To Robert and list: I hope this will not bore too many that are on this list, but I thought this proves that our 1830's Livingston Co. pioneers did travel and get around more than I certainly thought. I presume this was a religious meeting; I wish it stated names for we researchers!! July 25, 1833 - "On the 25th day of July, the ox team and the big road wagon was called into service. Father, mother and all the children in company with a neighbor having about the same outfit, started over to Mackinaw (now Lexington, IL) a distance of twenty miles, to a camp meeting. The day was extremely hot and dry, consequently the oxen gave out. We found a pond of water into which we drove the oxen and allowed them to stay until sundown. We were only three miles from where we started. Our neighbor became discouraged and turned back. We were out on the prairie, with no road - not even a tangle in the grass - and seventeen miles before us without a horse. We took our course by the stars, travelled all night and arrived at the camp ground by eight o'clock next morning. It was a glorious camp meeting to us all, so our journey home was in broad day light; but our drive over there by night was not unpleasant, and was so much better for the team." Written by Woodford G. McDowell (1818-1904), Avoca Twp., Livingston Co., IL (just north of Fairbury)