Lynch recounts that Kimball has remained a pretty dry county through all its history and never had a real bad fight or had anybody killed in a drunken brawl.

County Division

The agitation for a division of Cheyenne county started rather actively as early as 1884." One of the leading spirits in 'this movement was Theo. Menges, a real estate agent at that time. He unceasingly and untiringly canvassed this question. He later died in Chicago, as president of Western Dental College, one of the largest institutions of its character in the country at the time.

The question was eventually submitted three times. The first effort, late in 1887, was beaten. This proposal was for three counties, dividing the big Cheyenne county into three sections, the east practically the present Deuell and Garden counties, the center, the present Cheyenne and Merrill counties, and the west section, the present Kimball, Banner and Scottsbluff counties. A futile effort to submit the question was made in January, 1888, when a petition signed by Charles Anderson and 122 others was filed, asking the board to set aside a territory named therein into a county to be

called "1 'otter" and a vote be taken thereon at the next general election. The board found that this petition did not contain a majority of the legal voters residing in the territory described, but found in favor of submitting a similar petition signed by one O. B. Taneyhill and 137 legal voters residing in a territory therein described and asking for a county named "Kimball" to be voted upon.