V. VON GOETZ, North Side Grocer.--The subject of our sketch was born in Vienna, Austria, and crossed the Atlantic in 1871, settling in Pennsylvania, where he remained for ten years. In 1881, he came to North Platte, and followed his trade, that of machinist, until 1888, when, desiring to enter a new sphere, in which his energies should have larger scope, he purchased the business of E. A. Carey, and established himself in the family grocery, provision and feed business, in which he has been very successful. His store on Locust and Eighth Streets, is conveniently located for those living on the north side of the city, and is filled with a choice and attractive stock, valued at $3,500, of eatables of all kinds. Mr. Von Goetz, who has all the native vigor, sterling honesty, and business judgment of the Teutonic race, is to be congratulated upon his success.

     ARTHUR B. AYRES, D. D. S.--For the delicate operations necessary in the successful practice of dentistry, a lengthened, practical and technical preparatory training is essential. Dr. Ayres has had all the advantages of such a course. Born in Wales, he came to this country at an early age. He is a graduate of the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, and practised in Kentucky, Kansas and this State, before deciding to make North Platte his home in 1889. Believing that prevention is better than cure, Dr. Ayres makes a specialty of the preservation of the natural teeth. He has traveled extensively, and has much valuable and varied information about the countries he has visited. He is a Mason, a Knight of the Maccabees and a Red man.

     NORTH PLATTE TRIBUNE, Ira L. Bare, Editor and Proprietor.--This weekly was established in 1885. and now has a circulation of 1,500. Republican in politics, and alert to all local happenings, it is not to be wondered that the people of North Platte patronize it freely. Mr. Bare was born in Pennsylvania, and turned his steps westward in 1880. After one year's residence in Colorado, he came to North Platte in 1881, and worked with the Nebraskan until 1885, when he was enabled to edit a paper of his own. He is a K. of P. and a Modern Woodman.

     CHAS. F. ORMSBY, Grocer--Was born in Michigan, came to North Platte in 1873 and conducted a confectionery business until 1880, in which year he embarked in the present line; and by attention to details, courteous manner, fine goods and moderate prices, he has succeeded in building up a most desirable trade. In his store, 22x100 feet. on West Front Street, is to be found a stock, of $5,000 worth of groceries, queensware, flour and feed; the annual sales exceed $25,000. Mr. Ormsby was mayor of our city during 1888 and 1889, and has been city councilman for six years; he is owner of considerable real estate, and a member of the Masonic fraternity.

ANTELOPE COUNTY.

     Antelope County has the best cheap lands to be found in the Union. In the heart of the great Nebraska corn belt, it is also a fine country for small grain. It has plenty of hay and pasturage for cattle, and corn to fatten them on. It has land at fair prices, plenty of water, good markets, fine schools, and no county bonds to pay interest on.
     There are two reasons why farmers wish to change their homes for another. One is the high price of land in the older portions of the country hinders many from purchasing, and to those who are able to purchase the higher-priced eastern lands, the objection arises that the lands have attained their maximum value, and one of the great sources of profit in land holding is therefore wanting. That the present price of land in Antelope is low, we take a few quotations from real estate agents' advertisements in the local papers:
      One hundred and sixty acre farm; seventy acres cultivated; five acres forest trees; entire quarter fenced; frame house, 18x22; frame barn, 24x32; corn cribs, poultry pens, etc.; well and wind mill; $2000, easy terms.
     One hundred and sixty acres; sixty acres fenced; sheds for seventy-five head of cattle; good well and pump; three miles from railroad station; $1000.
     One hundred and sixty acres; ten acres forest trees, $900.
     One hundred and sixty acres, a mile from county seat, $2000.
     Three hundred and twenty acres; frame dwelling, 14x20 feet, one and one-half story, with addition 14x20, one story; good barn, corn crib, well and windmill; fruit trees; grove at house; timothy meadow; all smooth, level land; 200 acres in crops; $2500.
     These are fair samples of how cheap farms can be bought in this county. Antelope is a new county and as yet less than half of the land adapted to profitable farming has been plowed.
     The county was organized on the fifteenth day of June, 1871. It is 24x36 miles square; area, 552.960 acres; annual rainfall, twenty-eight inches; altitude above sea level, 1500 feet; population, 11,374; acres cultivated, 165,632; value of real estate, $6,091,140; value of town lots, $992,586; value of personal property, $4,759,104; seventy-two miles of railroad; eight banks; seven newspapers; State apportionment for schools, $6,344; 113 school districts; sixteen postoffices; twenty-six churches; total valuation of school property, $68,300; cost of public schools last year, $42,904.

     The annual average rainfall is several inches in excess of the limit recognized as necessary for successful farming. The county is well supplied with small streams of clear water, which never run dry, and the Elkhorn River runs through the center of the county from west to east. It is recognized everywhere as one of the best watered counties of the State.
     The soil is a rich loam underlaid with a porous clay subsoil which readily absorbs any excess of rainfall, and in dry weather gives it up like a sponge to the soil above. The soil in this section is adapted to a greater variety of crops than any other. It is in the great corn belt, and crops of that grain are raised here that are not exceeded either in quantity or quality anywhere. The large number of cattle and hogs that are annually fattened here is indisputable evidence of the corn growing value of the county, two feeders alone, within two miles of the county seat, buying over 300,000 bushels for this purpose. In addition to supplying the feeders, thousands of bushels are annually shipped out to other markets.
     Antelope County is composed of gently rolling prairie. It is nowhere so flat as to be unsuitable for cultivation on account of lack of drainage, and neither is it so broken that farming is difficult. In this respect it strikes the happy medium. Rising gently with successive swells from the water courses, and covered with fields of waving grain or luxuriant grass, it presents a picture pleasing to the eye and devoid of that monotony which makes a perfectly level country so dreary.
     The Elkhorn River runs from west to east through the county a little south of the center. Into this main stream run numerous creeks, which, being fed by springs, contain plenty of running water the year round. On the south side of the river are the Clearwater, Antelope, Cedar and Ives Creeks, two of them, the Cedar and Clearwater, being large enough to furnish power for grist mills which are located upon them. On the north side of the river are Reynolds, Hall, Belmer, Elwood, and Hopkins Creeks which empty into the Elkhorn. In the eastern part of the county is Willow Creek, which runs east into the north fork of the Elkhorn. In the north part of the county are the numerous branches of the Bazile and Verdegris Creeks. These also carry sufficient water to run mills and already several mills are running. Its altitude above the sea level (1,500 feet) gives it a pure atmosphere, which is one of the prime requisites for health. A case of ague, the scourge of many sections, has never been known here. There is no swampy land to produce it. In the late fall and winter the air is dry and a rainy or foggy day in winter is a rarity. Antelope County does not pretend to be a winter resort where the rich go at that season to see the flowers continuously in bloom, nor does it pretend to be a summer resort where the same class go to escape the heat that is so necessary to the growing and maturing of the crops. It is located however where the summer heat is not so excessive as to make life a burden, and where it is not excessively cold in winter. It is in the middle temperate zone where the bone and sinew of this and every other nation lives.
      All kinds of tame grasses do well here, such as timothy, clover, bluegrass and red top. As yet, however, comparatively little of it has been sown as the hills and valleys are covered with such a luxuriant growth. The native wild grasses with which the prairies are covered have the advantage of the tame grasses in the matter of time in which they must be cut. The tame grasses require to be cut at about the time the farmer is busy in the harvest field or in the corn. The prairie grasses are at their best after corn cultivating and harvest is completed, and from that time on until the killing frosts come the grass can be cut and is not damaged in the least by being left standing until that time.
     Antelope is one of the best small grain counties in the Union. In 1889. in competition with large displays from Iowa, Minnesota, Dakota and other parts of Nebraska, Antelope County took first prize on small grain at the Sioux City Corn Palace. To-day the visitor can see all over this county fields of oats almost ready for the harvester, that will go from sixty to seventy bushels to the acre, wheat from twenty to thirty and other small grain in proportion.
     Potatoes and all root vegetables grow here in a manner that is astonishing to eastern farmers.
     The farmer of this county has the same Chicago market to sell upon, if necessary, that the eastern farmer has, but little of the crop goes on the general market, and most years none at all. A large per cent, of the surplus corn goes into the hands of feeders who pay a larger price for the grain than it is worth to ship to eastern markets.
     There are quite a number of large beet fields in Neligh County. This crop has proven very profitable, as the beets find a market at Norfolk, in the adjoining county.
     Antelope is well supplied with railroads. The great Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad passes from east to west through the county a little to the south of the center, and a branch of the same road extends from the main line south. These lines give direct connection with Omaha, Lincoln and Sioux City., which markets are none of them over 150 miles distant. The Pacific Short Line passes through the county from east to west a little north of the center, giving direct connection with Sioux City. The Pueblo & Duluth Railroad, now under way, will pass from northeast to southwest through the county, and give the section the benefit of that peerless grain market at Duluth, which is 150 miles nearer than Chicago, and the benefit of the market for feed and grain which the mining country of Colorado affords.

STOCK INTERESTS.

     Antelope County offers advantages to the stock raiser excelled by none. Running streams of pure spring water are numerous, and water in never failing supplies can be readily obtained at a depth of from twenty to fifty feet

in any portion of the county. Not only is water readily obtained everywhere but it is of excellent quality. Good hay land is plentiful and pasturage is abundant. That stock raising is profitable is attested by the large number of cattle annually raised and fattened for the market, not only by the feeders mentioned, but by the farmers. Omaha, only 150 miles away, is as good a cattle and hog market as Chicago, being the third largest packing point in the world, and her packers have the facilities to handle all the stock that is shipped from the section tributary to them, and ample capital to increase their plants as the country back of them increases its production.
     Creameries in the county readily dispose of the product of the cows, paying the owners a remunerative price for it.
     The farmer that comes to Antelope County expecting to see the angular cattle with great spreading horns, which many eastern people associate with their ideas of the West, will be disappointed. He will find here about the same class of cattle he left behind in his eastern home. The common stock has been universally bred up with the better breeds, and thoroughbreds are as common here as elsewhere. The same is true of hogs.

TIMBER.

     This country is not the treeless section many people imagine. There are many natural groves of timber scattered through the county along the watercourses. The land laws allowing the filing of one timber claim on every section of land has been very generally taken advantage of, and there are not many sections that have not a timber claim containing at least ten acres of trees. On the older ones the timber is now getting of nice size, and groves are not by any means uncommon. Most of the settlers, whether they have a timber claim or not, have set out a grove around their house. Many of these groves are small, yet many of them are large enough to afford plenty of shade, and protection in winter. While the timbered sections of the United States are being rapidly stripped of their trees, this prairie country is raising up thousands of acres.

NELIGH.

COUNTY SEAT OF ANTELOPE--POPULATION 1500.

     The town of Neligh is situated on the north bank of the Elkhorn River, on a small table land, from which there are slight descents to the east and west, and more descent to the south To the north, as a background, are the hills which limit the Elkhorn Valley, rising to a height of fifty or sixty feet. The land on which Neligh is built was originally granted to Nebraska by the United States government. Subsequently the Elkhorn road (then the Omaha & Northwestern) received it as a portion of its grant of 50,000 acres from the State. In 1872, Hon. John D. Neligh and others came on a tour of observation, and, being well pleased with this locality, decided to purchase a tract of sufficient extent for a town site, and, as it was near the geographical center of the county, make the proposed town the prospective county seat. After the purchase at Omaha from the proper authorities, a messenger was sent out to Antelope to have the people vote to make Neligh the county seat. He did not. however, arrive till noon of election day, when the majority of the votes had been cast for Oakdale, that being, at the time the most considerable town within its limits. The town, however, was platted the following February (1873), and began to grow steadily. The first hotel was opened in March, 1874, and the school house in January, 1875. The Congregationalists organized a church in 1875, the Baptists in 1878, and the Episcopalians in 1881. There are now also Methodist and Christian denominations. In 1884, Neligh, having become the most substantial and largest town in the county, was made the seat of justice.

REPRESENTATIVE BUSINESS FIRMS AND MEN OF NELIGH.

     T. W. DENNIS. Clerk of Antelope County.--The office of county clerk has an incumbent at. the present time, who, in his administration, has given perfect satisfaction to the representatives of all parties. Mr. T. W. Dennis is a native of New York and is serving his second term. He has lived nine years in the county, and formerly was engaged in the sailing business. He belongs to the G. A. R. and served in the 10th New York Heavy Artillery. Mr. Dennis is prominently identified with the Masons and A. O. U. W.'s He is a gentleman who has ever exercised the excellent qualities of