Title: Happy as a big sunflower
Description: "In 1876 Rolf Johnson and his family left Illinois for Phelps County, Nebraska. Rolf left home in 1879 "with the intention of going west for a season." His departure may have been sparked by the marital fever exhibited by a female suitor.

Rolf felt he was "not quite prepared to leave the state of single blessedness for that of double misery." In Sidney, Nebraska, he ran with the "sporting" element, who showed him photographs of "fast women of the town stark naked." He found employment with a wagon freighter headed for the Black Hills, where he saw Calamity Jane in action. Rolf's education continued until the diaries end in Cubero, New Mexico, in 1880. He returned to Phelps County in 1882 and remained there for most of his life.

Rolf's lively diaries offer an entertaining eyewitness account of pioneer life and an unmatched resource for historians."--BOOK JACKET.
Subjects: Social life and customs, Frontier and pioneer life, Diaries, Pioneers, Biography, Swedish Americans, Frontier and pioneer life, nebraska, Frontier and pioneer life, west (u.s.), Nebraska, biography, Nebraska, social life and customs, West (u.s.), biography, West (u.s.), social life and customs
Places: Nebraska, Phelps County, Phelps County (Neb.), West (U.S.)
People: Rolf Johnson (1856-1922)
Time periods: 19th century