Ida Minerva Tarbell was an American writer, investigative journalist, biographer, and lecturer. Ida Minerva Tarbell was an American writer, investigative journalist, biographer, and lecturer.

Born in a log home in Hatch Hollow, northwestern Pennsylvania, on November 5, 1857, Ida Minerva Tarbell grew up amid the derricks of the Oil Region. Her father, Frank Tarbell, built wooden oil ...