2 Tiny Postoffices
Are About to Close
No One Can Erase
Memories
(Continued from page l.j
The Star postoffiee was estab
lished in 1882 at the request of
settlers It was named Star to
round out a triumvirate with
heavenly titles— Mars and Venus
(Knox county), both nearby.
Charles Downey proposed the
name. Downey's home was more
than a mile from where the first
Star postoffiee was established in
a sodhouse, situated 26 miles
northeast of O'Neill (land now
owned by Robert Miller). Only
remainder is a clump of cotton
wood trees.
Mrs. Kesar was the first post
master and she held the position
until 1885 Fred Kelly was the
first mail carrier, bringing the
mail in by horseback or car
riage from Orchard, via Mars,
Venus, Middlebraneh and Haines
Vitte. Lewis Downey and Frank
Butterfield were later carriers.
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Emory Downey started the
O’Neill-Niobrara stage in i885
and moved the postoffice one
quarter of a mile to a store op
erated by Reverend Damond.
Downey A Kelley, contract
ors for the O’Neill-Niobrara
stage line, had gone to Omaha
to purchase horses, carriages
and a livery outfit. The busi
ness venture was spurred by
the government land office iu
Niobrara, an upper Missouri
river oujpost.
Charles Downey and Fred Kel
ly, stage drivers, stopped nights
at the Star hotel (now the
homo of Mr. and Mrs. William
(“Bill Hansen). Traces of the
old stage route, which took a
beeline from O’Neill northeast,
are still discernible to the old
timers who know w'here to look.
The Downeys moved to Inman
in 1890, recalls Louis Downey of
Page, who is one of the few liv
ing persons remembering the
stage in its heyday
Various renters of the Downey
land—the Johnson, Cobb, Harris
and Bates families—kept the
postoffice.
In 1899, Henry Theirolf pur
chased the property, which is
still owned by members of the
family.
Mr Thierolf was postmaster
until 1910 when he moved to
Creighton.
Mr. Cole, who did research for
this article by interviewing
Louis Downey and others, said
his father, Elvin Cole, was ap
pointed postmaster in 1910 and
the office was moved to th
present site on Sunny Slop
farm. Elvin Cole retired in
1939 and his daughter-in-law
Mrs. Charles V. (Floramae)
Cole, received the appointment
and carried on until her death
in 1947.
Mr. Cole, the present post
master, has been in charge
since 1947, assisted by his
daughter, Miss Cleone
Prior to World War I, Frank
Phillips had the route changed ir
order that mail would comt
from O’Neill (instead of Or
chard). There would be a meet
ting of the star route carrier:
from O’Neill and Lynch and thi
- interchange of mail. Star thu:
served as a distributing point.
In the pioneer days it was ar
arduous job of getting the mat
to Star across the windswept
treeless, roadless plains. Tht
advent of the model T flivvei
improved the service and a fev
road grades and culverts helped
Mr. and Mrs. Meyer of O’Neil
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James E. Wiley, postmaster at Dorsey since 1918, and his wife are counting the hours when
the death knell will sound at the historic old Dorsey postoffice and they'll no longer sort mMl
for the 43 families the office has been serving.— The Frontier Photo.
- -- ■■ . ---- . . . - Aommntiifv Itlil jl1v Ihp PflVIl *
munity was known as Mineral
then Apple C'reek and later
Omeral.
Apple Creek wouldn’t do for a
name because there were other
towns similarly named.
In the beginning the mail man
brought mail to Dorsey trom
Running Water, which was the
nd of the railroad. The distance
was 25 miles.
John Emerson, second post
master, became irriated when
mail addressed to Omaha, the
young state’s metropolis, and
Omeral, the bustling inland com
munity in northern Holt, fre
quently got mixed up.
Emerson appealed to Wash
ington for an official designa
tion for the Holt community
Just because there was a phon
■ :ic ring that was similar, these
liri danders weren’t going to
play second-fiddle to the pon
<-! rous big Missouri river towm
which already had horsedrawn
treetcars, a packing plant or
two, and the mainline of sever
al railroads.
Thus the postoffice department
settled on the name Dorsey—
named for Congressman George
A. Dorsey.
D , V was the midway point
on *hc O’Neill-Niobrara route.
For more than 50 years inbound
mail has come from Lynch and
O'Neill. Years ago the mail al
so came in from Verdigre.
Far cnr: there were two mail
arrivals and dispatches daily at
Dor cy—to and from Verdigre
and O’Neill.
n rs y’s third postmaster was
TVi'tle.v Gager, who was followed
bv Daniel Binkerd, Michael Con
naughton and Philander Parker.
istory of the Dorsey post
office is inseparable with the
story of the comunity. The vil
lage has had four locations
“Old Dorsey”, as oldtimers
remember it, was located about
a half-mile east from the pres
ent postoffice and down a big
The William Hansen home (above) was an important stop
ping point in pioneer days. It was known as the Star hotel.
First room inside the door was the lobby when the plaee was
owned by the Downey family. Hansen plans to tear it down
someday and build a new home, using much of the maple that
was shipped in from Michigan.—The Frontier Fhoto.
introduce the model T. Fearful she had made a hor
Meanwhile, bacx in the thirties,
the National Association of Star
Route Mail Carriers was found
ed at O’Neill.
Postmaster Cole recalls an an
edote his mother used to tell re
garding the original Star post
office. His mother’s maiden
name was Etta M. Ridgeway.
She and her parents had just lo
cated in Nebraska. She went to
the soddie postoffice to claim
a letter that had just arrived
from back east.
While a dozen grizzly, rough
looking men looked on, she glee
fully withdrew some currency
from the envelope
iible mistake in revealing the
contents, she ran all the wav
i i m ^—a distance of several
miles.
When she became Mrs. Elvin
Cole and the children came
along, she always admonished
them: Never open a letter in
public.
The 28 families who proudly
boasted of the Star address un
til now henceforth will have an
O’Neill address. Mike Troshyn
ski of O’Neill is the present car
rier.
W. V. McElhaney was the
first postmaster in the Dorsey
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Phone 562 O’Neill, Nebr.
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hill. Traces of that hopeful
location have disappeared.
The second Dorsey was situat
d a quarter of a mile south of
he present site with portions of
he town on both sides of the
oad. There was a block of
vooden sidewalks on both sides
if the street, drug store, black
mith shop, hotel, general store
md a number of dwellings.
It was William Davidson who
rv.ligated the third location - up
iorth on top of the hill. He mov
'd his drug store there and ad
led a general store.
Coral McElhaney (father of
>’Neill’s Ttxi McElliancy) was
>ostmaster for a time and opor
ited the store selling to Lottie
Heuerman. Moses Elliott, also
tn auctioneer. was the next
jostmaster and ho was followed
>y Mrs. Thomas (Martha) Davis.
In Dorsey’s heyday it was a
>usy trading center and a fatn
1 lived on every quarter section
or less) At its peak it count
'd four stores, two hotels, a
ivery, church, school, bank,
ilacksmith shop and even a
tewspaper. The Dorsey News,
dited by Joseph Coombs.
The bank was a branch of the
3ank of Verdigre and Jack
O’Donnell of O’Neill headed it
’or many years, assisted by Fred
Pilger and Phoebe O’Donnell.
* wa.y •" • * i I
Even before World War 1 the
tide had changed for Dorsey and '
other inland rural communities.
When the land offices closed, the
commercial intercourse between
O'Neill and Niobrara-Running
Water dwindled off
When the Wileys took over the
Dor ey ncstoffiee in 1918, with
many of the young men off to
the war, the commercial pulse of
Dorsey was growing faint- -and
the same applied to other cut
posts. The inexorable hand of
time has done the rest
Actually, both Dorsey and
Star postoffices have done well
to retain their identities down
through the years.
During the past two years all
of the Dorsey mail has been
routed through Lynch. Don Al
len of Lynch has been the ear
ner The Dorsey office, in
drawing its last breath, has been
- rving 47 families
Dorsey maintains a telephone
\ hange, a Presbyterian church
(served bv the Niobrara pastor 1
and a rural school (Holt dis
trict 41
The motor ear and truck long
ago sealed the fate of communi
ties like Dorsey,
The postal inspector with a
Scotch tweed suit, horned-rim
med glasses, a sltde rule and a
map can rub out the names of
Dorsey and Star; the girt clerk in
that Washington office can seal
the files in the big iron vault,
but no one can erase the mem
ories.
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pan.ving story.—The Frontier
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