Montana State University Library, Merrill G. Burlingame
Special Collections
P.O. Box 173320
Bozeman, MT 59717-3320
United States
Phone (406) 994-4242
Fax (406) 994-2851
http://www.lib.montana.edu/archives/
University Archivist
spcoll@www.lib.montana.edu
Collection 2485, MtBC, us
Pendergast, William Wirt,
1833-1903
William Wirt Pendergast Diary
1895 June 17-1895 June 21
1 volume
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.
Collection materials are in English
Biographical Note
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.
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.
This collection is open for research.
Yellowstone National Park travel diary created by William Wirt Pendergast was removed from
Collection 1505 for separate processing in March, 2006.
This collection was processed 2009 May 28
Pendergast, Abigail
Cogswell
Guptill, A. B. (Albert Brewer),
1854-1931-Yellowstone Park guide
Yellowstone National
Park
Tourists-Yellowstone National
Park-Diaries
Diaries-Yellowstone National Park
Parks and
Playgrounds
Sports and
Recreation
Transportation