St. Edward Nebraska

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City · Boone County · Population 725 (2020 census) · ZIP 68660 · Founded 1871 · Peak population 1,030 (1930)

About St. Edward

St. Edward is a city of 725 people (2020) in the Beaver Valley in southeastern Boone County, at about 1,667 feet. NE 39 runs through town as Beaver Street, from Genoa to the southeast to its end at NE 14 near Albion, about 11 miles northwest; NE 56 ends at NE 39 about a mile west of town. The Union Pacific line from Columbus still runs through town. St. Edward has its own school district, a medical clinic and dentist, a care center, a library, a senior center and a city park with a pool and bandshell. Columbus is about 27 miles east-southeast. St. Edward is on Central Time.

History

Pawnee earthlodge villages once stood a few miles south, and the valley was their hunting ground. Ed Dwyer took the first claim in the lower Beaver Valley in May 1871, and on August 14, 1871, A. T. Coquillard of the St. Edward Land and Immigration Company of South Bend, Indiana, bought 320 acres from the Union Pacific and surveyed a townsite called Beaver City. The Beaver post office opened in 1872 in Capt. Robert Hardy's sod house, moved and became Waterville in 1874, and took the name St. Edward in 1877, for the Rev. Edward Sorin, founder of the University of Notre Dame; the state marker says it is the only town of that name in the country. Settlers were mostly of German, Swedish, Irish and Polish descent. The Union Pacific built through from Columbus in 1883, and St. Edward incorporated on October 6, 1884; a local story says the town was two people short and propped up two "stone men" of sand and lime to make the count. A dike went up after Beaver Creek floods in 1884, and the city pool was built in 1929 after several children drowned in the creek. The population peaked at 1,030 in 1930. Football players Pat and Cletus Fischer and Scott Shanle, and Iowa Chief Justice W. Ward Reynoldson, came from St. Edward.

Things to see

the state historical marker at Beaver St. (NE 39) and 4th St. · the city park, 201 N. 3rd St.: 1929 pool, bandshell with summer concerts and courts · Beaver Bend WMA, a 27-acre public hunting area just northwest of town · the Beaver's Pub, 311 Beaver St.