The village of Bee was platted by J.F. Goehner in 1887 and incorporated in 1902. According to Jane Graff’s book “On a Bend of the River,” the town was named for its precinct – B.
Settlers came to the arta starting in the 1860s. David H. Downing and his sons Chas H. and Wm R. came from Peoria, Illinois, to settle in Nebraska and staked their claim in B Precinct in 1868. Also in 1868, William R. Davis filed his homstead.
B Precinct had five rural schools and one in town – District 93. District 93 was built in 1892. A brick school building for kindergarten through 10th grade was constructed in 1930 to join Districts 67 and 12. In 1954, grades nine and 10 were closed, and in 1956 Districts 26, 28 and a part of 33 consolidated with the school in Bee.
The school held its last classes in the 2005-06 school year.
The bank in Bee saw two iterations. The first opened when the town was founded and closed during the Great Depression of the 1930s. It reopened later as a cooperative and closed again in 1961.
The first annual Fire Department Picnic was held in 1926, about 10 years after the fire department was founded. According to a 1974 newspaper article quoted in The Century Past, published by the Seward County Independent in 2000, Bee’s fire department picnics were exciting. Events ranged from potato races (a race on horseback where riders speared a potato at one end of the course and left it at the other, collecting the most to win) and water fights (actually trying to knock an opposing team over using blasts of water) in the early days to carnival rides and greased pig races. The last picnic may have been during Bee’s centennial celebration in 1988.
While St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church is the only church left in Bee, it was not the first in the town. The first church, United Brethren, was built in 1887 and closed in 1910. The Christian Church joined it in 1888 and closed in the 1920s. St. Wenceslaus was founded in 1910, and its current building was built in 1962.
The grotto was added in 1997 and includes a statue of Our Lady of Grace. The rocks around the grotto came from fields surrounding the town.
One of the longtime businesses in town was Lou and Mary Anne’s Bar. Located downtown, the restaurant was known for its Friday night fish fry. Lou and Mary Anne Dart opened the business in 1974 and it stayed open until 2021.
