Fannie O'Linn obtained the establishment of a postofhce and the appointment of herself as postmistress, naming the office in honor of her son who was accidentally killed and maintained it in a claim "shack" on her homestead on White river just east of the present Dakota Junction.

The shack was half "dug out" and half sod. that is, an excavation in the ground was dug about four feet in depth and sod walls laid up from the surface three or four feet, and this was covered by log rafters, brush and earth, making what is termed a dirt roof. It con-

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

55?

sisted of one room about 14x16, which served as living room, bed room and kitchen. The mail was kept in a cracker box, from which the patrons of the postoffice not infrequently helped themselves when calling for their mail.

In the early fall of 1884 Burr Shelton and his wife, Phoebe, arrived from the east with a small stock of general merchandise which was freighted by wagon from Valentine, procured native lumber from the sawmill, which Fred M. Merritt had just set up on Chadron creek near the pine ridge, and erected a modest frame store building, on the O'Linn homestead. Judge Jason Wood arrived about the same time and opened a land locating agency in a temporary office building. The Shelton store building and the O'Linn and Judge Wood shacks became the nucleus of the "old town" of Chadron. Later in the fall of 1884 Milo M. Harrah came from Iowa with a stock of hardware, and early in January, 1885, W. A. and G. A. Birdsall cast their lot with the town and established a livery stable and feed supply store. With the coming of spring of 1885 other business houses were established as follows : Loewenthal Brothers, clothing, Walter & Lyman, druggists, J.