Archives West Finding Aid

The P. C. Waite Papers consist of his diaries, his autobiography, letters written by family members, and some business and personal papers from his son-in-law, Joseph Adam. P. C. "Cliff" Waite wrote his autobiography when he was eighty years old and describes mainly his business pursuits, especially his gold mining endeavors. The papers also include a letter written by Flora Gardner (Mary Gardner Waite's relative) in 1879 describing the family's trip from Fort Benton to Bozeman. Another letter in the Waite papers includes a copy of a speech delivered by E. M. Gardner, Mary's father, detailing the history of the Presbyterian church. Joseph Adam's papers include his birth certificate, passport from Austria, his naturalization certificate, papers related to his death, a letter from his father, and copyright registrations and royalty contracts for his music. The bulk of the papers, however, are P. C. Waite's diaries which chronicle two periods from 1887-1892 and 1899-1910 and offer some insight to one man's life with close ties to the Gallatin Valley at the turn of the century. Most of his entries begin with a remark about the weather. Overall, Waite recorded daily events with a few reflections about his life. His diaries stop around 1892 and begin again in 1899. During this second period, Waite's diaries were comparable to a work log. He recorded daily events, especially events that were occurring at the mines. General topics he discussed were the amount of ore that went through the mine, the quality of the ore, general repairs needed for the mine, and various other tasks related to mining. In his final entries, Waite was residing in Bozeman. It was during this time that he began working with his father-in-law in the real-estate business. Waite concluded his diary with the death and funeral of Mary's mother.