An effort was made to provide a suitable place resulted in the erection of the frame building on West Second street, now occupied by Schwabe Brothers as a feed store. This too soon became crowded and a carriage house on the Bartlett Richards residence property was made into a school room and used for that purpose until the high school building was ready for occupancy. This little building was later merged into what is C. F. Coffee's garage. In 1887, the school population increasing rapidly, the school district floated $18,000 of 10-20 bonds and the present high school building erected, with C. E. Foster first principal.

Mr. Foster had a contract for three years with the school board, but some dissatisfaction arose and an attempt was made to avoid the contract and discharge the superintendent. Joseph Denton was then employed and took charge of the school, but Mr. Foster appeared at the school house daily for a long time, but

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

finally gave this up and brought suit against the district for his unexpired contract and succeeded in recovering a judgment for $600.00 against the district, which the school board paid.

In 1911, it was found necessary to provide more school accommodation and a new building was erected in the west part of the city, at a cost of $20,000. There is a school population of 885 and the two large buildings are scarcely adequate to accommodate this large number. Up to 1887 there were no brick buildings in the town, but in the spring of that year, all the buildings on the west side of