William and Bridget Couhig at the first house in Custer County where a priest held Mass, Dale Valley, Nebraska — S. D. Butcher

A bearded man stands with his hat in hand before a sod house, while a woman holds a tethered sheep beside him. Two horses are partly cropped at the right edge. The building has thick earthen walls, deeply recessed windows, a sod-covered roof and a short stovepipe. A small barrel stands beneath the central window, beside a doorway with a diagonally braced lower door.

The white, negative-written caption identifies this as the first house in Custer County where a priest held Mass, gives the year 1880, and locates it in Dale Valley, Nebraska. That date belongs to the event described; it does not establish when the photograph was taken or this postcard printed. Neither person is named, and the house’s precise location within Dale Valley remains unidentified.

A copyright credit within the lower-left image names S. D. Butcher. This is a real photo postcard with a divided back and a KRUXO stamp box printed “One Cent Stamp Here.” The reverse is unused, without a message, address, stamp or postal cancellation.

The same scene survives as Butcher's glass-plate negative at the Nebraska State Historical Society, catalogued as “William Couhig, Dale, Custer County, Nebraska,” 1886, naming William Couhig (1832–1897) and Bridget (Downey) Couhig (1842–1894). Butcher's own 1912 note there reads: “At present time not a trace of this house is left. Both Mr. and Mrs. Couhig are dead and a fine frame structure is on the farm.” The Museum of Nebraska Art holds a print under Butcher's title “The Old Lady and Her Pets.” The archive record gives 1886 for the Mass; this card's caption reads 1880.