At that time there was no depot, no completed building, and no store or restaurant in Scottsbluff. They were building the first part of the Emery hotel."

As Others Began

The historian has asked a number of ministers to tell us the story of early church struggles, and Rev. Currens responded so completely with a story of detail, that we think it describes fairly well the beginning of many others. Sometimes we think that our churches are inclined to get away from the first principles of food for the hungering soul. It is well that "God's House" be made beautiful, if we do not forget that Christ was born in a manger. The spirit behind these first efforts to plant the churches in our valley had much to do with the substantial character of the older citizenship that has been remarked by visitors and later settlers coming into our midst. Many of the newer and delightful characters that have helped to build the modern Scotts Bluff county were attracted here by the very fact that the earlier people were of such excellence.

The churches of the valley are now numerous. Men like Rev. F. J. McCaffree, Rev. T. C. Osborne, Rev. Sayre, and others have come and stayed. They have carried the Gospel and the principles of better living into the community centers of the land of their adoption. Others have come and gone but left behind them a memory of service. And always side by side or perhaps a little in advance of the men, were the good women of the west. The mothers who know that the spiritual inspiration planted in the minds of her children will make them better people in the years that follow.