Phelps built a hotel in 1884, and opened it Christmas eve of that year. He has run the hotel for thirty-seven years, being the pioneer man of his line and one of the oldest business

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

men in the town. Gotlieb Manser opened a blacksmith shop in Big Spring in 1886, the first in this section. Mr. Manser still resides in the town but is not so active as thirty-five years ago.

The Big Springs of today is of much more commercial importance than the early village. The farmers are proving the collective theory of marketing by a Farmers' Elevator and Store. The members are composed of early settlers

Street Corner, Chapfeu.

and new farmers who work together for the common good of all, in marked harmony. Among the names of old timers we find such men as Godfrey Zolman who came here late in the eighties, sold butter at ten cents a pound and is now selling cream at seventy and eighty cents a pound. Will Hartman is another of the men who came in 1886, who is a member of the cooperative farmers enterprise. Hartman says that he is not superstitious about the number thirteen, for his homestead filing was the thirteenth claim that had been made for that particular tract. The other twelve had

given it up, but it was the foundation of his present good fortune.

The town of Big Springs has in addition to the Farmers Store, the old Abbott & Kimball store and the newer Eagle-Tucker Mercantile Company, Peterson's Pharmacy, the LaGrange Market, Junge Brothers Implement House, McKipps & Company, Furniture ; Neilson & Brown, Autos and Tractors ; Caskey Electric Supply Store ; Phelps Motor Company ; Flora's Big Springs Lumber Company; Klindt's Cafe, and Wilbur's Cafe. There are two banks, whose history will be found under the head of finance and banks, a doctor, a lawyer, a dentist, and other professional people and places of business including a newspaper.