The diary records an 1874 voyage from New York via Panama to California. The unidentified author describes the weather, the ship's progress, shipboard life, Aspinwall (Colón), Panama, the train trip across the Isthmus, the landscape and villages, Acapulco, and the voyage to San Francisco. There is a detailed description of San Francisco and more information on California towns, agriculture, mining, flora and fauna. The diary also chronicles a train trip from Rocklin, California to Reno, Nevada, where the author found work on an alfalfa farm. The author continued overland by train through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska to Chicago and then Detroit. The author traveled to New York by way of Niagara Falls and The volume includes illustrations of California, Nevada, and Niagara Falls as well as maps of the railroad routes. There is a list of the illustrations and a list of plants identified. The author also created an abstract of the diary in the back of the volume
Subject (Geographic):
Nevada., United States., West (U.S.), Acapulco (Mexico), Colón (Panama), California, Niagara Falls (N.Y. and Ont.), Nevada, Panama, Salt Lake City (Utah), and San Francisco (Calif.)
Subject (Name):
Central Pacific Railroad Company., Colon (Steamship), Montana (Steamship), Panama Railroad Co., and Union Pacific Railroad Company.
Subject (Topic):
Agriculture, Alfalfa, Railroad travel, and Description and travel
Viewbook of mounted photographic prints compiled by the George W. Williams & Company, fertilizer merchants, ca. 1869. A photographic print appears on the recto of each mount that depicts an advertisement for Carolina Fertilizer with a letterpress testimonial below it. The verso of each mount carries a photographic print of an image created by Andrew J. Russell. The exception is the last mount, which carries a photographic advertisement for BD Sea Fowl Guano on the recto of the mount and no photographic print on the verso. The images by Russell document landscape views and buildings along the Union Pacific Railroad in Nebraska, Wyoming, and Utah, ca. 1867-1869. Many images of landscapes include men and women posited in the terrain to provide scale, An image shows a view of Echo, Utah, as well as rock outcroppings in its vicinity, including Hanging Rock, Monument Rock, and Sphinx Rock, Images of locations in the Weber River Valley, Utah, include views of Coalville city, Devil's Gate, Tunnel No. 4, Bridge No. 32, and of the Mormon Turnpike Bridge at the mouth of the canyon, Images of Wyoming include views of a large windmill at Laramie; Granite Canyon from a water tank; High Bluffs in the Black Buttes area; and an overview of the Laramie River Valley, as well as railroad cuts consisting of the Burning Rock Cut and Hall's Cut (identified in a caption as the Great Mountain Pass)., An image of Omaha, Nebraska, shows a street leading to the Missouri River, An image shows a group of people during the laying of the last rail connecting the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad on May 10, 1869, near Promontory, Utah, and Sixteen plates without mounted photographic prints in the volume contain graphical advertisements for the products of the George W. Williams Company including BD Sea Fowl Guano, Bradley's Super Phosphate of Lime, C. C. Coe's Ammoniated Super Phosphate of Lime, Carolina Fertilizer, and Palmetto Soluble Acid Phosphate, as well as powdered raw bones and dissolved unburnt bones
Description:
Title from cover., Autograph on front board of Frank E. Taylor., Twenty photographs of the west are reduced images from Andrew J. Russell's, The Great West illustrated . . . New York, 1869., and Photographic prints measure 13 x 7 cm.
Publisher:
s.n.
Subject (Geographic):
United States., West (U.S.), Coalville (Utah), Echo (Utah), Laramie (Wyo.), Missouri River, Nebraska, Omaha (Neb.), Salt Lake City (Utah), Utah, Weber River Valley (Utah), and Wyoming
Subject (Name):
Russell, Andrew J., Williams, George Walton, 1820-1903., Young, Brigham, 1801-1877, Beehive House (Salt Lake City, Utah), Central Pacific Railroad Company, Lion House (Salt Lake City, Utah), Tabernacle (Salt Lake City, Utah), and Union Pacific Railroad Company
Subject (Topic):
Homes and haunts, Advertising, Agriculture, Fertilizer industry, and Railroads
Manuscript diary in the hand of Henry Ridinger, 1878-1882. Ridinger describes his work as a herder in Colorado, landscapes and topography in Colorado, Navajo settlements, working in the hay trade, a shooting and arrest in Colorado, and his travel through Kansas to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Ridinger describes life with a group of Osage, including the construction of buildings, hunting, fishing, agriculture, and Osage funerary and religious ceremonies. Ridinger also records his interactions with other tribes, including Pawnee, Cherokee, Ute, and Waco. He describes relations and treaties between the tribes, as well as the tribes' relations with the United States government, including the disbursement of food and clothing. Other passages describe copies of earlier treaties with France and Spain which the tribes showed Ridinger. A later entry describes the aftermath of the United States Army burning a Jewish settlement in Oklahoma in 1881 and The diary also includes an essay about the history of Native American treaties with the United States government and several pages of accounts listing expenses and sales of hay, wheat, and corn. The diary includes several drawings of people, horses, insects, dogs, and symbols. Accompanied by 3 photographs, one hand-colored portrait of Henry Ridinger, one of an unidentified woman, and one of a man and woman captioned "Uncle Sam [Ridinger] with his sweetheart who died."
Description:
Henry Ridinger (1851-1938) was born in either Iowa or Illinois in 1851. His family moved to Kansas in 1857 and he left home at the age of 11, circa 1862. He worked as a cattle herder and hay farmer in Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma for several years in the 1870s and 1880s. He later became a hay farmer in Lincoln County, Nebraska, circa 1885., In English., and Front and back covers are detached.
Subject (Geographic):
Colorado., Oklahoma., Oklahoma, Colorado, Indian Territory, and Kansas
Subject (Name):
Ridinger, Henry, 1851-1938. and Ridinger, Sam
Subject (Topic):
Agriculture, Cherokee Indians, Crime, Hay trade, Herders, Hunting, Indians of North America, Government relations, Jews, Navajo Indians, Osage Indians, Pawnee Indians, Ute Indians, Waco Indians, and Description and travel
Photographic postcards of farm buildings, stock, the Murphey family, and farming scenes, apparently gathered and captioned for promotional purposes
Description:
The Murphey farm was owned by Mary P. Murphey of Houston, Texas, located 3/4 of a mile north of Stafford, Fort Bend County, Texas. Crops included corn, alfalfa, cotton, and hay. and Manuscript captions on verso and/or at bottom of image.
