Olean Nebraska - Nebraska Directory

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Rural parish community · Colfax County · post office 1873–1877, 1895–1904

About Olean

Olean is a rural Catholic community in Lincoln Township, northeastern Colfax County, about 3 miles east of Howells and 3.5 miles west of Dodge, just north of NE 91. Its red-brick Sacred Heart Church of 1929, now a mission of St. Wenceslaus parish in Dodge, and the parish cemetery remain.

History

German Catholic families arrived in 1868 and at first traveled 15 to 20 miles by ox team to Mass at St. Charles. In 1874 German and Czech families, 45 in all, built a small frame church with lumber hauled from Fremont, the first Catholic church building in the county, and in 1877 it became a parish with a resident priest. A post office called Olean ran from 1873 to 1877 and, spelled Oleyen, from 1895 to 1904. Residents are said to have opposed a depot, so Olean stayed a quarter mile from the railroad and never became a town.

Czech parishioners later formed their own parish at Dodge. A second church was built in 1883 and a brick school and Sisters' house in 1893; the present church, which cost about $53,000, was dedicated in June 1929. The Sacred Heart school closed in 1968. More than 400 people came to the parish's 150th anniversary Mass in June 2024.

Nearby towns

Howells	about 3 mi west	NE 91
Dodge	about 3.5 mi east	NE 91
Tabor	about 4.5 mi south	County roads
Clarkson	about 9 mi west	NE 91

Things to see

Sacred Heart Church and cemetery, where an altar plaque honors PFC Harold H. Eikmeier, killed in action in 1944 · Baumert & Bogner Building in Howells · St. Wenceslaus Church in Dodge