The duties of these officers were to conduct the county affairs through the formation stage of an election for the selection of the county officers in a regular way, and for the location of a permanent county seat.

The board met on the 25th day of July, 1885, and its first act was to divide the county into three commissioner districts. All of ranges forty-one and forty-two comprised the first district ; all of ranges forty-three and forty-four were the second district, and the third district was composed of ranges forty-five and fortysix. Irwin acted as chairman of the board and Post made the above motion, which was seconded by Woods.

Then Woods took the initative and moved the county be divided into voting precincts, and this was seconded by Post. The precincts and voting places were designated as follows: "Wounded Knee" precinct at Henry Bredensteiner residence in section 17-34-41 ; "Larrabee Creek" precinct at G. T. Morey residence in section 6-33-43 ; "White Clay" precinct at Ben Tibbet's house ; "Beaver Creek" precinct at Cowgill's ranch ; "Hay Springs" precinct at T. Thompson's store ; "Rushville" precinct at Wood & Weeter's law office ; "Gordon" precinct at Ladd's law office ; "Heywood" precinct at G. A. Heywood's residence ; "Hunter" precinct at Hunter's ranch ; and "Mirage" precinct at S. Dewey's store.

The clerk was ordered to issue call for an election and prepare ballots and ballot boxes for these ten precincts.

First Officers Elected

The first officers of the new county by virtue of this election were :