Do you know where Phoebe was living in 1863? At first I thought the Cambria area of Niagara County, because she mentioned visiting Dickersonville and Pekin. But in the last installment she also visited Drake Settlement in Newfane and Somerset way over on the eastern side of the county. It's a good twenty five miles or so from Cambria to Somerset, a long drive via horsepower. If she was living in the Newfane area, it still seems like quite a distance either way, to Cambria or Somerset. She certainly got around. --- Ramond Scott Woolson Niagara County

Re: Traveling distances in Phoebe's time. Phoebe might not have traveled by horse and wagon/carriage. I think the canal was completed at the time of Phoebe's diary, right? If so, she may have traveled via the Erie Canal. Otherwise, there were more trains in those days. Many of those trains and tracks have disappeared today. Faith