09/09/2023
Evergreen Community in Keya Paha County was the region above the Niobrara canyons north of Carns. There were settlers living in the region in 1880 and before. This territory has level prairies, some slightly rolling land and fertile hay flats. It was a desirable place to locate, being near wood and water, and the early home seekers, mostly from the east, eagerly sought out a quarter section of land from a homestead and filed their claim to it at the nearest land office. Stephenson Post Office was established in 1884 in the Evergreen Community, run by postmaster Wm. J. Stephenson and discontinued in 1890. It was approximately fifteen miles east of Springview. Stephenson also had a store and at least one term of school was taught in a room above the store, with Horace Bell the teacher at the time. Prior to 1884, Evergreen Community had a sod school house with a dirt floor and homemade benches for seats. It was later replaced by a frame schoolhouse. This school had to be replaced because of fire and the final structure was standing until the 1930's. Some names in the community in 1884 included Anderson, Ammon, Babbitt, Bahr, Bartholemew, Battles, Bell, Boyd, Charlton, Clifton, Colby, Conway, DeWitt, Denson, Dyre, Fateley, Fuller, Haffelfinger, Hamer, Hammers, Hicklin, Hinton, Hughston, Johnson, Kinney, Lane, Leach, Leamon, Loomis, Ludlum, Means, McLackland, McLaughlin, Paris, Prescott, Sage, Schafer, Scutt, Shelly, Smith, Stewart, Tarbell, Tingle, Totman, Webster, West, White, Wilcox, Will, Wolfe, and Vesey. Today, only a raised mound of prairie shows the former location of the Evergreen Schoolhouse and cellars remain from early homesteads. Much of the Evergreen history is told by the stones in the Evergreen Cemetery. Mr. and Mrs. Babbitt's infant son was the first burial in the cemetery, which was on their land at the time. A sad reality of the harsh times is told in the rows of infant children lost to a single family, a mother buried with an infant in her arms, and a child lost when getting hit on the head with a pump handle. Some stones are simply hand carved rocks, which may have been the only affordable option. Irises still continue to bloom on the these graves carefully placed on the prairie ground so many years ago.