A familiar name and a familiar picture was that of Miss Leona McAllister who passed away at the family home north of Parks last Saturday from an incurable disease which caused her much suffering over a period of almost two years and in the end the full realization that her days on earth were numbered, and she looked forward and welcomed the coming of the end.

Miss McAllister came to Dundy county as a small girl with her parents to cast her lot with the new West, where nothing save a vast expanse of open prairie, along with a few cowhands, thousands upon thousands of range cattle and an occasional coyote served as a reception committee, just as was the case of all other pioneers who turned their eyes towards the setting sun and left their homes all over the eastern section of the nation in the fascinating thought of accomplishment in a general way and the ultimate hope of a home for themselves.  Some of them felt the necessity of coming westward if they ever hoped to get a home for themselves and others came just because they wanted to, maybe for the spirit of adventure or perhaps just to see.  Some of them saw plenty with the approach of the trying years of the early nineties and gave up the fight as they moved hither and everywhere under the protection of a canopy covered wagon.  Some headed north, some south, some east and some west but whatever direction they went, they met up with many others as their paths crisscrossed—all uttering the same complaint—grasshoppers, drouth, hot winds and impossible times.  But all did not leave and included among those who remained was the McAllister family.

Miss McAllister, like other girls of her day, availed herself of what educational opportunities that were then possible and became a teacher in which line of work she continued until her health began to fail.  Then when her strength left her to the point where she felt that she could no longer give the best service in the school room, she looked around for something to occupy her mind.  She remembered her girlhood days in Dundy county and the many people she had known and appreciated so much.  She realized that most of the pioneers and even some of her own generation were passing rapidly and that the time was not far distant when little historical data of the early days would be available so she set about the task of writing and compiling a history of the county in which she solicited the aid of many old timers whom she had been able to locate.  But getting the data and material for her history was not so easy.  Naturally, many promised to do their bit to write the history and all of them fully intended doing it but the tendency of humankind to procrastinate required that she write and call their attention to the task at hand many times before the contributions began coming in.

The next thing was the publication of the history in book form and with this in mind, Miss McAllister called a meeting several years ago at which a Dundy County Historical Society was organized.  But when it was found that the cost of publishing such a volume seemed prohibitive after the depression set in, she gave the idea up temporarily and finally abandoned it altogether in favor of its serial publication in the county press and the first chapter appeared in the first issues of 1937 and it was continued weekly until early in 1938.

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