Morse & Shepherd started a general store in a tent one-half mile west of town, then built the frame store in Rushville, upon the site of the present feed store. Mercantile business started with a rush, and in structures that were boxed up a few feet from the ground, the balance being tent. Early in the mercantile line were A I osier & Tully's general store, Emmet & McEachron in drugs, and O. F. Farnam also in drugs.

The elevation of Rushville as shown by the railroad was 3739 feet above sea level.

One of the first enterprizes in a town is a lumber yard. Vail & Lucas were the pioneers at Rushville, and they almost immediately sold

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

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to Phinney & Williams. J. H. Jones was put in as manager. He owns it now. The office was on the north side of the railroad originally. If you will drop into his lumber office, which is on the south side of the track, near the depot, and start something reminiscent of old times, J. H. Jones, the pioneer, will soon have a place in the conversation, for his life of active business, and excellent memory, makes him one of the most excellent sources of old history of the Rushville settlement.

The second lumber yard was started soon after, by Herman O. Morse, and was doing business before the close of 1885.

The first bank established in the town was bv H. A. Chamberlain, and was called the Bank of Rushville. Soon after Joe Armstrong started the Farmers & Merchants Bank, and the third in point of seniority was the Citizens, organized by M. P. Musser & Company.