A Harvard Cook in the Wyoming Badlands:
The 1908 Diary of Alcott Farrar Elwell
By Ginny Kilander
“I waved my hat and the people craned their necks out the window to see ‘the cowboy’? What a bump they would have had if they had known!”1 Twenty-two year- old Alcott Farrar Elwell recorded this event in his diary in July of 1908. The native of Massachusetts had been in Wyoming and the West barely twenty days himself. Elwell made his first trip to the Western U.S. while he was working to support his Harvard education and complete his bachelor of science degree. A Harvard acquaintance had offered him a position as cook with the U.S. Geological Survey for a team assigned to the coal fields in the vicinity of Buffalo, Wyoming. Despite his lack of cooking experience, Elwell accepted the position and spent 3 1/2 months that summer and fall in Johnson and Sheridan counties, Wyoming, as the cook for a four-man survey team.
Elwell maintained a daily diary which documented his trip to the West, and also created a visual record with photographs showing the impressions of a Massachusetts man as he first experienced Western culture and the Wyoming landscape. He recorded the typography and weather in descriptive and detailed passages, not unlike other Eastern travelers unfamiliar with the West. His love of the outdoors was evident, and he described hunting, fishing and observations of wildlife throughout his Western stay. His sense of humor, ability to laugh at himself, and his adaptability in various situations is apparent. Entertaining entries contrast with statements which reveal the solitude of those months, with many days spent alone while the geologists were elsewhere conducting their fieldwork, and while his family remained in the East.
Elwell was a student of human nature, and his observations of strangers he met, and comments on the interpersonal relations of the survey team as a whole are included in his documentation. Essentially strangers at the outset, these men shared close living quarters for several months, and were forced to work together as a team despite their differences.
Elwell traveled to the West for employment, and for a short-term job. He had no plans to make the West his home, nor to even return there later in life. Yet his work ethic, adaptability, and good nature, in addition to his love of the outdoors and adventure, made him a seemingly well-qualified candidate for the job. Needless to say, not all young men would travel thousands of miles across the country to camp in the outdoors, with a group of virtual strangers, and live in harsh outdoor conditions in a mobile camp in an unknown environment for several months. Although he may have lacked cooking experience, he demonstrated capable skills in outdoor living.
In the early years of the twentieth century the U.S. Geological Survey began an extensive study and classification of coal lands in the Western United States.2 President Theodore Roosevelt authorized the coal testing program initially in preparation for a demonstration for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, but the program became a regular part of the U.S.G.S. in 1905.3 In addition to studies in the states of Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, and North Dakota, several coal fields in Wyoming were surveyed including fields located near Buffalo, the Powder River, Big Horn Basin, Little Snake River, and Rock Springs.4
The Buffalo Coal Field team was headed by Hoyt S. Gale, a Harvard graduate who was in his sixth year of service with the U.S.G.S.,5 and who had recruited Elwell. Carrol H. Wegemann co-authored the published report of the survey, and field assistants Doane Gardiner and W. H. Beekly completed the team.6 Elwell’s captions on one group photograph provide additional insight into the personalities of the men. Gale is identified as “The Chief,” Gardiner as “The Actor,” and Beekly is referred to as “Dad,” a nickname also used by Elwell throughout his diary.7 Elwell identified the survey as part of the United States Geodetic Survey, Roosevelt Lignite Conservation project.8
Although Elwell would not marry for many years after his summer experience, his widow recalled,
Colonel Elwell looked back on his Wyoming summer with great appreciation and enthusiasm. It was rough, tough, and challenging. And he liked it. He loved the outdoors wherever he was. He had never cooked! But like everything else, he was not afraid to try, and used to say, ‘and they liked my cooking!’…His Wyoming experience was one of the mountain peaks of his life. Frequently referred to, it had a large part in contributing to the usefulness and success that followed.9
The son of sculptor Frank Edwin Elwell and Molina Mary Hildreth,10 Elwell was one of twin boys, Alcott Farrar and Stanley Bruce, born to the couple in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the fall of 1866. Alcott was named for his godmother, author Louisa MayAlcott, who had encouraged his father to study sculpture, and provided him with his first lessons.11 Farrar was the family name of the twin boys’ paternal great-grandparents.12
Details of Elwell’s early childhood are scarce. He spent 1895, the year he turned nine, in France, and attended school in Kassel, Germany, the following year. His father had strong ties to Europe, having been schooled at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. The couple married in that city, although the they returned to the United States the year before the boys’ birth.13 A noted award-winning sculptor, Frank Elwell may have returned to Europe to pursue his art, and moved his family, including his school-aged children, with him.
Later, Alcott Elwell returned to the United States where, from the age of 15 to 19, he attended the Cambridge Latin and Stone Schools.14 In 1905 he had his first experiences with Mowglis School-of-the-Open, a summer camp for boys located in East Hebron, New Hampshire, where he worked as a junior counselor for the summer. The camp would become a major focus of his life. Elwell became the owner/director of the camp from the 1920s through the 1940s.15
Alcott Elwell began his Harvard career in 1906, a member of the class of 1910. Financial difficulties prevented him from graduating with his class and forced him to leave Harvard periodically to earn additional funding to support his education. In addition to his position as cook for the U.S.G..S., Elwell was a New York City mechanic for the Panhard-Lavasser Automobile Company, served as nurse at a Kassel, Germany, hospital, worked as a Boston bookkeeper, and began a boys’ school in Cleveland, Ohio, all in a period of only seven years.16 Elwell’s Harvard records indicate that he also began a club for young men relating to modern business, with the theme “how to get a job and how to keep it,”17 an ironic topic for a man who held so many jobs during his college career.
Elwell began his diary with his departure in New Jersey on July 2, 1908, when he “left Weehawken [New Jersey] with Dad on the front steps, the Hudson [River] dull blue in the heat haze beyond. Left mother at 23rd St. and now turn my face West, where what I go to meet -I face alone.”18 His parents were divorced during this year, and his father maintained an art studio overlooking the Hudson River.19
From Weehawken, Elwell traveled to Jersey City and then continued by train to Virginia where he stated: “N.J. and Virginia look much alike and there is the same feeling to the country (except for the girls!)…Philadelphia and Baltimore dwarf after the sky-scrapers of N.Y., so that they look like [a] city of small mushrooms.”20 This night was spent in New York City. Elwell met HoytGale, the head of the survey team, that evening.
The train trip to Wyoming and the stops along the way may have held as much interest for Elwell as the months spent in the state. During a layover in New York on July 3, he commented on his trip to the Library of Congress. He recorded his impressions of George Washington’s Bible, and an unnamed illustrations exhibit, and he later noted the titles of books available for sale in a book and cigar store located near Union Station.21
..After reaching Baltimore we turned west and are excitedly rushing towards the west. Over the fields I saw a great rainbow in the evening twilight, its eastern end lost halfway down among the rain clouds, but the western end reaching almost to the ‘pot of gold,’ and hidden only by the mist on the countryside.22
When he arrived in Chicago on the Fourth of July, he observed, “People look Western; women not as well dressed as New York nor as smart-looking.” After steaming through Iowa and Nebraska, the train entered the Mountain time zone on July 6, and Elwell observed the local wildlife: “Along the track prairie dogs everywhere sit up like drum majors. They sit so straight, and tucking their paws in front of them they look as if presenting arms. By the excitement caused from the train, it must be quite an event in the village.”23
The train arrived in Sheridan that afternoon and Elwell “..went uptown, bought a hat and shoes. The town faces N and S; to the west 10 miles away are the big horns. The farthest peaks snow-capped. To the south lies our route and Buffalo. Sheridan is a town of 8000, sporting a whole line of stores, hotels, etc.”24
Elwell met the other members of the survey team that night, although he provided no commentary on his initial impressions of the men with whom he would spend the next few months. The team left Sheridan and traveled south, arriving in Banner that evening, where they enjoyed supper and the evening at a ranch located in a grove of cotton trees.25 On July 8 the survey team continued to travel south toward Buffalo. While stopped for lunch near Lake De Smet, “Three autos (2 Buicks and a 2-cyl. Rambler) caused a variation and excitement. Lake De Smet is said to be a bottomless lake and whosoever rows or goes on the surface is always drowned.”26
A letter in the local Buffalo newspaper from that summer described the nearby town as a “busy place, in one of the most fertile communities of Wyoming, and is the county seat. Its population is about 2,000. In spite of the fact that it is thirty miles distant from the railroad, it is making a continuous progress, both in business and social way.” 27
Elwell’s entry for the morning of July 9 records his first cooking for the unit, while they were camped a quarter-mile from the town of Buffalo: “4:30 am cut wood, built fire, and got breakfast. Pretty poor first attempt. Coffee bad, scrambled eggs and bacon. Dinner at 1 p.m. Steak, peas, corn, and chocolate. Supper soda biscuit and grapenut -good. Made bread and cleaned stove…”28 The following day’s cooking attempts showed slight improvement, “Made 3 loaves of bread, but squashed one. Pretty good.”29
The field party was joined by the 19th Infantry, on their way from Fort McKenzie to Cheyenne, for the next few days. Elwell’s photographs document that the two parties shared a single camp during their stay. The soldiers played baseball against the “Buffalo nine.” The newspaper reported that “the soldier boys played nice ball, but the game was not close enough to be very interesting, the visitors being ‘shut out’ by a score of 9 to 10 in Buffalo’s favor.”30
Elwell’s comments frequently relate to Wyoming weather and outdoor conditions of late summer. He reported on July 11: “…my hands are blistered in contact with hot things; my face is too. I wear a complexion like a pickled beet. Let me say honestly God help the man who has to burn cotton wood in the country.”31
On July 13, the team broke camp and stopped in Buffalo for supplies before following Clear Creek toward the Watts Ranch:
The hills are all covered with great coal clinks from the burning of great coal bed in the hills. These clinks make the red effect so picturesque in the landscape. Beside [this] the black jagged pieces of melted rock and iron with burnt coal, form fantastic figures among the hills….A most wonderful full moon, pale, very pale, and white over the prairie and the river bottom. The tents shone in it, and the wind seemed to be accompanying it through the night for as the moon rose into the sky the wind became stronger and fresher…Early next morning, at 4:30, it still hung on the edge of the sagebrush over beyond the hills even while the crimson was deep on the east. I wondered whether Bruce and Mother had seen it passing them two hours before, but kept on its way into the West without answering.32
For much of the survey Elwell had considerable time to himself while the geologic team was exploring, studying and mapping the region. “Dad” [Beekly] and Elwell were left to themselves on July 14, and passed the day sleeping and reading. Later Elwell
Got some coal from the Ranch and started using it. The coal looks, is, part of ossified wood, cracks terribly, and will powder if wet, and then dried. It burns pretty well, almost like wood, it is so soft. It is better than having to chase through forlorn country in search of a piece of wood to burn.
Upon the return of the other survey members Elwell prepared a “… full-course dinner, -2 vegetables, jelly omelet, etc. The French fried potatoes were very sad…”33 (He copied down his rudimentary cooking knowledge into a “cookbook” of handwritten recipes. Some, he apparently learned from ranch women while in Wyoming. He commented in a letter he mailed from Wyoming “no one has died yet from my cook.”) 34
Shortly after dinner that night, a strong storm moved into the area.
At camp matters were sad indeed. The spot we are on is a bit low, but drained by a ditch. Such a flood descended that the ditch overflowed and the tents swam. Hoyt got the worse dose for it was a regular puddle underneath his cot. All hands were digging ditches when I arrived…Oh! it is sweet to get into bed with two inches of mud below! I piled all my belongings in a pyramid on the grain sack and got into bed naked, as towel and pajamas were somewhere in the moisty pile.35
Unfortunately the camp conditions did not improve by daybreak the morning of July 15:
But sweeter than going to bed wet is getting up and stepping into the mire at 4:30 a.m. to hunt for a damp pair of pants in a cool chill and yank on a pair of boots while mud jellies around you. Again it is no dream to pull water 300 yards in pails with the mud up to your ankles –but that’s what I’m paid for.36
…..Damn the house fly! When the Lord made these he certainly slipped up, or more probably it was one of the best inventions of the Devil…..and the flies are thick as a man’s sin on Judgment Day, and quite as aggravating!37
Elwell was obligated to stay near the camp that day, as two members were surveying and the other two were in search of Brownie,” one of their horses which had wandered from the camp.38
On July 16, the team left camp in Watts and traveled toward Piney Creek, stopping for lunch at Piney, before their arrival in “Claremont”[sic]39 later in the day. Clearmont, “consists of a couple of saloons, two stores and a railroad station.”40 The survey unit camped a few miles south of the town that night:
4:30 am. Woke with the wide open prairie all about. Washed dishes in the ditch which was a slow and dirty operation. Got mixed up at breakfast and did not get off until 8:00. Made a mess of things, and was told so. Better next time; all right, I will know better what is up.
The recent rain caused the rivers to rise six inches, making fording the creeks difficult.41
On July 19, Elwell “took a mud bath in the Powder River, nearly clear mud. Smith [head of U.S.G.S.] arrived at 6:00 pm.”42 (The local newspaper provided clarification and confirmed that Dr. Otis Smith, director of the Washington, D.C., bureau of the U.S. Geological Survey, had arrived in Buffalo at some time from July 18-August 7).43
The next day the team left the Powder River camp and traveled back toward Claremont [sic].
About 6 p.m., after an extremely hot, muggy day and mosquitoes began work. Around the cook tent and the fly they gather in black blotches and make dish-washing a torment…. On going to bed I thoughtlessly sat on the ground, whereupon my pyjama (sic) pants became coated with ‘stick tights.’ Between mosquitoes outside, burrs inside, and the heat sleep was a matter of small account. The next morning I had the comfort in learning that all the rest had suffered during the night444
The following day Hoyt had planned to take the stage toward the Big Horn Mountains. The stage was full so he and “Dad” took the wagon instead.45 Alone in camp the next day, Elwell was
writing a letter to Dad [when] the darned stock forded the river and …fled away. I followed in chase across the river, up to my waist in water. The water was so swift it took uttermost precaution not to slide on a pebble and be carried down stream. Skirting a hill I followed upon the ridge over the ups and downs to head off the stock. Then tried to ride “Tanglefoot” home bareback, After several unsuccessful attempts to get on his tall back I led him across the ford the same way I came and reached camp…Western horses are the biggest fools, they lack even horse sense! The only sense they have is for getting into trouble.”46
July 25: Went to Claremont [sic] bareback on “Brownie.” Coming back the fools at the store packed the butter in thin paper; it speedily melted in the hot sun and ran out of the saddle bag. With a saddle bag, …four dozen eggs and myself, all on a slippery back, as it dripped fast at 30 cents per pound, I descended and, clothed in the saddle bag cover, took the saddle bags in hand, the eggs, the reins, and dragged the accursed “Brownie” in several miles….Reaching the brook I put the butter in, and came to camp.47
July 27: While baking bread “Dad” saw a flock of chickens. With Gardiner’s double I knocked a double and a single, a bird at every shot. The long double bird we could not trace! These chickens rise very much like pheasant….on my returning way from Claremont [sic], #41 passed me just as my road led off into the hills at right angles to the track. I waved my hat and the people craned their necks out the window to see “the cowboy”? What a bump they would have had if they had known! It is nevertheless an obvious fact that the sight of a train loaded with people coming from the East gives me a strange pleasure just to watch it pass….48
Evening: There was a most splendid sun glow over the western hills. The color was of a most intense, marvelous crimson, like some gigantic fire beyond the prairie. The green of the near hills and the faint illusive purples and greens of a few more distant points seen between the others made the spectacle gorgeous beyond all words; for color is so minute and sylables [sic] cannot but portray it crudely-for they are but a crude instrument themselves. As the night deepened the foot and shoulders of a rainbow shone in the east for a few moments backed by the dark rain behind and the colorless prairie from which the light had fled. During the night the hills were very black, but to the east lightening winked like some great eye, opening and shutting across the night. The tents and the flats lay as silent as the darkness around.49
Although the events of other team members are not recorded for the next few days, Elwell spent the time hunting turtle doves, and despite having shot five the day before, he “went out after doves but failed to connect with a single one after 6 shots.” Later he signed his $50 payroll, representing his work from July 6-31.50 “‘Tanglefoot’ ran away with me twice. The bridle was broken and I couldn’t hold him. Of all the darned beasts in the bunch ‘Tanglefoot’ beats all.”51
“August 1: The Devil died of sunstroke today! Where in Hell to stay. It was the hottest day we’ve had, and that is saying something. Made bread in 3 hrs. it was so warm.” (One of the Buffalo newspapers later reported that this was the hottest day of the month, with temperatures reaching 82 degrees).52 Later in the day, “Hoyt got caught in brook by bunch of ‘vimens’ in a carriage.”53
The next several days were uneventful. Elwell practiced his long distance target shooting, read, and swam. One early August day, he “had to drive the old stray horse away. In leaning to unhitch him the saddle slipped with Kid [the horse] and around it went. I got kicked in the stomach and the horse ran 1/2 mile. The oil slicker is nowhere to be found!”54
Although there is no further word about the horse, Elwell’s bird shooting difficulties continued on August 5th, when he wrote “Shot 9 doves, but lost 3 in the sagebrush. They set in cotton woods. Deep gullies, weather courses. Prepared for more.”55
The camp moved again, leaving Double Crossing and returning to the Watts Ranch where Mrs. Watts instructed Elwell in baking lemon pies. He said of his attempt later, “The pie plate outgrew the crust, but otherwise it was good, “ and he commented on the “Wonderful Northern Lights over the northeast sky. Pigs and black cats infest the tents at night.”56
August 11: Morning overcast and cold. Made bread and put it in what sun there was to rise. By noon it was growing cold and I had to put it in my bed!…August 12: The day was bitter cold, wet, overcast and windy…..at 11:30 Mr. Gale came to camp on account of the rain and snow. He brought with him a fish from the irrigation ditch. The ditch broke down and all the water was run out. This left suckers in small puddles. I went up to the ditch and succeeded in getting seven, four from one puddle and three from along the ditch. It was a slimy job as the fish went overland across the mud pretty fast. I dammed up one pool and chased the four into shallow water. The fish were about 10 inches to 12 inches, and were ‘suckers’ whitish grey with red on the tail. After dinner I went downstream, but the blue heron had done the picking.57
Bad weather, delays and ill health plagued the survey team from August 13-24. Cold rains made for a damp environment in the camp, and delayed the move. The team traveled when the weather cleared, and rode along the “Piney road for several miles very hilly as it kept to hills instead of the valley. In places the cuts were badly gullied, while one had to be repaired with rocks and gravel before the team could cross. Almost without exception the ditch bridges and culverts were broken and useless.”58 After the team’s arrival and the establishment of the camp, Elwell was sent after the mail in the nearest towns, worked on the laundry and cooked for the next few days. He also drew cartoons periodically for the men, and assisted in mapping their geologic work. He put in a 17- hour day on August 18, including a ride of eighteen miles on horseback.59
The team left Hamilton’s on the 24th and arrived in “Kearney,” twelve miles away.
The snowcaps of the Big Horns just in front, their shoulders sloping off into the timbered tops, and down nearer and nearer until the trees ceased and the sage began. Every interval of change has its peculiar tone and shade, like dabs on a great palette. Everywhere we passed there were several pines standing on an eminence to deepen the contrast between it and the sage.60
August 25: The hell of a day!…Only got 5 hrs.’ sleep…Just as supper was finished a heavy wind struck us. It was a good sand and dust storm. The kitchen table was turned over, the dishes floating away on the wind, tablecloth, etc. For about 2 hrs. it blew as if it had plenty more from where that came…. The tent was a mess. Tables all over; food on the ground, stovepipe down, and dirt 1/4” on everything…. August 26:….The tent was worse than ever, and the plates all upside down in the dirt. After the sun came up I found my hat and the tablecloth 25 yds. away. Washed all the dishes, cleaned the tent, then got breakfast. I say -rats!61
Piney Creek here at Kearney is clear from fresh melted snows, and runs joyously over boulders, whirling down rapids into sheets of silver below. Its banks are hung with willow, cotton (and ‘elder’?) in such a thicket that it is quite impassable in places. In fact it seemed like getting home in New Hampshire. The sound of running water over steep places or among the rocks is the same in all places. It speaks the same language in one as the other -and in it is the faint, far murmur of the sea. Unconscious of distance it echoes the impulse of the waves, and when one knows the rhythm of an ocean the beating of swift water is but a different key with the same motif.62
The survey team broke camp again on August 31 and camped at the Barkey’s ranch the following day. Elwell described the process for obtaining water at the ranch: “….the water is from a ½ inch pipe behind the Ranch –it takes time and patience, and there is Alcott.”63
After spending several days in camp completing routine chores, Elwell recorded his impression of the night sky on the evening of September 7:
…the moon was three-quarters full, the night sultry, warm, with perfect stillness. Across the mountains the sky dies away into a yellow-green, and then became that lightly ‘colored blue,’ the effervescent blue which comes sometimes over the plains. The sea’s blue is rich in color, deep, foreboding, or childlike, to always somber, even like the eyes of a thoughtful child or of a powerful man -the prairie has a blue of its own, a light, fantastic color, full of magic that hovers over the poison springs, surrounds the blood-tipped, shattered hills, and the white still bones beside them.”64
The camp was moved again the following day, and just as the team arrived at the new location, near the T. A. Ranch, a rainstorm moved in.
It began to rain as we struck camp, but we had things under cover before any great harm, except my sleeping bag, which rolled down the bank into the muddy slime-thanks to ‘Dad’!65
September 10: Warm. Made bread. Washed clothes-lye, Gold Dust soap and it burned my hands all dry up. This water is Hell! It makes a greasy deposit over the plate, if any kind of soap is used. Received a letter from Aunty Beth about ‘Cleanliness is next to godliness’!66
The survey team attended the Johnson County Fair (held in Buffalo) on September 12. Various team members traveled to Buffalo to attend to washing, purchasing supplies, and visiting with the townspeople over the next few days, while other members completed their survey work in the field.67
“September 20: …Went over to the petrified tree. Took photos of ‘Dad’ on top. Tree 13 ft. circumference, about 15 to 20 ft. high.” Elwell bathed the following day and reported, “As I was splashing merrily in the open flatland a team drove round over near the bench and ‘I never saw them’ at all. It was close range at 150 ft. and then ‘I came to.’ There was a girl in the buggy.”68
The weather began to cool off at night beginning September 23, and Elwell described the weather the next day as “cold as blazes.”69 The first snow of the season fell the morning of September 25, about the time Elwell was completing breakfast preparations.70 The next night he recorded, after a windy day, “In the evening it became raw and still, with the stars sparkling distantly and without cheer. I pretty nearly froze all night long, -with underwear, 2 pr. socks and a sleeping bag.”71
“September 26: 1/2 inch snow at 5 a.m. Very chilly…. September 27:…The water was frozen stiff on the water bags and tank, while a deep frost covered the ground. It is ghastly to have to crawl out into the damp cold, except in my case I was equally frigid in bed.”72
In the next few days the weather warmed slightly and the group moved from Allaman’s ranch towards the Twaton ranch, and camped along Crazy Woman Creek.73
By the evening of October 4, three months into the project, tensions escalated between two of the men. Apparently “Dad” and Wegeman were in disagreement over the location where a trunk was to be placed, either in a tent, or outdoors in the snow. A fight ensued and in the scuffle the bread, cocoa, and tomatoes were thrown from the stove, and Elwell dragged the men outdoors to attempt to settle their dispute. By the following morning the matter was resolved, although the men were not speaking. Elwell noted “God speed Hoyt Gale!” in his diary, and hoped the return of the leader of the team would end the power struggle between the two men.74
Apparently the men worked out their differences, as little further mention is made in Elwell’s diary. The last two weeks of the diary show that at least part of the survey team spent a large portion of their time at various nearby ranches. The team divided to complete various tasks, and by Sunday, October 18, Elwell and “Dad” were staying in a hotel in Buffalo, preparing to leave the West. Elwell boarded a train bound for Lincoln, Nebraska, in his final diary entry, on October 21, 1908.
The abrupt ending of the diary leaves many questions. Elwell’s vivid descriptions of his trip West, and photographs provide a glimpse into a few months of a young man’s life, a scholar and an easterner in Wyoming in 1908. The outdoors would play such a large part in Elwell’s later life during his years at the Mowglis-School-of-the-Open, that the reader of the diary must wonder what impact these early camping and outdoors experiences had on the young man, and the extent to which his time in Wyoming shaped his future plans.
Unlike other travelers to the West, Elwell did not travel West for his health, or to make his fortune, and his trip was not prompted by romanticized notions of Western life and culture. While Elwell was an adventurer, he also clearly accepted the U.S.G.S. position as a temporary job, although he seemed to truly love the outdoors and his Western experience.
Elwell earned his Master of Education degree in 1921, and his Doctor of Education degree in 1925, both from Harvard University. During his time at Harvard, Elwell began his involvement with the U.S. military, a career spanning twelve years before his retirement in 1948, including both World Wars. Elwell was appointed Instructor of Military Science in 1917 and commissioned captain of the U.S. Infantry the same year. He was promoted to major the following year, and lieutenant colonel of the Infantry Reserves in 1922. Although he resigned from the infantry in 1928 he was commissioned captain during World War II and continued to serve his country through 1948.
Many years of Elwell’s adult life were devoted to Mowglis School-of-the-Open. Elwell commented, “As a teacher of boys, it became clear to me that the new field of summer camps had opportunities which neither the home nor school was fulfilling. Thus my summers were spent at a camp for young boys, named Mowglis. Mr. Rudyard Kipling gave permission to use this name. For nearly 50 years I was with Mowglis, and for 29 was its director.”75
Elwell married a second time in 1938. His wife was Helen V. Chaffee.76 Transcripts of his diary, made by his wife and her secretary, are available for research both at the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming and at the Wyoming State Archives in Cheyenne. Duplicate photos made from Elwell’s original negatives are also included in the collections, as are the original pages from Elwell’s cookbook, comprised of articles and handwritten recipes. The cookbook pages were separated and the originals divided between both Wyoming archival facilities.
Alcott Farrar Elwell died at the age of 76 in 1962, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Shortly after his death, theMowglis School-of-the-Open was purchased by alumni of the camp and renamed the Holt-Elwell Memorial Foundation. The camp is still in operation.
1 Diary entry, July 27, 1908. Alcott Farrar Elwell Papers, Coll. 1916, Box 1, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, Laramie.
2 Mary C. Rabbitt, A Brief History of the U.S. Geological Survey (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1979), 20.
3 Ibid., 19.
4 Contributions to Economic Geology 1908, Part II-Mineral Fuels, Bulletin 381, (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1910), 4-6.
5 Elwell Papers.
6 Contributions to Economic Geology, 137.
7 Alcott Farrar Elwell Papers, Coll. H66-80, Wyoming State Archives, Cheyenne.
8 Elwell Papers, American Heritage Center.
9 Letter, Helen Chaffee Elwell to Gene Gressley, April 12, 1966. Elwell Papers.
10 Alcott Farrar Elwell Biographical Folder, Harvard University Archives, Cambridge, Mass.
11 Alcott Farrar Elwell Donor File, Letter from Alcott Farrar Elwell to Mrs. Skaggs, December 30, 1960, Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Penn.
12 “The Elwell Bust of Louisa Alcott,” Concord Massachussetts Journal, November 28, 1968, n.p.; C.PAM 43 Elwell 19, Concord Free Public Library of Philadelphia, Special Collections, Concord, MA.
13 Elwell Donor File, Free Library of Philadelphia.
14 Elwell Papers, American Heritage Center.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
17 Alcott F. Elwell Clipping Sheet, Harvard College Library, Harvard University Archives.
18 Elwell Papers, American Heritage Center, July 2, 1908.
19 “Alcott Farrar Elwell” biography, Elwell Papers.
20 Elwell diary, July 2, 1908.
21 Ibid., July 3, 1908.
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid., July 4-6, 1908.
24 Ibid., July 6, 1908.
25Ibid., July 7, 1908.
26 Ibid., July 8, 1908.
27 J.A Fischer letter of July 19, 1908, reprinted in The Buffalo Bulletin, August 6, 1908, p.3, c. 4.
28 Elwell Papers, American Heritage Center, July 9, 1908.
29 Ibid., July 10, 1908.
30 The Buffalo Bulletin, July 16, 1908, p.3, c. 2.
31 Elwell Papers, American Heritage Center, July 11, 1908.
32 Ibid., July 13, 1908.
33Ibid., July 14, 1908.
34 Ibid.; Elwell Papers letter from Alcott Farrar Elwell to Rosamond Kimball, July 27, 1908.
35 Ibid., July 14, 1908.
36Ibid., July 15, 1908.
37 Ibid.
38 Ibid.
39 Clearmont.
40 Elwell Papers, American Heritage Center, July 16, 1908.
41 Ibid., July 17, 1908.
42 Ibid., July 19, 1908.
43 The Buffalo Voice, August 1, 1908, p.3, c.3
44 Elwell Papers, American Heritage Center, July 21-22, 1908.
45Ibid., July 23, 1908.
46 Ibid., July 24, 1908.
47 Ibid., July 25, 1908.
48 Ibid., July 27, 1908.
49 Ibid.
50 Ibid., July 28-30, 1908.
51 Ibid., July 31, 1908.
52 The Buffalo Bulletin, September 3, 1908, p.3 col. 2.
53 Elwell Papers, American Heritage Center, August 1, 1908.
54 Ibid., August 3, 1908.
55 Ibid., August 5, 1908.
56 Ibid., August 8, 1908.
57 Ibid., August 11-12, 1908.
58 Ibid., August 16, 1908.
59 Ibid., August 13-18, 1908; September 4, 1908.
60 Ibid., August 24, 1908.
61Ibid., August 25, 1908.
62 Ibid., August 26, 1908.
63 Ibid., September 1, 1908.
64 Ibid., September 7, 1908.
65 Ibid., September 8, 1908.
66 Ibid., September 10, 1908.
67 Ibid., September 12-19, 1908; The Buffalo Bulletin, September 3, 1908, p.2.
68 Elwell Papers, September 21, 1908.
69 Ibid., September 24, 1908.
70 Ibid., September 23-25, 1908.
71 Ibid., September 25-26, 1908.
72 Ibid., September 26-27, 1908.
73Ibid., September 30, 1908.
74 Ibid., October 4-5, 1908.
75 Fiftieth Anniversary Report of the Harvard Class of 1910, Cambridge, MA: The Cosmos Press, 1960, p.138.
76 Ibid., p.136.
The author is reference archivist at the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming. She received her Master of Arts degree in American Studies from the University of Wyoming in 1998.
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