Our first day’s travel after leaving Buffalo was in a northeastern direction on the public road from Buffalo to Linn Creek, the county seat of Camden County. The first night on the road we stayed with a Mr. Vincent and his family on Prairie Hollow, near where the town of Macks Creek later was founded. I remember that some of the land in the hollow, which really was a narrow valley, was not in cultivation and the prairie grass was growing on it as high as a man’s head. We all slept in Mr. Vincent's house that night except my brothers who "bunked" in the wagon. The next day on our way to Linn Creek, we passed a place called Moulder’s Cave, we stopped and went into the cave, in which there was a spring ot cold sparkling water, and Mr. Moulder, who lived near, had some fine watermelons and some of the nicest yellow butter in earthen jars in the cave I ever saw. This butter he said was made the previous May. Father bought a melon and some of the butter. The melon was delicious and the butter was as fresh as if it had been made recently. That evening we arrived at Linn Creek and camped for the night on a hill near the large store building of Joseph W. McClurg, who had done a wholesale mercantile business at Linn Creek for several years. He had bought goods in St. Louis and freighted them by steamboat to Linn Creek, which is on the Osage River. Mr. McClurg was a staunch Union man and during the Civil War he became a Colonel of a regiment in the Federal Army. After the war he was elected Governor of the state of Missouri. At Linn Creek I had my first experience of camp life. When we left Buffalo after the Wilsons Creek Battle, Dolph, Irene and their baby, Alice, who was born May 20, 1851, came with us on our journey. After we arrived at Linn Creek, we made a camp fire and Mother and Irene cooked our supper. They had brought along some cooking utensils, expecting we would probably have to camp outdoors frequently and do the cooking on campfires. Mother had had some experience in cooking this way when she was a young girl and came with her parents overland from Tennessee to Missouri and this experience was of benefit on this occasion, and she and Irene got our supper cooked in good shape and we all enjoyed it very much. I would have enjoyed camping outdoors better but my job, while the cooking was being done, was to nurse or hold the baby Alice in my lap and, as she cried constantly, I at once decided that I did not like to nurse a baby, my first experience, but by no means the last. That night we all slept in the wagon except my brothers and probably Father. Bud and Tom, who had come from Buffalo on horseback, arrived at Linn Creek the same evening we did. When we got to Linn Creek we found there were a number of Home Guards there who had cone from various localities in Southwest Missouri, among whom was Mother's brother Uncle Lucius Rountree of Greene County, who had been an Aid-de-camp to General Lyon prior to the Battle of Wilson Creek and, who like us, was on his way to Jefferson City and who later became a Captain in the Federal Army. The next morning after eating a hearty breakfast, we crossed the Osage River on a ferry boat, another new experience to me, accompanied by Uncle Lucius and a number of other Union men. We continued our journey to the State Capital, where, after two or three days travel, without mishap or being disturbed by any one while enroute, we arrived safely. We camped in the suburbs of the city, near the encampment of some federal soldiers. This was the first time I had ever seen soldiers clothed in uniforms, although since the war began, I had frequently heard of the "Boys in Blue." In their dark blue coats and light blue pants and blue caps and armed with fine looking muskets, they were splendid looking men and evoked my hearty admiration. Then and there I determined that as soon as I was old enough I would become a Union soldier.

There was a large body of Federal soldiers at Jefferson City which had been in the possession of the federal government for some time. Here I first saw a train of cars and viewed at first sight, the Missouri River, which Father intended to cross at this point. He was advised not to do so as Calloway County, across the river from the state Capital, was inhabited largely by pro-confederate soldiers, if we shoud go that route. Accepting this advice we changed our course and traveled on the road down the south side of the river until we reached the town of Washington in Franklin County where we crossed the Missouri River in a steam ferry boat, landing in Warren County. This was the first time I had ever seen or ridden in a steamboat. Warren County was inhabited almost exclusively by German people, most of whom were loyal to the federal government.

That evening we camped near the river and during the night Brother Bud was taken seriously ill, and by morning he had a high fever, and Father said he had an attack of bilious fever, we were all greatly troubled over Brother Bud’s condition and realizing it would probably greatly increase the seriousness of his illness and might endanger his life to try to continue our journey while he was so ill. We hardly knew what to do or where we could find some place to stay until he should recover from his illness so we could safely resume our trip. That morning while we were eating breakfast, a gentleman who was passing, called at our camp and in conversing with Father said he was Doctor Deitweiter, a local physician. When he learned we were Union refugees and that a member at the family was sick he advised Father to drive on a short distance to the home of Mrs. Diekman, a widow lady, who he assured Father would be glad to entertain us until my brother was able for us to resume our journey. I think he gave Father a letter of introduction to Mrs. Diekman and when we arrived at her home, she received us very cordially, welcomed us to her house and treated us, during our stay with her as kindly as though we had been her relatives. We remained at the hospitable home about ten days. Soon after we arrived there, several oe her neighbors came to Mrs. Diekman’s home in a wagon bringing a quantity of vegetables of all kinds, meat, chickens, flour and meal, a contribution of loyal friends to assist her in providing food for us while we were her guests. Mrs. Diekman was an excellent cook and took great pains in preparing many kinds of food for every meal. In addition to the usual mode of cooking various vegetables one of the viands she prepared was new to all of us except Father and Mother. It was similar to the kind of hodge-podge they had seen the Indians cook at the Shawnee Mission in Kansas. Mrs, Diekman cooked potatoes, beans, cabbage and turnips and some meat, pork I think, all in a pot until it was thoroughly done and as Mrs. Diekman was a very cleanly lady, Father, Mother and in fact all of us had no hesitancy in partaking of the hodge-podge and we all relished it very much. She baked three kinds of bread; biscuits, corn bread and light bread and the latter kind was baked in a large brick oven, constructed out in the yard. There was a fire box below the oven which was near the top of the structure and the heat for cooking the bread was made by a wood fire. The light bread, as well as the corn bread and biscuits was of excellent quality. It seemed to me like that Mrs. Diekman and her daughter, a young rosy checked German girl, did an unusual amount of cooking. They were engaged in the culinary art from early morning until late at night. They were typical German people, conversed among themselves in the German language but they could speak English with a very pronounced brogue. They dressed in German style, and their dresses were of home woven fabrics, and they wore wooden shoes, the first I had ever seen. They made quite a noise walking over the floors, which were oak, scrupulously clean and covered with white sand. The Diekmans had a fine orchard and early fall apples and peaches were ripe while we were there. I heard them converse every day in German and I learned the meaning of a good many words and I learned to count in German. If we had stayed with this family long enough I could have learned to understand and speak the German language but never again being with German people, I forgot most of the words I learned, but I never forgot the numerals and I can still count in German.

As soon as Bud was able to travel we prepared to leave our good friends, Mrs. Diekman and family. Father offered to compensate her for our board and her constant care of us while we had been at her house but she refused to accept anything, expressed the wish that we remain longer and when we bid her and her family good-bye, she showed by actions and words her genuine regret at our departure.

Chapter six continued...