The new arrivals were mostly young, and eager to quickly build up new homes and convert the prairie into garden patches and grain fields, and the activity displayed on every hand was convincing proof to the few old timers that a new era for Dawes county was an accomplished fact.

By the fall of 1885 the population of the country districts was larger than at the present day, for the reason that the lands of the county as a rule are now owned in larger tracts. Up to 1892 but few had turned their attention to stock-raising, and they in a very modest way.

By 1892 most of the settlers had made final proof on lands and secured small loans from

years, having settled on Bordeaux Creek, three miles east of Chadron, along with the first cattle ranch in 1878, and holding land by virtue of "Squatters' Rights" until legal entry could be made.

The next settlers to arrive were Mrs. Fannie M. B. O'Linn, with her daughter and two sons, and Hiram J. Ingersoll and family, both families establishing residence on Chadron creek in March, 1884, and Howard G. Furniaii and family, on Niobrara river, a few miles east of Marsland in the earlv spring of 1884.

In the spring of 1885 a stream of settlers came to settle upon lands previously entered ai the land office.

eastern investors by mortgaging to secure funds to pay the government $1.25 per acre on pre-emption claims, and the crop failure of that year, combined with land prices, made payment of interest impossible, and the value of the lands depreciated to almost nothing. Many eastern investors refused to pay the very small taxes then levied, together with the expense of foreclosure suits necessary to secure title, and allowed their mortgage liens to lapse.