This is the diary of George Bonniwell, who documented his travels from Milwaukee to California in 1850.
He writes daily about his travels, usually about the weather, how many miles they travelled on that day and of anything that occurs on that day, such as the selling of a horse or writing a letter to his wife.
In his diary entries he likes to discuss the physical landscapes of the towns he travels or stops in. He describes Beloit as "a beautiful place" as well as a place for good business. He describes many towns they pass through, usually referring to the amount of churches in the town, probably as this shows how many are settled in the town.
Boniwell discusses the various types of landscape on his travels, some being of woodland and of flat land and identifying which lands were the best to settle on. He is curious about the Native American graveyards he travels through.
There is a lot of mention of illness, mostly dysentery, and the giving out of medicine on their travels, which is highlighting the lack of hygiene and illness that occurs quickly and kept reoccurring. However, they managed to overcome illness and continue their travels.
Bonniwell concludes overall, due to the failure of building a dam, which either broke or had many leaks, and diseases and injuries and the lack of food, for which was common for many of the travellers at this time, that the journey had been a failure.
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