So on my storm chase that landed me up by Humphrey today, I wanted to take some pictures of this abandoned church I have seen a time or two driving along Highway 81. I did some research on it, and here’s the history to the best as I found:

So St. Mary of the Angels Church was formed in 1875 to serve the spiritual needs of the influx of German immigrants to the area, and closed down around 1967. During the planning of this Church, one of the settlers offered land that would later be used for St. Michael’s Church in Tarnov (another cool church too). To fund construction, those who desired to be parishioners needed to contribute something towards the construction, help support the salary of the priest, buy a lot in the cemetery, and a few other odds and ends. Even a few people from Iowa donated funds for the construction of this parish! I will note that football wouldn’t come to the University of Nebraska for another 16-20 years, so no animosity existed between Nebraskans and Iowans until after that.

At the time of it’s completion around 1876, it served as the mother church for pretty much everyone between Battle Creek and a Church (St. Patrick’s) just northwest of Columbus. Due to the high number of Germans in the area, they wanted a pastor who spoke German but these were tough to come by until the Kulturkampf forced the expulsion of Franciscans from German areas to the United States. The pastor of St. Mary Magdalene Parish in Omaha heard of this and told the Bishop of Omaha, who then asked if they could come to Nebraska from Chicago. Fremont and Columbus were both inspected as potential sites for a Franciscan monastery, with Columbus being the winner and the first Franciscans arriving in Columbus in February of 1877 where they quickly began shepherding the Germans and other Catholic residents of the area.

As immigrants kept coming to the area, they naturally wanted parishes closer to them and in the following years saw the following parishes be born: St. Anthony’s southwest of Tarnov in ca. 1877, St. Bernard’s northeast of Lindsay in 1878, St. Michael’s in Tarnov in 1880, and St. Leonard’s in Madison in 1881. Of course, a small town sprung up along the railroad between Duncan and Norfolk during this time by the name of Humphrey (after a local farmer) whose parish, St. Francis, was to be founded in 1882 and be in a much better spot than St. Mary of the Angels was. This was especially important since at that time cars were a newfangled invention and five-lane expressways weren’t even a twinkle in people’s eyes, and thus getting a priest to and from Columbus was a four-day exercise. Fortunately this became easier with the establishment of a Franciscan residence in Humphrey in 1886.

The current structure was completed in 1925, and only had three pastors during its lifetime that I could find at the time of writing: Fr. Pauly OFM (1916-1927), Fr. Klotzbucher OFM (1927-1930), and Fr. Huntscha OFM (1930-1967?). I can’t find too much history after this point but likely due to the declining rural populations, as well as the fact that there is another parish a few miles away, led to declining parishioners which ended up causing St. Mary of the Angels to close when it did.

Sources

  1. http://usgenwebsites.org/NEPlatte/churches/stmaryh.html
  2. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sandlier/marge/cem-chrch-stmary/cem-stmary.htm
  3. http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/topic/religion/catholic/Franciscans/pages/pt2/fine0008.htm
  4. https://casde.unl.edu/history/counties/platte/humphrey/index.php

3 Comments

Rebecca · June 22, 2020 at 11:13 am

My grandfather could tell you a lot more if you would be interested. The family farm where he and I grew up is right next here. I never got to see it opened but my dad and his parents did.

    Michael Stark · June 22, 2020 at 11:21 am

    I would definitely be interested! Even more so if he has info on some of the other parishes in the area!

Melisa Gratz · September 9, 2024 at 5:03 pm

Hello! I’m writing from Argentina, I’m writing a screenplay that is set in Humphrey and includes St Mary of the Angels. I’m interested in knowing more about its history. If you can provide me with an email, I would appreciate it very much

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