The once-thriving Box Elder community

Quite often you hear of the Box Elder Cemetery, but few understand that the cemetery is all that is left of a community that had a general store, school, church and post office. The precinct of Box Elder, named for the community within its boundaries, lays directly north of Willow Grove (McCook’s precinct) and is between the Coleman (to the west) and the Fritsch (to the east) precincts. Frontier county is the northern border. Normally a location is established by the assigning of a post office to the area and in this case, Box Elder was born on September 30, 1879 and lost the post office on June 15, 1911.

Several very prominent people lived in Box Elder precinct, not the least of which was the Bolles family, a name you might recognize due to the gift of trees planted in Bolles Canyon which lays directly west of the impressive Graff center and north of Weiland Field. The canyon, long the source of fish worms for boys to hunt at night and dip on a line at the Huck Finn ponds the next morning, now hosts part of the disc golf course and the skate park and is part of the city’s precious resource of parks.

One of the earliest settlers was the William Doyle family who also, if my research is correct, owned the early general store, but in 1905 the owner of the land on which the church and cemetery sat was Stephen Bolles.

Three schools existed in 1905. The landowners whose property surrounded the schools were: Irvin Spaulding, George Young and W. H. St. John.

The Red Willow Creek wound through the Box Elder precinct and one canyon was named on the map, Ceder Canyon. A fishing pond is clearly marked on the map and it was on land owned by A. P. Loomis.

Other well-known surnames that owned land in the precinct include Lytle, Bortner, Oakley, Little, Wilson, Morosic, Sexson, Wolf, Short, Green, King, Modrell, Cordeal, Harrison and Moore. Ownership did not indicate residence however, as only 11 homes are noted on the plat map from 1905, a clue to what caused the post office to be discontinued in 1911.

1879 was a hopping year for the creation of post offices in Red Willow County. Seven existed prior to that year, Canby (1874), Danbury (1873), Indianola (1873), Lebanon (1873), Red Willow (the earliest at 1872), Silver Creek (1876) and Valley Grange (1873). Willow Grove, Fairview (early McCook), Narcissus, Hamburgh, and Box Elder all came to life in 1879. Now only McCook remains.

Tom Corey has spent years putting together information now available for your research on our web site: www.swngs.org. His dedication to preserving and sharing the history contained within our area is greatly appreciated. All of the information contained within this article is researchable on that web site along with a list of known burials in the Box Elder Cemetery. The cemetery lays on private land today and permission may be needed to access it. After years of vandalism and people on “spooky, scary” kind of shenanegans, this historic part of Red Willow County needs to be protected from further damage.