the water supply and eventually curtailing stock raising on a large scale. Many cattle stealers came annually and carried off carloads of stock from the helpless owners. Because of their antipathy for the settlers the cowboys credited them with these crimes, and in their rage allowed their herds to trample the fields of the farmers. Feeling rose high, and the cowboys determined to drive the settlers from the country, which resulted in the murder of two of the inhabitants. Stock raising land, however, was gradually limited by settlements. Custer County is a tract of land in the central part of the state, comprising 2,592 square miles which was organized as a county in 1887. In 1900 this county was given second place in the state in its live stock which was valued at $3,850,009. The population of the county numbers 19,758, and the county seat, Broken Bow, has 1,375 people. At present there are 7,696 children of school age.

      J. G. W. LEWIS came in 1879 to Custer County where his father homesteaded. He was born in LaSalle County, Illinois, December 17, 1876. His parents, Moses and Martha Lewis, are among the oldest settlers of Custer. Moses Lewis served three years in the Civil 'War in an Illinois regiment. He was graduated from the Broken Bow High School in 1894 and from Grand Island College in the class of 1900. He is serving his second term as Superintendent of Custer County schools He is affiliated with the Republican party.

      GEORGE W. DEWEY, was born August 13, 1857 at Rockford, Illinois, where he was educated in the public and high schools. In the winter of 1876 his parents moved to Kansas and after six years residence there, he came to Custer County, where he still lives. He is now serving his second term as County Clerk He was formerly County Supervisor during eight years, and has also held several city offices in Broken Bow which is his home He is engaged in farming and ranching He was married to Miss Mary Alice Sweeney of Kansas June 17, 1881. His father, who died in 1871, served in the war of 1812 in the Vermont Cavalry.

      GEORGE B. MAIR is one of the pioneer newspaper men of Custer County. He was a printer in Chicago for seven years before coming to Custer County in 1887, and is now editor of the Courier. His home state is Wisconsin, where he was born at Waupin, August 3, 1851, In 1875 he was graduated from the high school at Portage, Wisconsin and from the Eastman Business College at New York in 1876. He was Postmaster at Callaway, Custer County for four years, and is now Clerk of the District Court. In polities he is a Republican. His wife's maiden name was Miss Jennie R. Douglas and they were married in 1889.

      J. A. ARMOUR was the first lawyer to practice in Custer County and is still practicing his profession. He was born in Macoupin County, Illinois, July 14, 1854. He was graduated from the academic course of the Washington University at St. Louis in 1878, and from the law department in 1880. After this, he removed to Clay County, Nebraska, for a year and to Custer County in 1881. He homesteaded here in 1884, but sold the land after holding it for eighteen years. He is serving his fourth term as County judge and was elected on the Republican ticket. In 1882 he was married to Miss Ettie Varney of this county.

      W A. GEORGE was born in Massachusetts May 12, 1861 and has lived in Custer County since 1886. His father was one of the colony which first settled Buffalo County in 1871.

Mr. George was educated in the Gibbon schools and at Gibbon Academy. He was County Commissioner for six years and is now serving his second term as County Treasurer. He is engaged in the mercantile and ranching business and he recently sold 33,000 acres of ranch land stocked with cattle. His mercantile business consists of a grocery store and department store, both of which are located at Broken Bow. He is also owner of the Georgetown Roller Mill.

      C. O. LIND is a farmer and ranchman of Custer County, his ranch interests consisting of 960 acres of land stocked with cattle. He was born in Sweden on the thirty-first of August, 1861 and came with his parents to the United States in July of 1883. After living for two years in Polk and Colfax Counties, he moved to Custer County, which has since been his home. He has held several township offices, was Chairman of the Board of Supervisors for three years and is now filling the office of Register of Deeds. He is affiliated with the Republican party. In 1889 he married Miss Betty Peterson of Custer County.

      C. U. RICHARDSON was a soldier in the Confederate Army. When the war broke out he enlisted in the Seventh Virginia Cavalry and served till the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox. He was born in the Shenandoah Valley in November of 1847. He moved to Missouri in 1872 and came to Nebraska in 1879. After five years in Nemaha County he permanently located in Custer County. His occupation is in the livery business and the management of stage lines under government contract. He served four years as Deputy Sheriff of Custer County before he was elected to his present office of Sheriff. He is a Populist and although the county is largely Republican, he received a good majority. In 1880 he married a Mrs. Field of Missouri.

      J. E. CAVENEE was born in Perry County, Ohio, July 29, 1851. When he was five years old his parents moved to Iowa where he lived until he came to. Custer County in May of 1878. Howe's Academy at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, contributed to his education. Mr. Cavenee is a ranchman and has about one thousand acres of land stocked with cattle and horses. He pre-empted a homestead and tree claim in 1878 which is still his possession. He served as County Supervisor for eight years, and he is affiliated with the Republican party. In 1890 he married Mrs. Alice Wright of Iowa.

      D. C. KONKEL came to Custer County in April of 1879 and has since made this his home. His birth occurred while his parents were living in Sank County, Wisconsin, December 16, 1856. He homesteaded in this county in 1879 on which land he farmed until two years ago, when he entered the revenue service. On the nineteenth of December, 1881, he married Miss Anna Albert of Wisconsin. He is now Deputy Revenue Collector for the District of Nebraska, Seventh Division.

      JAMES WHITEHEAD was born in August of 1846 in Racine County, Wisconsin, from which state he came to Custer County, Nebraska, in the winter of 1883. He took a homestead in the spring of 1884 and lived on it six years until he was appointed receiver in the newly organized land office at Broken Bow. He was elected to the Legislature in the fall of 1888. In July of 1889 he was appointed Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue and was holding that position when he received his present appointment as Receiver in the United States Land Office. In 1892 he was nominated by the Republican party as candidate for Congress. After two years residence at Lincoln he moved to Broken Bow, where he has been Receiver in the United States Office for four years. He served several years in the Civil War, having enlisted before he was sixteen. He married Hanna Eagleston, December 31, 1867.

      J. J. DOUGLASS is one of the thirteen men who organized the County of Custer in the summer of 1877. He was born in Sabina, Ohio, March 17, 1845. He came to Richardson County, Nebraska, in 1868 and to Custer County in 1875. He has a farm of 560 acres west of Callaway and is also engaged in stock raising. He was Clerk of District Court from 1888 to 1892 and has been Postmaster at Callaway for the past seven years although his term is now ended. In January of 1892 he married Miss May Taylor.

      G. W. APPLE is proprietor of a large harness hardware and implement store at Broken Bow, Nebraska. His birth occurred in York County, Pennsylvania, August 3, 1855, In the spring of 1878 he came west and lived at Dunlap, Iowa, where he lived for six years before coming to Custer County in 1886. Since April 5, 1904 Mr. Apple has been Mayor of the city and has filled several other city offices. He is President of the Broken Bow Business Men's Association and is a Republican. In 1894 he

was married to Miss Alice Crawford of Indiana. His father enlisted in a Pennsylvania regiment as a private in 1864 and was discharged in June of 1865 as Orderly Sergeant.

      A. R. HUMPHREY was born February 18, 1858 near Madison, Indiana. He moved to Iowa in 1864 and after living there nineteen years came to Nebraska in 1883. He was educated at Iowa University and graduated from the law course in 1882. In the same year he was admitted to the bar and he began practicing in Custer County in 1884. For four years he was State Land Commissioner at Lincoln. In 1883 he was married to Nellie Nightingale of Bloomfield, Iowa. He holds the office of County Attorney and is a Republican.

      F. E. VAN ANTWERP was born August 27, 1854 at St. Charles, Illinois, from which place he moved to Nebraska in 1880 and Custer County has since been his home. He took a homestead at that time which he still holds. He is a professional surveyor and engineer, having taken a course in this work at Chicago University. At Lode, Nebraska, he was Postmaster and has been justice of the Peace and Deputy Surveyor of Custer. He is now serving his third term as County Surveyor and he is allied with the Republican party. In 1876 he married Hester Lathrop of Rockford, Illinois.

      JOSEPH PIGMAN was born on Independence Day of 1862 in Green County, Indiana, and has worked his own way since he was fourteen. His father was a veteran of the Mexican War, having served in an Ohio regiment. He began teaching at seventeen and taught five years in Indiana, before coming to Nebraska in 1884. He continued his teaching in this state until he accepted the office of Deputy County Clerk, which he has held since January of 1902. He acquired his advanced education at Bloomfield Academy in Indiana, which he attended for two years. His political sympathies are with the Republican party. He was married to Miss Hattie A. George of Kearney, Nebraska, November 27, 1881.

      D. V. JOYNER has been engaged in clerical work for some time and is now Deputy County Treasurer of Custer County, serving his third term. He was Deputy County Clerk of Howard County, Nebraska, two years and Clerk in the United States Land Office at Broken Bow four years. He came to Custer County from Taylor, New York, his native town, in 1880. He was born July 8, 1857 and he acquired his education at the Cincinnatus Academy, New York and at the State Normal at Cortland. He taught school before his marriage to Miss Emma Robbins in 1879. He has been publisher and managing editor of several newspapers and his politics is Republican.

      J. T. WOOD was born June 19, 1868 at Greenville, Michigan, and came to Custer County, Nebraska with his father in 1885. Here his father homesteaded, but is now living at Mason City. Mr. Wood was educated in the public schools of Michigan. He resides at Broken Bow, where he is Deputy Register of Deeds. He was a candidate for nomination as County Clerk in the Republican Convention of 1902 and stood next to the leading candidate. He married Miss Belle Bryan on the sixth of April, 1901.

      W. H. COMSTOCK homesteaded in what is now Custer County in the spring of 1874 and made the third filing in the county. He was the first Postmaster of Custer County and held the office at Douglas Grove and Wescott for a period of twenty-six years. The town of Comstock, which is his present home, was named in his honor, He held several township offices, being first justice of the Peace and was Captain of the Home Guard, organized for defense against the Indians. He is still called "Captain Comstock." He was born in New York, Ontario County, February 29, 1836. At the age of eighteen he moved to Wisconsin and after eleven years there he went to Minnesota. After seven years in that state, he removed to Iowa in 1873 and in 1874 he located in Custer County, Nebraska, where he is now engaged in the real estate business. Enlisted in October of 1861 in Company E, Second Wisconsin Cavalry and served until Lee's surrender.

     MRS. SARAHETT WEST-COMSTOCK was born April 15, 1841 in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, in which state she lived until married to Mr. Comstock in 1859. In the early days of Custer County as well as in later years, her home has been justly popular since all travelers have received a warm welcome there.