A review of those "business houses then already in operation with some slight notice paid to their successive ownership, or discontinuance, if so, would be appropriate at this point. The Bridgeport bank opened about 1900 with J. W. Wehn as president; J. < ). Baker, vice president, and C. II. Connett as cashier. Bridgeport livery stable started with J. W. Lee as proprietor and is at the same location twenty years later, but with 1). W. Walker as its recent owner. Milholland's restaurant was then the "grubery." The C. D. Essig stock of hardware and furniture was located where the bank building now is with Loren North as manager. This establishment later became the Bridgeport Hardware Company. It moved to the present building of the Home Hotel a number of years ago and became the Mercantile Co. in the last years of its career. The Tierman & Tierman grocery stock conducted by women was at that present location of Millett's feed store but has been gone for some time. The career of Bridgeport's general merchandise stock, that .if J. A. Gaines, has alreadybeen sketched. The Sawyer stock of dry

goods, then one of Bridgeport's leading mercantile establishments, was sold to I). W.

White, who; had been running the store in

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

Camp Clarke. White's store at Camp Clarke, six miles from Bridgeport, was known in 1900 as the "Bee Hive" store. This stock was moved to Bridgeport a short time later and became the "Checker Front" department store. In November, 1901, Dr. J. S. Romine bought the Checker Front stock from White and also the J. A. Smith stock, then in the Heme Hotel building, and consolidated the two stores in the Smith location and called it the Department Store.