112 EARLY DAY STORIES. 



Let me here pay a tribute to the memory of George H. 

 McGee, not by way of praise, but as a deserved encomium. 

 Work in the field such as ours was at that time, brings out 

 and shows off all the qualities of the man, whether good or 

 bad. We were in camp together that fall for seventy-five 

 days, and I got to know Mr. McGee well. He was thought- 

 ful and deliberate, always displaying under all circumstances 

 an unruffled temper and a genial disposition. He was one 

 of the strong, true men among those who settled Antelope 

 county. 



Our work was to survey and plat the lands belonging 

 to the B. & M. railroad company. The plats were intended 

 to show the topography of each quarter section, and the field 

 notes accompanying these plats were to describe the quality 

 of the soil, and to give the comparative value of each quar- 

 ter section for farming purposes. 



The reader will bear in mind that the year 1872 was a 

 very early day in the history of Nebraska. All central Ne- 

 braska at that time, excepting a narrow strip along the U. P. 

 railroad, was either wholly unsettled or just beginning to 

 settle up. Oakdale contained only four or five houses — 

 Neligh had not even been platted — Albion had three or four 

 houses and was called Hammond. There was not a village 

 in Greeley, Valley nor Sherman counties, and St. Paul, 

 Howard county, was just starting. Our field work when 

 it first began on the second day of September, was within 

 the limits of the scattered settlements, but for the last four 

 weeks the work had taken us just to or beyond their west- 

 ern border. 



The work was not hard or difficult, and the outdoor 

 life was very agreeable. Very seldom, if ever, have I put 

 in the time for two months and a half at any kind of work 

 that was more congenial to my nature than this work in the 

 fall of 1872. Besides we were seeing a country that was 



