Another pioneer figure of the west was claimed by death today when George Lord, 76, died at the Sheridan County Memorial hospital at 2:00 p.m., following several months of failing health.
Sheriff of Sheridan county from February 1924 to January, 1933, Mr. Lord was also a former railroader, cow puncher, stockman and hardware merchant.
The admiration and respect in which Mr. Lord was held by the people of this community is borne out in the fact that his term as sheriff of the county was twice as long and one more year than any other sheriff in the county’s history.
For the past three years Mr. Lord has devoted his time to his ranching and other interests, and at the time of his death was making his home in Clearmont, where he was engaged in the mercantile business.
As a youth in his early teens, Mr. Lord came west from his birthplace in upstate New York. He first located in Nebraska, but the call of the west kept urging, so, in 1879, he set out for Wyoming, settling in the pioneer town of Rawlins.
Here he worked on the railroad for more than a year, but the open range called and he set out, this time following the trail herd to Sheridan county.
Mr. Lord liked to tell the story of his arrival in this vicinity, and many times he has told, how, early in the morning of May 10, 1882, about two years after he arrived in the county, he was riding the Prairie Dog ridge with the Big and Little Goose valleys stretching below, he galloped towards them. Arriving on the spot, he found John D. Loucks, founder of the city of Sheridan, working with Jack Dow and a group of other early settlers who were busy surveying the original townsite for the present city of Sheridan.
Mr. Lord was born in Plattsburgh, New York in 1861.
He was a member of the Sheridan Lodge of Elks and of Lodge No. 8, A. F. & A. M.
Besides his widow he is survived by a daughter, Mrs. J. Francis Beidler of Texas, and one son, George F. Lord, of San Bernardino, Calif.
The body is at the Champion Funeral Home pending completion of final arrangements.
