CHAPTER VI. (CONT'D)

FROM AN OLD SETTLER'S DIARY.

May 6, 1861.-S. M. Holladay, now a resident of Massena township, left his home in Winterset, Madison county, for a trip to the mountains, by wagon. He kept a diary of the trip, and kindly allows the following extract, regarding Cass county to be taken therefrom: "May 8, 1861, we had a very pleasant day. The wind had layed, and it was not very hot. Our brother campers having several of the female sex along, complained very much about profane language that was used by our company. We camped in a small town called Whitneyville. We met with our friend, Frank Whitney, who invited us to supper, and introduced us to his wife, and treated us to the whisky. After supper was over we chatted by the fire and happened to see our chatted by the fire and happened to see our cattle starting off down the road toward home. We started after them, and were obliged to follow them about six miles before we could overtake them. "The morning of May 9, brought a pleasant day, and a pleasant night's rest was finished. After breakfast we had the pleasure of seeing two hundred United States troops pass in uniform and marching order. They were from Fort Randall, Dakota Territory. About the middle of the day we had a rain, which was steady for about four hours, but not very hard. Our things were not very wet. At night we arrived at the Nishnabotna, in Cass county, and camped in the bottom north of town. There were several wagons camped in the bottom. We had considerable fun swimming the cattle across the river to grass, and had some music of violins and songs in the evening after supper. We had boiled one of our pigs, of which I partook of so freely that I was sick for some time afterward. "On the morning of May 10, the roads being soft after the rain, and the weather rather cool, we made a very good day's drive. We took what is called the right hand, or ridge road from Lewis, and left our fellow-travelers. In the afternoon I shot a prairie chicken and had a good old time cooking it, as it was older than Noah himself. In the evening we camped upon the west fork of the Nishnabotna, a beautiful valley, surrounded on all sides by timber."

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Transcribed by Deb Lightcap-Wagner, March, 2014 from:"History of Cass County, Together with Sketches of Its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens", published in 1884, Springfield, Ill: Continental Historical Co., pp. 280-281.