Irrigation -- that ancient-modem science -- claimed and chained his intellect and activities, first a galley slave, and then a master in the conquest of the arid west.

He heard of the great North river, with its mighty volume of water and its fertile acres, where no white people lived except the cowmen, and few real homes had foundations.

Captain Akers, Virgil Grout, and John Coy saw the possibilities of the rich soil, and abundant waters, and here they laid the foundations of their future homes.

Captain Akers had again married, and his second and charming wife whom the people here knew, was Miss Francis Hayes, of York ville, Illinois. And together, they put their belongings on a hay rack and started for the new land, where under the desert land act, and homestead and pre-emption laws, they could lay claim to 960 acres.

With wife, children, household goods, clothing, provisions, hope, courage, and $2.40 of actual money, they left Fort Collins, and by the time they reached Chugwater the money was gone.

And here a wagon wheel broke down. Mother Akers cried a little, and father Akers went down the creek looking for a ranch. He found one, and there were several wagons standing around. He told the ranchman his plight. He had not misgauged the great heart of the west, and he borrowed a wagon and

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

continued his journey into the promised land.

The broken wheel was left at Fort Laramie to be repaired, at a cost of $7.50 which was yet to be secured, and which financial achievement was made by borrowing it from an Englishman, then about ten miles up the Rawhide creek.