CREEK -- FIRST COWT IN WESTERN NEBRASKA -- MENTAL GIANTS

OF THE BIG COW DAYS

When the west was young, who would have selected W. F. Cody for the historic character of the "Wild West?" Who could have guessed the destiny of Paxton. or Creighton, or Bratt, or Van Tassel, or McShane. or Coffee, or Swan? The other men of the west shifted and strayed abroad, or settled on their local acres, or the acres of some other state or land.

We find Frank Brainard, who held horses on the table north of Scottsbluff, in the winter of 1879, now stock inspector at the' stock yards of Chicago. That winter, he tells us. a half dozen Indians had their dugout on the bank of the river near the bad lands.

We find Ben Graham, the brother of Joe Graham of Mollie's Fork, in the same business at Sioux City. Hugh McFee is inspec-

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

tor al Denver. He is the brother of Earl Mc- Pee, who hunt,' himself near the 1'F ranch, because of a love affair.

Earl had ridden his horse underneath a limb of a big Cottonwood, and attached his lariat thereto, and around bis neck. He then kicked the broncho and it ran away, leaving him suspended. When found he was quite dead. Some of the boys were removing his boots preparatory for burial, when Smith, the foreman of the outfit, accused them of trying to steal a dead man's boots. The others were thinking only of the newer methods of burial, but Smith insisted on the old order being carried out. McFee was therefore buried with his boots on, at Fort Laramie.