latest report

I restarted my work on Prairie Leveretts again, but ran into several obstacles. I am hoping to finish it this year.

It is tentatively called Prairie Leveretts: Reconstructing a Plains Pioneer Family, though that title may be too long or may change. It is about the life of the family of James Walker Leverett, who was born in 1834 in Maine, grew up in western Illinois, and tried settling in the plains three times: once in Nebraska as a youth, once in Nebraska during the Civil War, and finally in South Dakota around the time of the great railroad crash.

His wife, Harriet, stuck with him all those years, and there are many descendants of their six children, some of whom I am hoping will read the book. It's a major project keeping track of them all, and I may not try it, though I keep contact with some and know that his full diary is out there somewhere (I don't have it) to add to my research. I have a lot of things and want to compile it regardless. I have concluded that the time is now whether I can get that diary or not.

Harriet, a character in her own right, had bronchial trouble which led them to winter in places like Claremont and Sunnyvale, California, or Texas and Alabama. This leads me to believe that they had money toward the end of their lives, and were willing to spend it, and that the railroad crash did not especially wipe them out back in South Dakota. He did leave South Dakota saying something to the effect that the financial crash made it impossible for them to stay, but that apparently was a reference to the fact that nobody was buying lumber anymore. It's interesting to track down personal moves and find out why and how he could end up in any particular place. I too have moved all across the plains, with western Illinois figuring strongly in the picture, and can relate to families who change geographical locations just to get their kids up and grown.

Bear with me; it may be a while before this one is finished.