This article has made no mention of publications not in the accepted newspaper class. Several papers of a general character nave been printed here, among them the Nebraska Odd Fellow with a statewide circulation with my own name as publisher, but in reality a commercial proposition for the actual owners. The Hammer was an engineering paper printed in Gering for some time, H. A. Mark being its author. The Nebraska Times, a Japanese publication may also be credited to the county list.

There may be some slight inaccuracies in this article. Much of it has been gathered from the

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

files of the Courier, which I have complete for almost thirty-five years in bound form, and which constitute the most valuable mass of historical data imaginable. I also have copies filed away of almost all of the publications I have named in this article, and the brief perusal I have given them in getting together the material herewith has been a labor of love, one which I would be delighted sometime to repeat with a view to exemplifying the gratifying contrast which has come to pass within my lifetime in the newspaper conditions.

SCOTTSBLUFF VOLUNTEER FlRE DEPARTMENT

In December, 1909, pursuant to call, a number of the citizens gathered together in the office of Carr & Neff Lumber company, and organized a Volunteer Fire Department, which was the beginning of the city's present vigorous fire fighting machine.

The first meeting was held on the eleventh, when Fred Alexander was elected president ; P. J. Barron, secretary-treasurer ; and J. C. Caine as chief. They also constituted a committee to draft constitution and by-laws. The next meeting was held on the sixteenth. George Elquist, W. A. Stull, W. W. Cline, G. L. Shumway, W. H. Goforth, C. J.