1869 Handwritten Diary/Titusville Pa/Strikes Oil
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Offered is the handwritten 1869 diary of Homer G. Bates. Although he wrote his address in the front of the diary as Titusville Pa, Crawford County, Pa, the 1880 Pa Census lists his farm as being in Oil Creek. Mr Bates was about 28 and single when he wrote this diary, and lived on a farm with his father, mother and two brothers - Henry and Julius. He is a religious man and attends two churches on most Sundays w he teaches Sabbath School. He belongs to several organizations - the Y.M.C.A., The Good Templars, Odd Fellows and also attends the Board of Supervisor meetings w he was appointed Town Clerk. Toward the end of the year, he invested some of his new found wealth into buying property in Titusville. The diary measures about 6" X 4" and t are a few skips in the entries - about 30 days total. However, most days are full, and in some cases he continued to write that days entry vertically. T are some faint pages and occasionally a word is illegible, but I was able to read the entire diary. He has written an amazing account of the Pa oil boom during that year. He leases some of his farm land for the excavation of oil wells, and takes 1/16th of the profit. He inter-acts with some of the famous oil men of that time - Jonathan Watson, who was the first oil millionaire, the very affluent Col Chester with whom he spends an evening over night.
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