1886 antique TRAVEL JOURNAL oswego ny to san francisco & denver railroad diary For Sale

1886 antique TRAVEL JOURNAL oswego ny to san francisco & denver railroad diary
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(AI-assisted content; handwriting interpreted with care — verify visually.)

Original 1886 handwritten travel and expense diary, approx 3.5" × 6", about 20+ pp, bound in a soft brown leather-finish cardstock cover. A remarkable firsthand record of a journey beginning April 14 1886 in Oswego, New York and traveling west by rail through Chicago, Rock Island, Santa Cruz, Menlo Park, San Francisco, the Presidio, Ogden, and Denver, with notations continuing into late 1886.

The diarist — literate, reflective, and curious — interleaves expense accounts, travel notes, sermons, quotations, and agricultural tallies.

Travel Content

April 14 1886: Leaves Oswego at 6 p.m., travels with “Mr. Bullis” via Chicago & Rock Island, crosses the Mississippi “just before dark.”

June 11 1886: In Boulder Creek CA, “Mrs Ellis keeps boarding house … in evening 30 or 40 people sang John Brown’s Body.”

June 28 1886: “Attended B. Church, Mrs Landy took me out riding on cliff road … saw yachts.”

July 11 1886: Railroad excursion from Santa Cruz to Monterey and Pacific Grove, noting “walked up the avenue tenting on both sides.”

Aug 14 1886: Leaves San Jose for San Francisco, passing Menlo Park, “palms, canna, and rockeries of flowers,” meets friends at the Palace Hotel.

Visits the Presidio, “rode 4 miles on cable & horse cars to officers’ and soldiers’ quarters; evening at Howard Street Church, Children’s Day.”

Detailed rail notes through the Sierra Nevada and Marshall Pass:
“17 miles to gain five on the Marshall Pass … 14 miles through the Black Canon on Observation Cars 700 feet high.”

Mentions meeting Gen. Howard and local residents; observes orchards in full fruit: “Peaches, pears, apricots, prunes, oranges, lemons, cherries …”

Ledger & Moral Notes

Expense pages list coffee 20¢, kerosene 15¢, social tickets 20¢, bread & milk 5¢, etc., showing daily life in 1886 California.

Includes religious and moral extracts: “Life counts not hours by joys or tears … The glory of our lives is to do something and to do it well.”

Contains brief scripture list (“2 Peter 1:21; John 3:16”), a reference to Bradford K. Pierce, D.D., and a note of “The Orthoepeist or Pronouncing Manual by Alfred Davis.”

Later farm records: “H. had 70 acres wheat, 666 bushels, 85 acres corn.”

Authentic period piece related to family, historyor local heritage - well-suited for historical collections, genealogical /genealogy research, or museum acquisition.Vintage or Antique.



CONDITION: See listing description and photos.































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