St. Mary's Catholic Church was built in 1900 by Polish immigrants near Elyria. They came to Valley County in the early 1880s and attended services in Boleszyn, a Polish church ten miles away. When this church was destroyed by a tornado a dispute arose over the location of a new church. The bishop decreed that half the money for rebuilding should go to Boleszyn and half to Elyria. With the help of volunteers, St. Mary's was completed in time for Christmas Eve mass.
St. Mary's parish ranged from twenty to eighty families and was served by twelve priests before closing in 1982. Until 1953 sermons and prayers were in Polish. Parish records are preserved in the archives of Our Lady Of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in Ord.
The original church bell was installed in 1904 and is now displayed in the cemetery. Names of some church founders are engraved on it. Four generations of parishioners are buried in the cemetery including veterans of Vietnam, Korea, and the two world wars.
]]>The town of Calamus was platted in September of 1874. One of its principal organizers was Lt. Thaddeus Capron, an officer in Company C, 9th Infantry Regiment, then stationed at nearby Fort Hartsuff. Calamus was a typical town designed to meet the needs of a military fort. The town boasted the first newspaper in Valley County, a bootmaker, a lawyer, a brickyard, a post office, a saloon, a freight station, two stores, dwellings, and a school. The population probably reached about 65 persons at its peak. The town's front street was on the road from Grand Island to Deadwood, Dakota Territory, via Fort Hartsuff. The town was named after the Calamus River, which joins the North Loup River ten miles to the northwest near present-day Burwell. The name Calamus is derived from the Indian name of a plant and means "food of the muskrat." Following the abandonment of Fort Hartsuff in 1881, the town declined steadily. Its final demise was assured by a terrible wind storm which destroyed the school and other buildings in August, 1885.
]]>The North Loup Valley provided a route for the Sioux raids upon the Pawnee. In 1872 white settlers moved into the valley. Sioux depredations at Sioux Creek in October 1873 and at Pebble Creek in January of 1874 prompted the settlers to request military protection. The fort, originally designated as "Post on the North Fork of the Loup River," was established on September 5, 1874. On December 9, 1874, the post was renamed in honor of Major General George L. Hartsuff. Fort Hartsuff became the center of the social life of the valley, and through disbursement of supplies, helped to offset the effects of the drought and grasshopper invasions of the early 1870's. The fort's major military engagement came at the Battle of the Blow Out in April of 1876. The action resulted in the death of First Sergeant Dougherty when troops commanded by Lieutenant Heyl routed a band of hostile Sioux. By 1881 the railroad was extended into the valley, an orderly civilian government had been established and the threat of hostilities was ended. Fort Hartsuff was abandoned on May 1, 1881. Today it is a State Historical Park.
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