By Andrew Winter
1. St. Benedict in Nebraska City is the oldest parish in the Lincoln Diocese. It was “begun” in 1856 when Father John Cavanaugh became the first priest to visit the city. By 1859, however, Father Francis Cannon had only $3.50 with which to build a makeshift altar in a storeroom.
2. In 1860, James O’Gorman, the second bishop of the Vicariate of Nebraska, blessed the cornerstone of St. Benedict, and the next year Father Emmanuel Hartig completed the brick church. The total cost was $4,000, and the structure was 87 feet long, with a belltower 50 feet high. The bricks were probably fashioned by the parishioners themselves.
3. Father Emmanuel Hartig, the first pastor of St. Benedict after its construction, supervised the building of five parishes in Nebraska, and led the flock at St. Benedict for 40 years. He was a native Bohemian, and readily rode on horseback to bring the sacraments to Catholics in Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas. Bishop Thomas Bonacum – the first bishop of the Lincoln Diocese when it was established in 1887 – made him vicar general in 1893.
4. While on a steamboat on the Missouri River, Mrs. Henry Kalkmann asked the captain to donate one of the beautiful chandeliers in the boat’s dining hall to St. Benedict. He agreed. It hung in the ceiling until 1936. The bell of St. Benedict’s steeple was saved from the wreck of a different steamboat by Anton Wirth, who owned the farm near the place where the Kansas ran aground.
5. Joseph Sand, Sr. and his son Joseph Jr. donated land for St. Benedict Cemetery near the church.
6. In 1915, several parishioners pooled their resources to buy masterful stained-glass windows from Munich, Germany for a total cost of $2,000.
7. Mrs. Frank Buckman, in the 1940s spent 2,254 hours making elaborately laced linens for the altar, credence table, etc. She used 25,000 yards of thread, and won an award at the state fair for her generous craftsmanship.
8. By 1948, the church had become structurally unsound, so the parishioners tore down most of the brick walls and replaced them with new brick. Since then, other improvements—such as air conditioning—have been made to St. Benedict, but the overall composition is generally unchanged from the 1861 original.
9. St. Benedict in Nebraska City is still an active parish; the intricate 1898 altar is still in regular use and a new parish hall, “The Abbey,” was dedicated in 2024. Its current pastor is Father Doug Daro, and its website, including pictures of the stunning Munich windows, can be found at https://www.stbens.org/virtual-tour.
