Carl Pigeon, who had no use for his threshing machine outfit in the early nineties, has had plenty of work for it during the later years and has had a fine business, which shows the development and prosperity of the wheat and grain industry in Deuel county for some time

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

past. John Steward, who early saw what irrigation would do when water was applied to the fertile soil of the valleys changed to irrigated land and now has a fine farm and breeds Belgian horses, Hereford cattle, and Poland China hogs. So we could go on telling of the transition and prosperity of many of the early settlers who managed to stay through the hard years. In the early days the vision of the future here was in every mind. All were looking forward ; now they sometimes look back or at the scars of battle left upon hand and brow, and say, "Oh well, gold needs fire to bum away the dross. It's not pure until it passes the crucible." There seemed to have been happy times occasionally and many laugh over the ridiculous escapes by which the tribulation was temporarily submerged. Agnew Rayburn occasionally will chuckle over the time when Chappell cast three thousand votes and Big Springs cast over five thousand at the county seat election. Others do likewise as there

were not that many people in the county. Riley Ford laughs over the time the roundup took him to Julesburg and "shot up" the town. A hearty laugh in that early day served to enliven the pulses and break the tenseness of conditions and save many a man and woman from "going crazy." Hard times parties were held where old clothes were worn as though it were a joke although it was no joke but the truth.