In the late summer of 1872, Fort McKeen had 123 soldiers, including seven officers who lived in four officers' quarters at the northwestern end of the parade ground. Like the fort's other buildings, these homes were built economically: paperboard covered the interior walls instead of plaster, untreated wood warped within weeks and caused drafts, and furniture was made from crates or scrap lumber. Elizabeth Custer wrote that the officers' quarters at the infantry post were "....small, shabbily built quarters...hardly considered good enough for a common day-laborer's family."