cattle. He is an ex-state senator, is a member of the Republican party and is now County Attorney.

      WAYNE T. WILSON was born in Newton, Iowa, March 21, 1872, from whence he removed with his parents in 1884, settling in Dawes County. After finishing his course at the Arkansas State University and special courses in private schools, he went into the mercantile business at Chadron in 1891. He was married to Miss Mary Mace in 1896. Mr. Wilson is secretary of the Chadron Commercial Club, has been manager and heaviest stockholder in the Chadron Telephone Company, but sold his interest before taking up the duties of the office of County Treasurer, he is a Republican and has served as a member of the City Council.

      DUNCAN McMILLAN was born in Tarbert, Scotland, November 21, 1869, and in 1880 came to Detroit, Michigan, with his mother, his father having died. Six years later he came to Chadron. He was educated at Glasgow, Scotland, and Detroit, Michigan, where he graduated from the high school in 1886. In 1896 he took a homestead in Dawes County and has been elected City Engineer of Chadron and is serving his third term as Surveyor of Dawes County, having been elected on the Republican ticket. He married Miss Vida Brockway of Wisconsin in 1897 and has four children.

     SAMUEL T. MOTE was born in Miami County, Ohio, September 25, 1826. In 1865 he came to Iowa and in 1889 to Dawes County, where he lived in the country until 1896, when he came to Chadron. He has been a farmer and a school teacher, and was educated in Earlham College, Indiana. In Ohio he was County Commissioner two years, in Iowa was on the Board of Supervisors seven years and is now serving his second term as County Commissioner on the Republican ticket in Dawes County. He married Miss Anna Macy In 1854 and has eight children and two great-grandchildren.

      CHARLES NAYLOR was born in Palmyra, Illinois, July 3, 1870, where he lived until his tenth year, when he removed with his parents to Gage County, Nebraska, living there until 1892, when he went to Lincoln, Nebraska, and there was married to Miss Tona Sprague. They have one son. He homesteaded in Dawes County in 1894 and has a ranch of 920 acres, stocked with cattle and horses. He is affiliated with the Democratic party and has been appointed Deputy County Clerk.

      WILLIAM H. REYNOLDS was born in Morgan County, Illinois, July 13, 1849. In 1871 he came to Harrison County, Missouri, later to Gentry County, where he helped to found the town of Stanberry, putting up the third building in the place. He served as Mayor, lived in Davis County, in 1884 came to Nebraska. He was educated in the academy and college at Jacksonville, Illinois. In 1875 he married Miss Lizzie Waltz and they have one daughter. He is associated with E. M. Slattery in the law and real estate business, and the firm owns a cattle ranch in McPherson County. Mr. Reynolds was clerk in the United States Land Office in 1901 and County Treasurer in 1901 and 1902. He took an active part in the Hayward Senatorial fight when in the State Legislature.

      L. K. MOTE was born May 15, 1859, in Miami County, Ohio. He came with his parents to Marshall County, Iowa, in 1865, where he received his education in the Friends' Academy near Marshalltown, Iowa. He came to Dawes County in 1886 and homesteaded. He is now owner of a transfer line at Chadron and has been Chief of the fire department there. He is a Republican and is serving his second term as Deputy Sheriff. He was married to Miss Carrie E. Gifford of Marshall County, Iowa, in 1886, and they have five children.

 

     Dawson County was organized in 1871 with an area of 1,028 square miles. In 1861 the telegraph was extended through this part of the country and the only instance in which it was tampered with by the Indians occurred in this county. The ignorant savages, thinking it was the white men's fence and that the wires were to extend all the way to the ground, began cutting it down immediately. When its use was explained to them, they caused no more trouble. The chief trouble which the settlers endured from the Indians was the Plum

Creek Massacre, in which eleven men were killed. In 1872 most of the settlements were made around Plum Creek, and the first Fourth of July celebration was held here During this year there was only one school district, and that comprised the whole county, since there were only six children of school age in Dawson County. In 1873 a substantial bridge was built across the Platte at Plum Creek, which was one mile in length. In the fall of this same year great excitement was caused at the report of a gold mine a half mile east of Plum Creek. Prospectors and fortune hunters came from all directions only to find that they had been fooled by an idle story. Much stock was lost and a great deal of suffering caused by the hard winter of 1880 and 1881. There is plenty of hay, water and grazing land for stock and originally this was the only industry, but now stock raising and farming are successfully combined since the irrigating canals have rendered the ground capable of producing small grain as well as corn. At the present time nearly 19,000 acres are devoted to the growing of alfalfa. The Platte River enters the County on