Akers, the veteran irrigator built near Collins (now Morrill) the famous "sod house that covered seven Akers," as the old settlers used to tell the tenderfeet. Wild horses were plentiful then, while blacktail deer and droves of antelope were common, and mountain sheep sported in the rocks of Scotts Bluff and Castle Rock.

Campbell has always been direct in his dealings with his fellow men, and true to the ways of the untrammeled west, the fine little technicalities so common in law bothered him not one whit when later he was chosen sheriff of the new county of Scotts Bluff.

When Romine wrecked the finances of the mercantile establishments at new Mitchell and Bridgeport, he fled to Boston. Sheriff Campbell, armed with a warrant for his arrest followed. A Massachusetts official held Romine, waiting Campbell's arrival, told Runey to get a requisition from the governor and take the prisoner.

"What do I need of anything like that?" asked Campbell, "I came after him, didn't I? Well, I can take him home without bothering the governor." which he did, for Romine came

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

back with Campbell and was turned over to the courts here for trial.

A. W. Mills and Joe Smith were the first to build houses on the north side of the river in the present limits of Scotts Bluff county. Mills started his first and Smith finished his the first. The first pump was driven by Wellington Clark on the place of Mr. Purdy, and while a man was on the way to the river to get some water to prime the pump, a cow was milked and the pump was primed with milk.