Former post office · Holt County · 1882–1957
About Star
Star was a post office and stage stop in northeastern Holt County, about 23 miles northeast of O'Neill, midway between O'Neill and Niobrara. The townsite is farmland today; the Star cemetery remains.
History
Emory Downey homesteaded here in 1880. After the railroad reached O'Neill he built a big sod house that became a freighters' hotel on the O'Neill–Niobrara route, where up to 18 men slept on the floor and bed and breakfast cost 50 cents. His son Charles, 17, sent in the name Star, which completed a "constellation" with Mars and Venus in Knox County, and the post office opened in 1882. Star was the regular overnight stage stop.
Star had E.E. Cole's store beside the town pump, a drugstore, a harness shop, a blacksmith shop and a lumberyard. Cole let settlers run up store credit and went broke in the 1890s, and the town faded, leaving only the halfway-house hotel. The post office moved several times and ended on Elvin Cole's "Sunny Slope" farm, where it closed in January 1957. The Stuart Press got its start in Star in 1884. Ash Grove hall, a Quonset built by volunteers on the old school site, opened with a dance on July 4, 1955.
Nearby towns
| Dorsey (former post office) | about 5 mi north | County roads |
| Verdigre | about 16 mi east | County roads to NE 14 |
| O'Neill | about 23 mi southwest | County roads |
Things to see
The Star cemetery
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Star Businesses & Places
1 listings in Star.
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Community & Faith (1)
- Star Cemetery — Cemeteries