes, South Dakota (now Mrs. John Armfield of O’Neill) dreamed that a meeting should be held in a certain building. The Andersons had been thinking of Ewing as a possible place, so they took Mari with them to visit that town. On the north side of the street, next to the alley in the second block, they saw a vacant store building. Mari looked into the window and said, “This is the building I saw in my dream.” The Andersons rented the building and held services there, four or five nights a week, all that summer.

In the fall of 1945, at the close of World War II, Anderson’s followers bought the Pond place, a house and barn across the street north of the Ewing water tower. The house be- 169 came their parsonage and the old barn was torn down and a church built in its place. The Andersons scoured the country as far away as Sioux City and Omaha for building materials, which were very scarce at the close of the war. All labor was donated. Even the pews were handmade. Rev. Guy Shields of Texas dedicated the building on the snowy Sunday of December 2,1945.

For several years three young men from Butte alternated on Sundays as preachers. One was Ernest Rosen- krans, son of the late H. V. Rosenkrans of Dorsey; the others Mervin Kee, son of John Kee of Emmet, and Loris Anderson, son of Chester Anderson, the founding minister. Eventually Ernest and Mervin moved away, but Loris has continued as the regular preacher until the present time. Since the church’s beginning, a week-long series of meetings for young people at Christmas time has been a feature of the church. The upstairs rooms in the parsonage are turned into a dormitory for girls, the garage becomes a bunkhouse for the boys. Many families drive from other towns night after night, for these services. There is much music and singing. In time the crowds grew so large that the event had to be moved to Butte, where there is a larger church and better accommodations. FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH The story of the First Christian Church of O’Neill is really the story of two separate congregations. The earliest effort to establish a congregation of this fellowship in this area took place on August 8, 1946, in the Agee schoolhouse. Later meetings were held in the Joy school and also in the Pleasant Valley Church in the Paddock community. Men who helped at this time were Remi Duhon, Guy Dunning and Clair Utterbeck. Mr. O. Mankal- meyer was called to hold the first evangelistic meetings.

The records show that during the winter of 1948 and ’49 the roads were so completely blocked with snow that the young congregation found it impossible to meet from mid-Novem- ber to late April. In the late spring of 1949 the members began work on a new church in O’Neill. The basement To return now to the settlement of Holt County, beginning with its first families, history takes us back to Ford— soon to become Ewing— just below the Forks of the Elkhorn. James Ewing was already established there of this structure was dedicated for a church in May, 1950. A parsonage was then built close by. This congregation merged with the First Christian Church in March, 1967.

The First Christian Church had had its beginning with meetings in the homes for a good many months. In 1958 the members began to build a church at 505 East Williams. The work, performed by volunteer labor as finances permitted, proceeded slowly but surely. The first services were held in the new basement in June, 1961. The present structure was dedicated a year later. The merged congregations carry on a full time, active church program and a number of their young people have attended Christian Bible colleges and entered into full time church work. Rev. James Gilmore is the present pastor, the seventh who has served this church since its inception. BEREAN FUNDAMENTAL This church had its beginning in a Bible study class held in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Herman. Rev. Joe Wolfe of Burwell started and led the Bible study. On May 27, 1969, the group met for the purpose of organizing a church. Twelve people, three of them ministers, were present and the organization was accomplished. Shortly afterward the group called Rev. Rob Pearson, one of the organizing pastors, to be their pastor. Sunday services were held that summer in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Semroske. Early in 1970 the church purchased the property at 1103 North Second. The house was used as a church and as a parsonage. In the fall of 1971 the members bought the Ballagh Community church building, built in 1955. The O’Neill churchmen dug a basement and laid foundation blocks, after which they moved the Ballagh church some sixty miles to its new site. The first service in the new church was held on Mother’s Day, 1972.

The Bereans continued to work on the building, preparing it for its dedication in.November, 1972. Guest speaker for the occasion was Rev. Robert Benton, President of Grace Bible Institute of Omaha. The American flag and the Christian flag for the pulpit platform were given by Mr. and

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