William Wirt Pendergast Diary

William Wirt Pendergast Diary, 1895 June 17-1895 June 21

Overview of the Collection

Creator: Pendergast, William Wirt, 1833-1903
Title: William Wirt Pendergast Diary
Dates: 1895 June 17-1895 June 21
1895061718950621
Quantity: 1 volume
Collection Number: Collection 2485, MtBC, us (collection)
Summary: The William Wirt Pendergast Diary consists of several pages of entries kept within A. B. Guptill's Yellowstone Park Guide; A Practical Handbook (St. Paul: F. Jay Haynes, 1894). The brief entries describe the vacation trip of William and Abbie as they leave Hutchinson and visit Yellowstone National Park in 1895.
Repository: Montana State University Library, Merrill G. Burlingame Special Collections
Montana State University-Bozeman Library
Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections
P.O. Box 173320
Bozeman, MT
59717-3320
Telephone: 4069944242
Fax: 4069942851
Access Restrictions: This collection is open for research.
Languages: English
Sponsor: Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Biographical NoteReturn to Top

William Wirt Pendergast was born in New England in 1833. After attending Bowdoin College in Maine, he joined with the Hutchinson brothers to plat a town in Minnesota Territory by the same name. Pendergast returned to Massachusetts sometime before the end of the Civil War where he married Abigail Cogswell. The couple had a son, Edward, in 1864 and two years later returned to Hutchinson, Minnesota where William began a career in education. William eventually became the first principal of the University of Minnesota's two-year agriculture school and finished his career as the state Superintendent of Schools. He died in 1903.

Content DescriptionReturn to Top

The Pendergast diary consists of several pages of entries kept within A. B. Guptill's Yellowstone Park Guide; A Practical Handbook (St. Paul: F. Jay Haynes, 1894). The brief entries describe the vacation trip of William and Abbie as they leave Hutchinson and visit Yellowstone National Park in 1895. They left their hometown on June 17, making stops in Mandan, Livingston, and Cinnabar on the train before boarding a Tally-ho stage to Mammoth Hot Springs. While in the Park the couple visited: the Norris Geyser Basin; the Lower Geyser Basin; the Upper Geyser basin including Old Faithful, Castle, and Riverside Geysers; Mammoth and Fountain Hotels.

Administrative InformationReturn to Top

Acquisition Information

Yellowstone National Park travel diary created by William Wirt Pendergast was removed from Collection 1505 for separate processing in March, 2006.

Processing Note

This collection was processed 2009 May 28

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

Tourists-Yellowstone National Park-Diaries

Personal Names

Pendergast, Abigail Cogswell

Geographical Names

Yellowstone National Park

Form or Genre Terms

Diaries-Yellowstone National Park

Other Creators

Personal Names
- Guptill, A. B. (Albert Brewer), 1854-1931-Yellowstone Park guide (creator)

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