Manuscripts
The set consists of two diary volumes kept by Hallie Christie Miles from June 1907 until June 1909. The first volume, which ends in June 1908, was kept while Hallie was mainly living at home in Rock Creek, Kansas, and giving music lessons to students in nearby Hall's Summit, Long Creek, Rosemont, Agricola, and Long Creek. Most of the entries focus on the weather and Hallie's daily activities, such as sewing, household chores, reading, writing and receiving letters, attending church (including the Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches), and visiting friends and relatives. Hallie had friends with both horse and buggies and automobiles, and writes frequently of traveling in both (she also drove the horses herself, which on one occasion almost led to an accident when she "met an engine and nearly had a smashup"). She also takes local trips by train, including those to Hutchinson and Ottawa, Kansas, as well as a longer trip to Arlington, Colorado. In the second diary, which begins in September 1908, Hallie writes of her extended travels in the western United States, which lasted from October 1908 until March 1909. Hallie traveled by rail through Colorado to Boseman, Montana, and down through Butte. Her entries are usually austere, but she points out that this portion of the trip "afforded very beautiful scenery and the conductor was very kind to tell us interesting things along the way." She also records seeing "Indian wigwams and a cowboy girl" near Missoula and a wagon team crossing the Flat Head River. After an engine breakdown in the Cascades, Hallie arrived in Seattle, where she stayed at the Y.W.C.A. (her usually accommodations throughout her travels). She toured Washington state by car (finding time to attended the Tabernacle, Methodist Church, and Catholic Cathedral) and took a three-day boat trip to Vancouver, Canada. In January 1909 she traveled through Oregon and California, briefly stopping in San Francisco before taking the train to Los Angeles (along the way she describes railway tunnels, the Santa Clara Valley and Santa Clara College, and the Henry Miller cattle ranch). She spent the next month taking day trips in the Los Angeles area (including seeing construction on the Owens River Aqueduct). In February she began the return trip to Kansas, passing through Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and Grand Junction, as well as taking a few days touring Pueblo, Colorado.
mssHM 75879-75880
