He was a personal acquaintance of the Postmaster General, and had received an appointment as postmaster, so as soon as their tent was up,

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

Mrs. Scamahorn emptied a trunk and using a cigar box for stamps, the first postoffke at Gordon was established. Newman's ranch had, since the Black Hills excitement, served as the mail collecting and distribution station of Sheridan county territory, but the Scamahorn postoffice marked the milestone of a new era in the community building. Each night when Mrs. Scamahorn locked the trunk, the postoffice was closed for that day. While this office served a very large territory, the cancellations were never largeenough to be any inducement for keeping the office, and only the public welfare kept it going.

Only the pioneer woman can know of the lonely hours holding down a claim. The people of the Gordon settlement knew of the days when the men would have to go to Valentine for supplies, or to the pine ridges for timber for firewood. The dead pines and cedars, lying in drifts in the gulches, or in tangled masses where the winds had torn them out by their roots, was an excellent fuel supply, and but for this provision of nature the rigors of the winters would have been felt far more keenly. But when the man of the house went after firewood, the time was long until his return. If he was late, the wife would have a troubled sense, an uneasiness for fear that a log had fallen upon her husband, or a rock had loosed from its ancient moorings and tumbled down upon him. And this fear would hold with increasing interest her attention until he hove into view.