St. Joseph's Church

 On June 2,1881 Father James B. Fitzgerald was appointed pastor for a new parish in the Calvert-Sheridan area of southeastern Nebraska, establishing St. Joseph's Catholic Church. The first small building was functional for the growing Catholic community (no photo available). Among the 25 founding families were Peter Engles, J.W. Kerns, W.H. Kelligar and others. We don't have a photo of the original building.  However, below is the church in 1891 with the new bell town and expanded sanctuary. 

In 1900, the parish completed construction of a fine school staffed by the Sisters of Loretto. Mark and Laura Kerns did not attend this school because they were too old.  The rest of the Kerns children, and later the Ely children received an important part of their education here. 

A violent lightning storm hit the church bell tower on the evening of August 17, 1905 that started a fire destroying the original wooden church. Immediately the parishioners began plans for a new brick church on the same site. The building has been in continuous use for over 100 years now.  The photo shows the original dirt streets which were paved in the early 1950s.

The interior of the church shows wooden pews, pillars, and altar. The Kerns family always sat on the right side 4 pews from the front. As the children grew, they sat near the family. Laura and the Elys behind her parents. Then Gene and family in the same pew but entering from the side aisle.

On January 20, 1909, a beautiful Laura Kerns walked down this aisle on the arm of her father to marry Edward H. Ely. This was the first wedding in the completed building, to the best of our knowledge.

Here is the interior in 1961 at the wedding of Margene and Tom Dean.  The first redecoration of the church was in 1950.

I remember the redecoration rather well, consider that I was only 6 at the time.  Before they started, I sat in Mass and looked at the interesting cracks in the ceiling and counted the burned out light bulb that lined the major archs.  It was clear that they seldom changed them!  During the construction, scaffolding was all over the church making it hard to find "our" pew.  And when it was finished, we had to find a new "marker" for the pew.  Fortunately, all the children could find a key piece of decoration on the wall!

The next redecoration and carpeting was in the late 1960s.

The History of Auburn

Our hometown, Auburn, has an interesting history.  In the early 1880's our ancestors, James F. Ely and James W. Kerns, would have been involved in a lively discussion regarding the merging of the small towns Sheridan (north) and Calvert (south) to form a new town.  The idea focused on moving the county seat to a more central location and away from the large city of Brownville.  Church Howe and Charles Nixon donated land that was between the two little villages and strongly supported the plan.  They proposed the new name, Auburn, based on Nixon's memory of lovely Auburn, New York.  In 1882, the legal work was completed and in the election of 1883, the county seat was moved.  A small courthouse was built while plans for a new courthouse were made.

 In 1900, the limestone courthouse on the square was built at a point between the two small towns.  (Calvert was actually south of the square, an area that included St. Joseph's Church, the old Burlington Railroad, and the first J.W.Kerns Lumber Company).   Businesses grew around the square, a school was built to the north of the square (north of the Presbyterian Church).  This became known as South Auburn even with its own post office.