In the book A Lantern in Her Hand, we see the Nebraska landscape changing from a wild prairie land to place with thriving small towns dotted with trees. When Abbie Deal first came to Nebraska, it was nothing but prairie. When they first arrived, they lived in a sod house, but later built a nicer house. She didn’t like the waves of endless grass at first, but she grew to love the prairie landscape. The land was fertile, but didn’t get much rain. The Deals and the other families that traveled with them managed to stay through the droughts and grasshopper storms, while some settlers were forced to return to where they came from. The few farmers who came to Nebraska with Abbie and her husband, Will, founded “Cedartown.” It got its name from the cedar trees the settlers transplanted from the creek side. Cedartown was patterned afer Elmwood, a town near Lincoln. Though most of Abbie’s children moved to Lincoln or Omaha, her home would always be in Cedartown. The town grew when a train was built in Lincoln. It made it much easier to come to Nebraska. As more people came, the towns and cities started to grow. Cedartown grew into a comfortable community outside of Lincoln. By the time Abbie passed away, Cedartown bore no resemblance the desolate settlement it once was.