Dawes City ( now Whitney) and Chadron were contestants for the honor. Every method of securing votes was employed. The election was under the old law and in many instances the voter was led to the polls and cast his vote as directed. It was a warm time and no mistake. John Berry, an advance scout of the railroad company, and a Chadron booster, was in evidence everywhere. Physical encounters were frequent. The Whitney people were out in their war paint and determined to win. About the time for closing the polls Von Flarris, the leading spirit of that berg, wired to Chadron to know how many votes were cast at this place. The information was so astounding that it is said that they kept the polling place open all night

and voted all the cats and dogs in town but still lost out. Chadron cast 1,017 votes, the greatest number ever polled from the organization of the town to the time when the present court house was erected. At this time D. W. Sperling, Jim Patterson and Von Harris were county commissioners and the contract for its construction was let by them, but it remained for Commissioner Harris, Mann and Cooley to complete the construction.

It is well known that the soil of western Nebraska is adapted to the growing of sugar beets and an analysis has disclosed that beets grown in Dawes county and northwest Nebraska contain a greater per cent of Saccharine matter than those grown in other parts of the same state. This suggested that if we could secure a facory, the county would at once come into its own, as the beets could be easily grown and the yield large.