The following short article by Edwin S. Lee, one of the very early settlers of this township, will give a graphic picture of the beginnings of Cameron:

Before the advent of the railroads the west was settled, first along the rivers and later on the line of ovrland trails, the pioneers invariably remaining as closely to one of the other of these means of cummunication as possible. This was true of the settlement along the Platte Valley, and altho several colonies were established between Fort Kearny and Grand Island prior to 1871 no one ventured to located permanently in what is Cameron township until that year.

A man named William Shelton located in Cameron township in 1871, coming from Missouri, but evidently thought it too remote from the railroad, timber, water, and neighbors to ever become valuable and he failed to make any filing or purchase. He, however, was not so considerate of prospective settlers of whom he spoke as "tender feet," but spent most all of his time in locating them upon the land in his vicinity, finding corners and performing the services of the modern real estate agent. His location fee was five dollars in each instance and he doubtless thought while placing settlers upon government land which is now worth from sixty to seventy-five dollars per acre (in 1919 that would be considerably advanced) that he was getting much the best of the bargain when his fee of five dollars was paid. The first bona fide settlers in this township were John B. Steverns and Samuel Rode, both taking soldiers' homesteads in 1871. In the spring of 1872 William Dubbs, Seth Lee, Edwin S. Lee, O. E. Palmer, Lester Houghton, John Peebles, Henry Streator, James Cannon (afterward sheriff of the county), a Mr. Carlson, S. Reider, and others whose names are not preserved, located on government lands in Cameron. Of this number only the Messrs. Edwin S. Lee and Samuel Reider are now living in that township (this was written in 1907). Many of the settlers of '71 and '72 afterwards became discouraged on account of the failure of crops, drought, grasshoppers, and the failure of the new settlers to understand the methods successfully to till the new soil, and they abandoned their claims and left the country, some moving on west but many retuning to their eastern homes.

In the fall of 1872 the new settlers met at the house of William Dubbs and organized school district number 13, of Hall County, which was nine

miles square. Seth Lee built the school house and after it was completed an itenerant minister named Allan preached the first sermon on Cameron township. A year later Rev Mr. Marsh, a Methodist circuit rider, established a class and held regular services in the school house.

The Pawnee Indians wandered across the country from the Loup to the Platte River, frequently camping for considerable time on Prairie Creek. They were not particularly troublesome except that they were great beggars and had very little regard for the rights of property, and in particular from beffing and stealing corn for their ponies and provisions for themselves, cause more or less annoyance.

After the grasshopper period, closing about 1874 or 1875, the settlement of Cameron was very rapid and such of the older sttlers who remained and attempted to develop what is now one of the richest and most productive townships in the county lived to reap the rewards of their early struggles and privations.

In the early day there was considerable game, deer and antelope, but no baffaloes, after the settlement of Cameron township. the coyotes, however, stuck closer than a brother and even yet a few scavengers of the plains remain to remind the settler of his early combat to save his poultry and young pigs from these wolves.

A roster of some of the early landholders in Cameron township, prior to 1890 will funish a more complete list of those who helped to develop this township after it was settled.:

Seth Lee, Edwin S. Lee, Haydn (sic) Strong, A. W. Benton, J. C. Leach, Louis Ravens, Ervin Whitehead, J. E. Goodrich, Chas. Descoe, Harry C. Chase, A. L. Meith, C. H. Russell, Thos. Hulme, Alex W. Steven, J. B. N. Bryan, O. B. Waddington, Levi Hankson, Charles S. Benton, Jos. Guy, E. S. Crandall, L. W., Goss, H. C,. Streator, G. E. Crawford, C. P. Miller, D. C. Worts, Fred Miller, Amos Taylor, Jas. Staugh, J. H. Hetherington, Jac. F. Miller, Samuel Waddington, H. A. Bartling, Riley Z. Bates, H. D. Newton, John W. Dean, John M. Johnson, William W. Dubbs, John Gilligan, Miles Lyons, P. J. Grass, J. S. Dyer, Michael Carey, N. W. Afflerbagh, Charles Schultz. John R. Thompson of Grand Island was landowner in this township.