then a peaceable law abiding citizen of Chadron, residing on Shelton street in a neat cottage which he had erected, and now owned by Willis Schenek ; John Berry, the C. & N. W. advance scout ; Joe Gillespie, cowboy and horse wrangler ; Emmet t Albright, a sure thing man, and Charles W. Smith, all of Nebraska; David Douglas, Spearfish, South Dakota ; George Jones, Whitewood, South Dakota; Rattle Snake Pete Stevens, Kansas ; and Joe Campbell, of Indian Territory.

The race was started by firing a 45 revolver from the balcony of the Hotel Blaine and terminated at the entrance of the World's Fair in Chicago.

Hundreds of people were out to view the start and thousands to greet the victors. Mayor Harrison and Buffalo Bill with a magnificent following met the winners, Joe Gillespie and John Berry in the suburbs of the city and escorted them to the final goal. This event did more to put Chadron on the map than any previous event.

F. S. Baird, then of Chicago, now of Chadron, informed the writer that the newspaper comments on the thousand mile race gave him the first knowledge that such a place as Chadron existed, and that interest in this great race caused him to look up the town to which he eventually migrated.

Although a frontier town, the people were generally law abiding. Of course gambling and dance halls with their attendant resorts were tolerated in those days, but there was no great amount of what is usually termed tough element. Occasionally a cowboy who had imbibed too freely would ride his horse into a saloon and shoot things up, and on one occasion Renfro's Circus, a second rate affair with a bunch of gamblers, thieves and shell game men following, was shot to pieces.