Colfax County

This original photograph was taken in the 1890s at Pout (pronounced “Poath”), the daylong celebration of Names Day at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in the Heun Precinct. Hundreds of people come from miles around for this big social event of the Catholic religion. This was a main fundraising event for the parish. Most Catholic parishes used to celebrate Pout. (Courtesy of Marvine and Allen Koliha.)

The Heun Hall was built for social events. This original hall was the place to have dances, plays, and dinners. Movies were shown here twice a month. The first motion picture was shown in 1914; they continued screenings until 1931. The hall was bi-level with a lower entry and several steps that led to the large room with a wooden floor and tall windows. (Courtesy of Marvine and Allen Koliha.)

Fr. Joseph Drbal served Holy Trinity parish at Heun from 1905 until 1915. The parish provided a horse and buggy for him and his housekeeper, Mary Klimek, as their mode of transportation. The first parish house is in the background with a white wooden fence around the yard. A new rectory was built in 1920. (Courtesy of Marvine and Allen Koliha.)

The last funeral in the old Holy Trinity Church on its original site was that of Anastzie Koliha, held on June 10, 1927. After the old church was moved, Vaclav Svoboda’s funeral was the final service in the building. The first funeral service in the new church was that of Frank Brodecky. (Courtesy of Marvine and Allen Koliha.)

Vaclav Svoboda’s marching band and orchestra is photographed here in full uniform in 1901. Svoboda played the church organ for 33 years and gave music lessons to the Heun community youth. His band played at Heun for weddings, anniversaries, Pout, and events in neighboring communities. He emigrated with his parents and siblings from the Czech Republic in 1871 at the age of 18. (Courtesy of Marvine and Allen Koliha.)

Both the old and the new Holy Trinity Catholic churches in Heun Precinct are included in this photograph. The old wooden church was built in 1878. John Folda and William Heun donated the land to include a parish house next to the existing cemetery. This church was moved so the new brick church could be constructed on the same site in 1928. (Courtesy of Marvine and Allen Koliha.)

Forty-three students from all grade levels are gathered along with their teacher for this photograph in 1901. Tabor Precinct, like most of the farm precinct communities, had a school, church, cemetery, and parish hall for the close-knit neighborhood. St. Mary’s Catholic Church of Tabor celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2005. The hall was taken down in 1958. (Courtesy of Marvine and Allen Koliha.)

Colfax County had 48 rural and town school districts in the 1900s. Each precinct had one to three schools to serve their growing population of students. This building pictured was District 8 in the southwest Shell Creek Precinct. Many of those schools have disappeared from the country landscape with the decline of enrollments, mergers, and the ravages of time. (Courtesy of Schuyler Historical Museum.)

The Zion Presbyterian Church dates back to 1870 when services were held in homes and the Husak School. Joseph Smetlan gave two acres of land for a cemetery in 1875, and Joseph Novotny donated land to build a church, manse, and farmyard. The church was completed in 1889, and the parsonage was built in 1893. The final service was held December 28, 1975. (Courtesy of Howells Historical Museum.)

On the right side of this picture is the original St. Mary’s Catholic Church of Wilson Precinct. In 1873, Joseph Mrazek donated land. St. Mary’s, Our Lady of Perpetual Help was built in 1882 and held services for 35 years. The congregation is coming from all directions for the dedication ceremony of the newly built church in 1917. (Courtesy of Marvine and Allen Koliha.)

This wintery scene shows an aerial view of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in the Wilson Precinct. The St. Mary’s cemetery is to the upper left side of the church photograph. The parish hall is also in this photograph; it is the long, white building to the upper right of the church. There is a small shed in the center of the photograph that may be a maintenance building. (Courtesy of Marvine and Allen Koliha.)

An aerial photograph was taken after the 1928 construction of Holy Trinity Catholic Church at Heun. The old, white wooden church was still used in 1919. The parish rectory stands in the trees to the left of the church, and next to that is the Heun Cemetery. In the upper left may be Colfax County Rural District 47, the Heun School, which is now gone. (Courtesy of Schuyler Historical Museum.)

Most settlers’ homes have disappeared. The names of those hardy pioneers are recorded in the tomes of history or have been forgotten. The farm precinct communities dissolved, and quite often, only the cemeteries, like the Heun Cemetery, remain. In these cemeteries, the headstones stand in silent tribute to those who carved out lives in the past for the present and the future. (Courtesy of Schuyler Historical Museum.)