First day meeting

First day, 4th [November 4, 1867] Went to Wm's, dressed & went to school and meeting. Raining very fast. Good school. Lotan came to meeting just after it set. After meeting, started to Peter's but it rained so we stopped at Jerrie's. Emily & the children were there. Just after dinner Peter & Fanny Albert & Marion came to bring cousin Ellen E. & her 2 children. She is here on a visit to her niece Isabel Well's (Cousin Nicholson's daughter). She is Aunt Nancy Millis's daughter & looks much like Grandmother used to. Stayed at Jerrie's all night. Lotan & Emily went home with Peter. They have been plastering & not fixed to keep much company till it dries. Had a good Carolina visit with cousin Ellen. Rain over."

My cousins and I went to the Sugar Plain Friends Church on "First day" morning. Although this is not the same building where our great-great-grandparents worshiped , we were glad to be in the house of the Lord and among Friends who have continuously met in this very place since 1838.

"Second day 5th [November 5, 1867] Went back to Wm's & helped do up chores till evening. Lotan & Emily came. Henry, Logan and Wm. Went to town & bought a stove but we can't get the use of it for a week. Went to our old cabin to sleep. Real open & cold."

This is a picture of the cabin taken some 30 years later.


"Third day 6th [November 5, 1867] Went with L. & Em. to Thomas's then came back to the cabin & helped cord up a couple of pairs of bedsteads we got of James Brown."

Ann's diary of her journey ends here, one month and two days after writing the first page. Ann kept other diaries, but none so interesting as this account of her trip from Iowa to Indiana in the fall of 1867.

Thorntown at last!

"Third day morning 29th [Tuesday, October 29, 1867] Got to William's a little after sunset -- found Matilda not very well, tho able to be up some. They buried an infant, a few days old, last first day evening. Was a week. A little boy weighing 3 pounds. William, Elna & Ruth Ann were pretty well. The farms look like potato patches, there has been a good deal cleared up since we left here. Cramela came to see us after night. Night. Went to Branson's after breakfast, found Nancy not very well. Branson got a fall from a ladder in an apple tree that hurt him. Came near getting killed to be hurt no worse. After dinner, went with Branson to Thomas Gossett's, found them middling well. Elam has just got out of a hard spell of fever, looks real bad. Jerusha has changed much, lost several of her teeth and looks poor & pale. Thomas looks older & the girls larger than I expected. Came back to Branson's this evening & found Hadley Corsbie here. Curtis came & went to William's after Alson. Henry is nearly Alson's size & Gilbert a little less."

Ann & Henry's joyful arrival back in Thorntown is immediately met with the sad news that their newborn grandson has died. (Matilda is Ann & Henry's daughter.) The baby must have been premature if he was only 3 lbs. Ann includes this significant event along with chatter about the farms, friends and neighbors, and how the kids have grown.

My cousins and I are excited to be in Thorntown, Indiana!

We're finally in Indiana

"First day 27th [Sunday, October 27, 1867] Took the Newtown & Thorntown road at Covington, said to be 12 miles nearer the Crawfordsville road. I think it is not so good and perhaps we shall not gain by it. Noon. Stopped to feed in a lane 4 or 5 miles west of Newtown. The timber is plentiful. We see very poor buildings through here. There must be very little enterprise among the inhabitants. Roads not so good as in Illinois & Iowa."

"Second, 28th [Monday, October 28, 1867] Hunted Newtown till the middle of the afternoon when we were told we were farther from Thorntown than we were in the morning. Then turned for Pleasant Hill following a man and his family through gates & woods, pastures, 5 miles till we got onto the old Covington road, then camped in a nice grove. Rained a little last night. They are now hitching up to start. Hope we shall get through today if we don't get off the road again. Noon. Stopped to feed in a lane on the east side of a grove. Real cool and been foggy all morning. 4 miles east of Linden. Came 14 miles this forenoon."

As we neared Thorntown, Indiana, our destination, it was easy to see how Ann & Henry could get a little lost, especially since they had been gone for 12 years. The corn fields and country roads all begin to look alike. We encountered a downpour and were glad to be in a car and not in the back of a wagon!

First, they had to get to Iowa

Iowa became a state in 1846 and was soon settled by restless pioneers looking for land. An eye-witness described migration to Iowa in 1854: "The immigration into Iowa the present season is astonishing and unprecedented. For miles and miles, day after day, the prairies of Illinois are lined with cattle and wagons pushing on towards this prosperous state. At a point beyond Peoria, during a single month, seventeen hundred and forty three wagons had passed, and all for Iowa. (The Friend, Vol. XXVII, p. 319)

Quakers were part of this throng, crossing the Mississippi River and settling in the fertile valleys. It was said that ferrymen on the river became familiar with the Quaker salutation 'thee' and 'thou'.

Ann and Henry Way were part of this migration, moving to Iowa in 1855.

Quaker meeting records show that the Way family moved several times during their 12 years in Iowa including Cedar Creek Meeting, Salem Meeting, Western Plains Meeting, Bangor Meeting, South River, Ackworth Meeting, and Rosemount Meeting.

Eventually in 1867, the family made the decision to return to Indiana. They stayed another 18 years in Indiana before coming west... which is why I am a Californian and not a Hoosier.

I can't wait to see the Iowa towns where Great-great-grandmother Ann lived!

Iowa to Indiana 1867

In October of 1867, my great-great-grandmother Ann Millis Frazier Way and her family traveled by wagon from Iowa to Indiana. She kept a diary along the way, recording towns, roads, river crossings, and places where they camped.

Now in 2010, one hundred forty three years later, my cousins and I are following Ann's trail. Ann and her husband Henry took 26 days to make the journey. We will drive it in less than 5.

Ann's family had a long Quaker lineage, extending back to England. Because it was felt that the "idolatrous Saxons" named the days of the week after their gods (Sunday for the sun, Monday for the moon and so forth), Quakers kept their diaries by numbering the days of the week. Thus Ann's diary begins "10th month, 3rd day" in Green Plain, Iowa.

Does Green Plain still exist? Is it accessible by car? How does it look 140 years after Ann began her journey?

We will find out as we follow Ann's diary. The journey begins June 28, 2010!