HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

ed by Martin Gering and others. This bank is now the Gering National and its destinies are presided over by Al Mathers.

The first record of a birth was a son to Mr. and Mrs. A. Porter Pritchard, born June 6, 1887. A girl was born to Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Lamont shortly afterwards. It may be that there were earlier births, but they escaped the attention of the chronicler of the time.

The first wedding was that of Miss Ella Yance to Wm. Burton, and the ceremony was performed by Rev. B. L. Brisbane. It occurred in June, 1887.

On July 1, 1887, occurred the first double wedding in the valley. The contracting parties were Miss Mamie Randall to Elmer Hathaway, and Miss Etta Hathaway to Wm. Burgess.

town. He called George King into his confidence, and after telling him that he must never breath a word of the discovery, he exposed the glittering "mica" to George's gaze. King knew what it was, but congratulated Schiffbauer on his find. As he left the place he met Frank Sands, and told him to go into Schiffbauer's store and ask to see the "gold." Naturally the shoemaker would be surprised that Sands should know anything about it ; then Sands was to tell him that King, whom he had pledged to secrecy, had given it away. The "little Dutchman" lost faith in humanity, and in King in particular, at that fime.

Some years later Schiffbauer & Langhorst ran the pioneer shoe store in Gering. This Langhorst was a brother of Louis Langhorst, prominent for many years in the democratic