But the tale of the settlement and development of the area of territory which comprises Morrill county reached back into the Cheyenne county realm, and the narration of the part played by those pioneer spirits who have built up Merrill county is most appropriately told under this section of the general story of the western Nebraska garden spot.

Fortunately, some years before his death, Judge George J. Hunt, who played such a large part in the development of Morrill county, reduced to writing some reminiscences and impressions of the formative years of the county's development and growth, and the compilers give practically in its entirety this story of Morrill county's beginnings, and evolution from Cheyenne county into separate entity.

Some Early History

Cheyenne county originally embraced Deuel county on the east and which when formed from Cheyenne, included the territory since organized into Garden and Deuel counties, and thence running west embraced all of the area south and west of there between the Wyoming and Colorado line. This territory was also at the same time reduced by the formation of Kimball, Banner and Scottsbluff counties on the west and for a number of years after Cheyenne county consisted of the territory between these last named counties on the west and Deuel county on the east. For a great many reasons Cheyenne was the best known county in the state and was as well known throughout New England as it was in Nebraska. Before its cuter limits were trimmed bv the formation of the counties named, it was known as the largest organized county in the state and during that period it had become the cradle of the cattle business. It was while Edward Creighton was building the Far West telegraph line, which antedated the construction of the LT. P. railroad, that the discovery was accidentally made that cattle, turned loose upon the buffalo grass in Cheyenne county, without any other feed, no shelter, and no attention whatever, would not only thrive during the winter, but they would be in better condition in the spring than they were at the beginning of winter.