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EDWARD BATES : 1859 ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT DIARY AND LETTERS [5] HANDWRITTEN BY A WITTY, OBSERVANT AND ILL-FATED STUDENT AND FRIEND OF DR. ORONHYATEKHA AT KENYON COLLEGE DETAILING THE FIRST FEW MONTHS OF A SCHOOL YEAR HE WAS NOT TO FINISH

8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. On offer is a splendid journal from the mid-19th Century kept by an Ohio schoolboy. It measures 9.5 inches by 7.5 inches and contains 137 pages. It is 100% complete and the ink handwriting is quite legible. The back cover has separated from the binding but all pages are intact. Along with the journal, there are 5 letters written by him to his parent - with the accompanying notation: "Letters from my brother Edward from college to his parents. He died when he was 18 years old." Edward Bates was born in 1842 in Columbus OH where his father was a judge, sat on the Board of Education and served as Director of the state penitentiary. In 1859, at 17 years of age, he entered Kenyon College as an undergraduate. This is when he began his diary. "This morning, I started for Kenyon College with all the necessities and even the luxuries of that a fond mother and a thoughtful father could think of and provide... "[Sept 7, 1859. Kenyon College was and remains a top private liberal arts college and he was soon immersed in his studies. Like many residential students, he has strong opinions about the food served: "Gracious! What a living we do have. Bread so hard it curdles the milk if it's near enough. Biscuits so hard that they have to put an extra leg under the table. Sirloins, some cut on side of the horns, some nearer the nose. Chickens so singularly formed that they all amount to wings. Hash so greasy that they have to put a plate over it to keep it in the dish. ..." [Sept 16, 1859]. His roommate was Edward Stanton, son of President Lincoln's Secretary of War, and some of his classmates described in detail include: Sam Clarke (Louisiana); Jim Kilbourne (Worthington); Charley King (Lancaster); Postlewaite (Kentucky); Thompson (Oswego, N.Y.); Gilbert (Portsmouth); Allen D'Orville; and "The Indian," Oronhyatekha (son of a chief) from Mohawk family, who became a noted Indigenous physician (one of the first two in Canada), temperance advocate, chairman of the Grand General Indian Council of Ontario. Edward's days included three sets of daily prayers and lessons from Professors Trimble, Lang, Blake and Wharton. He was an excellent student and received very high marks in his first term. His diary describes his membership in Nu Pi Kappa; his friends and classes; spiritual life and thoughts; meals (including lots of oysters!); and entertainment - walks, snowball fights, and pranks. His letters home add more detail to his daily life at college. He is also more reflective when writing to his mother and once can sense the real bond between them. This diary ends on January 15th, 1860. Sadly, Edward Bates passes away the following May, likely of a fever. In 1953, his younger sister, Fanny Platt Bates Little, at the age of 95, gave a glacial boulder from the Bates Homestead in Columbus, Ohio to Kenyon College in 1953 in memory of her brother Edward. This is a delightful diary that is chock full of observations, comments and witty observances of life in a college in mid-19th century America. A historian studying the social history of the time or education history would find it a valuable resource as Bates was diligent in is daily recordings. They offer a fine insight into the liberal arts education as it was being developed in mid-America.. Illustr.: /. Manuscript. Book Condition: Good

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