INTRODUCTION

In 1847, a group of Mormons passed through Nebraska on the north side of the Platte River. They became the trailblazers for some 10,000 followers during 1847 and 1848 that were on their way to the Great Salt Lake region in the Utah Desert. This trail became the Mormon Trail, also known as the California Trail, and for part of the way through Nebraska, it was also called Military Road. At that time, Nebraska was known as Indian country, not becoming a territory until 1854. There were no roads or bridges, except for the natural trails and rough bridges built to cross small streams.

A national road received appropriations from Congress on February 17, 1855. It passed through the southern portion of the area that later became Colfax County. The “national” designation was to indicate the movement of troops and supplies to the frontier.

In 1856, a company in Omaha was formed to settle a town west of North Bend on the Platte River. E.W. Toncray and Isaac Albertson were to conduct a search and establish a town. Thus, Buchanan became the first village of Colfax County and was located at the confluence of Shell Creek and the Platte River. Although the first post office of Colfax County operated in Buchanan until 1869, few residents ever settled there. One notable fact about Buchanan included the birth of the first white baby, Cora Albertson, born in Colfax County. This site was deemed unsatisfactory, and they moved on to settle a town five miles west called Neenah, situated near Shinn’s Ferry. This site also failed to prosper despite its good location. The so-called “paper town” of Buchanan ultimately disappeared. There is no longer any visible sign of the village called Buchanan.

In 1856, Isaac Albertson was the first permanent settler near Shell Creek. He became the first postmaster in Colfax County. He erected the first frame house in Platte County, which later became a part of Colfax County. The second settler to put down roots in the area of Schuyler was Daniel Hashberger.

In 1862, Congress created the Union Pacific Railroad. The nation was fighting the Civil War and needed faster transportation for the military. Construction began in Omaha in 1865 and reached the Shell Creek Station, present-day Schuyler, in 1866. In 1869, Shell Creek Station belonged to the Union Pacific Railroad. It consisted of a station depot, a section house, and several small units. On March 15, 1869, the legislature split Platte County into three units, one of which became Colfax County, named after the vice president under Pres. Ulysses S. Grant, Schuyler Colfax. A supplementary act designated Schuyler as the county seat, and the frontier town of Schuyler was officially born. Schuyler developed rapidly and holds the distinction of having the first municipal water plant in the state, as well as the first electric plant and telephone exchange. Business and residential areas thrived and Schuyler kept growing.

For a brief period, from 1869 to 1871, drovers out of Texas were in search of a way to get their product to eastern markets. They became unhappy with the Kansas prices and extended the drives even farther north. The Chisholm Trail was then the path for beef on the hoof through Kansas and up into Nebraska. A stream of hundreds of thousands of cattle flowed from south to north up to the Union Pacific Railroad. Columbus and Schuyler were fierce competitors to be the shipping point for these longhorns. At its peak in 1870, there were 40,000 to 50,000 head shipped out of Schuyler, and stockmen would have taken up to 40,000 more head had they been available.

The Missionary Benedictine Congregation of Saint Ottilien, Germany, and a dependent house of the Abbey of Munsterschwarzach are integral parts of the Schuyler community. The first group of monks arrived in Schuyler in March 1935. They moved into a convent left empty by the Notre Dame Sisters of Omaha. Over the years, they remodeled and extended the living space to accommodate the monks’ workload in the community and its outreach. By 1974, the mission housed 12 monks, and a larger facility was sorely needed. The Anna Ehernberger family donated 15 acres of land on “Fuller Hill,” four miles north of Schuyler, for a new mission office and monastery. A mission house was built into the hillside for conservation of energy. The facility consists of 14 monastic rooms, 4 guestrooms, community rooms, a library, kitchen, storage area, and all supporting facilities. The chapel is the heart of the monastery. On September 16, 1979, the new facility was dedicated. The new St. Benedict Center was opened north of the mission house in June 1997. It is an 84-bed facility for weeklong, overnight, and weekend retreats and programs for all faiths. Unique art and items from around the world are sold in the gift shop and bookstore. In the past 10 years, the ethnic population has changed and now includes an influx of people from Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, and other South American countries. It is a challenge for the religious community to provide a ministry for all.

Shinn’s Ferry, operated by S. “Moses” Shinn, was reputed to have shuttled four out of five prairie schooners across the treacherous waters of the Platte River. He lived on the Butler County side of the Platte and operated the rope ferry from there to a spot five miles west of Schuyler. All who came to him for his services received his daily religious services along with passage across the river.

Directly north of the ferry was Russell’s Ranch, which was known to have entertained up to 100 emigrants on a night. The ranch owner, Joseph Russell, was an enterprising Englishman who was known to be eccentric and quite wealthy.

Colfax County shares boundaries with Dodge County on the east, Butler County on the south, Platte County on the west, Stanton County on the north, and Cuming County on the northeast. There are several main highways that transect the county: US Highway 30 and Nebraska Highways 15, 57, and 91.

The second city in Colfax County, Clarkson, was platted on August 16, 1886. A petition for incorporation was circulated by Joseph H. Rudersdorf in April 1887. He presented the petition to the county commissioners at their next meeting. On July 19, 1887, the Village of Clarkson was officially incorporated. The original settlement was named Clarkson in honor of a Schuyler pioneer, John Thorne Clarkson. Clarkson never lived in the town of Clarkson. Clarkson is known for its annual Czech festival held in June. It also is the home of the largest horticulture center in the Midwest, the Bluebird Nursery. The late Harlan Hamernick and his wife, Shirley, were the couple with a dream of establishing the Bluebird Nursery. The corporation has continued under the guidance of their three sons: Mike, Chuck, and Tom.

The county is also home to four villages. Howell, established in 1887, is the largest village. James S. Howell and his wife, Eliza Jane (Pound), decided to move to Nebraska from Long Island, New York. He wanted to be a farmer and schoolteacher. He settled in a town called Buschville, which was later named Howell in his honor. James Howell died in 1898 and was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, one mile south and a short ways east of Howells. (In 1937, the “s” was added to the town’s name.) The first Czech citizens to arrive in the Howells community came in May 1870 in two prairie schooners. Thirteen people rode in the covered wagons, including Jos. F. Sindelar’s family of three, his brother Tomas and wife, and Mr. and Mrs. F.J. Jonas. In a smaller wagon, Thomas Dostal followed with his wife and three children. They arrived with meager equipment amongst the four families. All had to make do with one plow and one spade among them. They made camp and proceeded to cut sod and build a sod house, which eventually became the property of Joseph F. Sindelar. The others pitched in to build similar homes for each family on their claims. By 1879, Howells had settlers from Norway, Canada, Prussia, Sweden, France, Austria, Ireland, Scotland, and Americans who were Bohemian and German immigrants that had settled in other states before traveling to Nebraska. Improvements in the Howells community began in 1886 when businessmen from Buschville moved in. They opened hardware stores, saloons, a general store, two hotels, a rooming house, a livery barn, and two blacksmith shops. Soon, there were two elevators, a shoe repair, a bank, and a resident physician named Dr. Rudolphi.

The next largest is Leigh. In 1874, a post office was established at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Miller. Mrs. Miller was the postmistress, and Millersburg became the post office name. A.M. Walling and his wife arrived in 1874 from Linn County, Iowa, and acquired the Miller homestead a year later. The post office transferred with the homestead and was renamed Leigh after the new postmistress’s maiden name. The Wallings were instrumental in helping new arrivals settle in, and they were the social leaders in Leigh. Dr. James B. Cain arrived in 1880 and served the early settlers as a physician and the public school teacher. The railroad company decided to place the depot several blocks west of the business area, which created a migration from “old town Leigh” to the area near the depot. The first train pulled into Leigh on October 29, 1886. The railroad was a branch line of the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad. The train was referred to as the “Bohemian Special” due to the many towns along the line that were predominately settled by those with a Czech heritage.

Rogers, another village in Colfax County, was platted in October 1886. Rogers drew its name from a Union Pacific Railroad official. Rogers began as a sheep ranch and a hay-trading area. Some of the employees and sheepherders at the ranch were Russians. Patrick J. Murphy owned the ranch, an elevator, stockyards, lumberyard, and large implement businesses, as well as several houses. In its heyday, Rogers’s businesses included a hotel, shoe shop, post office, restaurant, blacksmith shop, two saloons, the depot, a livery stable, and two hardware stores, one with furniture, another elevator, a creamery, and a butcher shop. Later on, a garage, powerhouse, pool hall, and barbershop were established. Following later still was an oil business, trucking business, and commercial feed warehouse. Anton Kracl owned and operated a garage in Rogers for many years after 1916.

Richland is the fourth village in Colfax County and is located eight miles west of Schuyler on the Union Pacific Railroad line. Soloman Tifft received the patent (transfer) of title from the United States of America, which was signed on April 10, 1861. His section of land included 40 acres, part of which includes Richland. Tifft’s deed was signed by Abraham Lincoln and cosigned by his secretary, W.V. Stoddard, just two days before the attack on Fort Sumter, which initiated the beginning of the Civil War. On September 12, 1884, Martin Spitley filed a plat to establish the town of Spitley, now the Village of Richland. Prior to the incorporation, the name of Richland applied to the post office department, but the Union Pacific Railroad called its depot Benson, Nebraska, for many years. In the years following, two grain elevators were created, a lumberyard was established, and a general merchandise store was operated by John Blake. John Smith opened a hardware and farm machinery shop. Henry Ohldag was the village blacksmith, and a saloon could be found in Richland. Richland prospered from 1900 to 1920 with corn and wheat arriving at the elevators in horse-drawn wagons. Hogs and cattle went on the railroad to Omaha markets. When gasoline-powered engines displaced the horses, changes took place in the farming methods, and Richland’s economy and prosperity began to disappear.

Smaller communities called farm precincts sprang into life across the county. Most had a church and cemetery form their nucleus, with post offices and a few businesses cropping up nearby. Of these precincts, Heun was probably the largest. William Heun left Germany at the age of 44 with his wife and 11 children. On the voyage to America, six of those children and William’s wife died. William and his five remaining sons first went to West Point, Wisconsin. After leaving there and settling in Heun, William remarried and had three daughters. Another of his sons, William Jr., died from being kicked in the head by a horse. William made his living by being the Heun postmaster, farming, and owning a general store. In 1878, William Heun and John Folda, a Czech, each donated five acres of land to build the Holy Trinity Catholic Church and a consecrated burial ground next to the local cemetery, which had been in use since 1871. In 1928, the first Mass was offered in a second, new brick church in Heun.

Five and a half miles southeast of Howells is the site of the Tabor community in Lincoln Precinct. In 1869 and 1870, settlers homesteaded near the east fork of Maple Creek. Mass was held in the Sindelar sod house in 1871 and 1872. Later, Mass was held in a school built in 1874. Joseph F. Sindelar donated land for a church and cemetery. Dedication of St. Mary’s Church was held on September 8, 1889, the Feast of the Nativity of Mary. The parish settlement was called Tabor after the district in Bohemia, from where many of the settlers had emigrated. In the early 1870s, Frank J. Jonas built a store, saloon, and post office in Abington, one and a half miles west of Tabor. In 1902, the Catholic Workman Lodge built a hall near the Tabor church for a community event center. A final Mass was held September 11, 2005, and the church contents were sold on December 11, 2005. The church building was demolished in May 2011.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, St. Mary’s, and cemetery are located in the southern part of Wilson Precinct. It is nine miles south and four miles east of Leigh on land donated by Josef Mrazek. The parish was settled by Czech and German immigrants in the 1870s. The first church was built in 1883, and a new and larger church was constructed in 1918. The parish closed in 1977. The Wilson church has stained-glass windows, a pressed tin ceiling, and hand-carved oak altars. The church bell and manual-pump organ are from the original church. This church was used in the filming of the movie My Antonia, based on the novel written by Nebraska author Willa Cather.

Other farm precincts included Maple Creek, Shell Creek or Shell Creek Station (which later became Schuyler), and Midland. Not much information is available about those communities other than their names, which were sometimes changed due to new developments and circumstances.

Many of the immigrants were of German, Irish, and Czech or Bohemian ethnicity. The settlers included native-born Americans from other states and a number of foreign-born immigrants from other countries. Most of Colfax County was, and still is, agriculturally based, with farms and ranches blossoming all around. Thus grew the need for elevators, flour mills, liveries, blacksmiths, implement and hardware stores, and general merchandise and supply stores. The pioneers faced hard times from the extreme weather conditions, as well as from fires, droughts, floods, grasshopper infestations, and dust storms. They faced each day with the hope and faith in a better tomorrow. They depended on and helped each other through all adversity with the same dogged determination that brought them west to the frontier. They built schools, churches, and homes. They moved from the prairie schooners into dugouts and then into sod houses. From there, they built wooden houses and then bigger wooden-frame homes. They dug into the earth, planted their roots, and stayed. We exist today because they persevered in all the yesterdays.