Scope and Contents The diary of Nathan D. Allen contains material on life in Webster Groves, with accounts of the 1849 cholera epidemic, the Civil War in St. Louis, and mentions of meeting Abraham Lincoln and Henry Shaw. The Civil War portion of the diary contains brief entries of general war news and affairs in St. Louis. It includes the following entries relating to the capture of Camp Jackson and related affairs in St. Louis in early May 1861: ...