Currens first put up a tent in what was then a cornfield, and went out to Jacobus' to stay all night. In the morning Jacobus' daughter looked out the

First Church, Scottsbluff

window of the soddy, and exclaimed; "Mr. Currens, the tent is down." During the night there had been quite a gale, which not only blew down the the tent, but damaged it so that it could not be put up again without repairs.

Rev. Currens debated the matter for a while, he was much discouraged, but he finally bought some lumber and pledged his salary for the payment of the cost. Then he had built a small church on the present Presbyterian site. It was of boards set on end, and the sides and the roof had battens over the cracks.

The first school board was O. B. Brown, E. T. Westervelt and W. M. Barbour. A school house site had been donated by the Lincoln Land Company on what is now Avenue A. About one-half of the main school house on this tract was built. How to build it was the

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

question. The cost they found would be about forty-eight hundred dollars, and there was a valuation in the district so that the limit of a bond issue was fourteen hundred dollars. The matter was finally solved by the issuance of warrants to make up the amount, and these were sold by John A. Orr.

The building was of frame, and veneered with brick. From the beginning the schools of Scottsbluff have been crowded to the limit of possible attention.