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Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(MAINE.) Diaries of Farmington farm boy and Bates student George G. Sampson. 26 manuscript daily pocket diaries, each about 5 x 2 1/2 inches, give or take an inch; complete for 27 years except for a missing 1906 volume, generally only minor wear. Various places, 1886-1905, 1907-1912
George Gordon Sampson (1878-1973) was born and raised in a farming family in central Maine, in the towns of Temple and nearby Farmington. He began this diary before his eighth birthday, and even then was engaged in farm work--on 2 January 1886 he proudly noted "yoked the steers today." By age 12 he was collecting maple sap and hauling birch timber (see illustration). He went off to nearby Bates College in September 1901, recording his studies as well as glee club meetings and athletic events, graduating in 1905 and removing to West Upton, MA. His father died in 1907, and by 1910 he was living in Worcester, MA with his widowed mother and his sister Angeleen, a musician. There he pursued a master's degree at Clark University and taught high school physics. After the conclusion of this diary, he married in 1918 and continued to teach in Worcester.
