The story of trappers, and wars, and cattlemen are told in the blanket history of the Panhandle, incorporated in this volume, and this part of the narrative begins with the settlements of the grangers.

Sometimes it is "the period of liquidation" which charitable and apologetic people use to tell of legalized highway robbery, that drives people into the west and sometimes it is sickness in its various forms that inspires "a change of climate." And sometimes it is the natural spirit of the pioneer, and again it may be the hope of owning a home.

The thing that first "broke the ice" for Sheridan county was the "change of climate desire." There was no Sheridan county then. It was a part of Sioux county. One by one the counties were being carved out of the east section of a great territory called Sioux county, which had no county organization, and which was attached to Cheyenne county for administrative, judicial and taxation purposes. The railroad had reached Valentine, and Judge Tucker was the United State Commissioner located at that point.

Judge Tucker was back in the blue grass state at the Louisville exposition. At the hotel at which he tarried he met Rev. John A. Scamahorn, a sufferer from stomach troubles and complications to the extent that the doctors had recommended a "change of climate."

Judge Tucker was always an enthusiast for Nebraska, and told in glowing terms a story of the paradise of the west. He found Reverend Scamahorn a ready listener, and assured him that northwestern Nebraska was the most salubrious climate in the world. Scamahorn was from a malarial section of Indiana, and a number of his neighbors were with him. and all became interested in the new Mecca of the great northwest.