Wood Lake, one house. Named from a lakelet and one tree. Some one has taken a claim here, and built a sod house. Beyond this there is scarcely a house to be seen.
Johnstown, two houses, a tent, and water tank. Country taking on a better appearance—farm houses dotting the country in every direction. Country still grows better as we near Ainsworth, a pretty little town, a little distance to the left. Will tell you of this place again.
Crossing the Long Pine Creek, one mile west of Long Pine town, we reach Long Pine about six o'clock.
Mrs. P. says she does not care to go the rest of the way alone, so I have concluded to stop there over Sabbath. I feel like heaping praises and thanks upon these men who have so kindly considered our presence. Not even in their conversation with each other have I noticed the use of one slang or profane word, and felt like begging pardon of the stranger for thinking so wrongly of him.
Allow me to go back and tell you of Ainsworth:
Ainsworth is located near Bone creek, on the homestead of Mrs. N. J. Osborne, and Mr. Hall. It is situated on a gently rolling prairie, fifteen miles south of the Niobrara river, sand hills four miles south, and twelve miles west. Townsite was platted August, 1882, and now has one newspaper, two general stores, two hardware stores, two lumber yards, two land offices, two livery stables, one drug store, one restaurant, and a millinery, barber, blacksmith shop, and last of all to be mentioned, two saloons. A M.E. church is organized with a membership of thirteen.
I would take you right over this same ground, reader, after a lapse of seven months, and tell you of what I have learned of Ainsworth, and its growth since then.
Brown county was organized in March, 1883, and Ainsworth has been decided as the county seat, as it is in the centre of the populated portion of the county. But the vote is disputed, and contested by the people of Long Pine precinct, so it yet is an undecided question. Statistics of last July gave $43,000 of assessed property; eight Americans to one foreigner. I quote this to show that it is not all foreigners that go west.
"The population of Ainsworth is now 360; has three banks, and a number of business houses have been added, and a Congregational church (the result of the labor of Rev. Joseph Herbert, during his vacation months), a public building, and a $3,000 school house.
"Claims taken last spring can now be sold for from $1,000 to $1,500. A bridge has been built across the Niobrara, due north of Ainsworth. There is a good deal of vacant government land north of the river, yet much of the best has been taken, but there are several thousand acres, good farm and grazing land, yet vacant in the county. There is a continual stream of land seekers coming in, and it is fast being taken. The sod and log 'shanties,' are fast giving way to frame dwellings, and the face of the country is beginning to assume a different appearance. Fair quality of land is selling for from three to ten dollars per acre.