ity of this place grew so swiftly that many of the railroad men would eat with her and would arrange their work in order to take a meal with her instead of staying at Sidney. Mrs. Lynch relates that when she was in Colton the Indians came during the two

were mostly Sioux and Cheyenne. The government furnished them with provisions but they did not know how to use them. They would trade their very hest items to the section men for a plug of tobacco.

By 1880 Mr. T.J. Kinney had started his

years she lived at the section house, and as she was just from Iowa, she did not know exactly how to take their presence, but as they were very friendly and would bring her antelope meat and call her "Heap good squaw" she soon accepted their presence as calmly as that of any other person. They

ranch up west of town. Mr. J. J. .Mcintosh ran a .saloon in the very early days. After hynch's came the saloon was closed up and they had a schoolhouse instead.

Mother Lynch narrates that the} were living in the section house when the little settlement of Kimball started. Her husband

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

had a claim then on the creek to which they went to attempt to establish their home after leaving the section house. The first crop that was raised there was in potatoes. People came in from Illinois and especially from Chicago and from all over the country east of here and were astonished to find that potatoes could be grown here without irrigation. The impression had become general that this part of the country was so dry that nothing could be raised. Of course a few years later when the drouth came on this, it became true and only those who did not have money enough to move and had to stay, remained.