The O'Linn homestead and adjoining lands were generally believed to be the natural and most desirable site for the new town. The matter of location was entirely in the hands of the railroad company, and why the present site was determined upon has always remained a mystery. In those days the higher railroad officials were often quite arrogant, and many of the first settlers believed that the price of land asked by Mrs. O'Linn, coupled with other demands, so incensed the railroad officials that they acted in a vengeful spirit in making the location. Be this as it may. fate decreed for the raw land acquired

for its own town site. Failing to secure the desired land of the old town site it sought to locate three quarter sections at the new site with government land warrants, and was in fact allowed to make the entries at the local land office at Valentine.

Richard M. Stanton instituted a contest as to one quarter section alleging that prior to entry by warrant by the townsite agent he had tendered a pre-emption application which was wrongfully rejected by the land office when no other entry was of record and charging collusion of the land office officials with the townsite company. The matter was strongly contested, the decision of the local land office being in favor of the townsite company. On appeal to the Commissioner of the General Land Office at Washington the decision was reversed, and the townsite company thereon appealed to the Secretary of the Interior, but before a hearing of the case was had by the Secretary a compromise was affected, the townsite companypaying Mr. Stanton $15,000 to relinquish his claim, a very handsome price for a Dawes county claim in those days.