They were merely temporary residents of a military camp and did not class themselves as citizens of the county.

Prior to the state legislative session of 1883, the territory which is often called the panhandle of Nebraska, and comprising eleven counties at this date, was known as Cheyenne and Sioux counties. That part now comprising the counties of Sioux, Dawes, Box Butte, and Sheridan was unorganized and known as Sioux county, and was by statute attached to

Cheyenne county on the south for judicial and other governmental purposes; that is to say, the only local civil government enjoyed by Sioux county was exercised and administered by the courts and officials of Cheyenne county, Sidney being the county seat.

The legislature of 1885 divided Sioux county into three counties; Sioux county with its present territory; Dawes county with the territory now comprising Dawes ; and Box Butte counties, and Sheridan county as it remains at this time. At the fall election in 1886 the proposition to divide Dawes by the establishment of Box Butte county was carried by vote of the people of the entire territory, and soon thereafter the records pertaining to Box Butte were transferred and the new county organized ; and it was then that Dawes county with its territory as we know it today came into existence.

The county received its name at the hands of the legislature as an honor conferred upon the then governor, James W. Dawes. The name of Sioux county was very dear to the few inhabitants, and as the territory comprising the county was at that date the real heart of all the territory cut up, and we prided ourselves on having more semblance of settlement and civilization than other sections of the original county, our people felt piqued that the western part of the territory should take away our county name.