"In January, however, business flourished. News of his successful performances was circulating widely. That month there were twenty bookings which took him on an itinerary that criss-crossed Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio." (Lorch, pg 94-95)
January 2 - 22, 1869: Fort Wayne, Indiana; Indianapolis, Indiana; Rockford, Illinois; Chicago, Illinois; Monmouth, Illinois; Galesburg, Illinois; Peoria, Illinois; Decatur, Illinois; Ottawa, Illinois; Davenport, Iowa; Iowa City, Iowa; Toledo, Ohio; Norwalk, Ohio; Cleveland, Ohio
January 2 - Hamilton's Hall, Fort Wayne, Indiana. From Cleveland to Ft. Wayne was 206 miles on: Cleveland and Pittsburgh; Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati; and Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago.
Where was I on Sunday, Jan. 3? In Fort Wayne. Had my breakfast brought up, & lay in bed till 1 P.M.
... Then I got up & ate dinner with some friends—& went to bed again at 4 in the afternoon & read & smoked again—& got up long, long before daylight & took the cars for the endless trip to Indianapolis & Chicago. That is the history of Jan. 3, Livy dear, & I remember it ever so pleasantly. SLC to Olivia L. Langdon, 14 Jan 1869, Davenport, Iowa (UCCL 00232).
The journey from Fort Wayne to Indianapolis was not endless but was approximately 129 miles. In 1870 this would have included the: Bellefontaine Line; Peru and Indianapolis; Terre Haute and Richmond; and the Toledo and Western. By 1953, USGS maps, the line would be the Norfolk and Western Railroad.
January 4 - The Metropolitan, Indianapolis, Indiana
January 5 - No reference but it seems likely Twain traveled to Rockford on this date. The journey was approximately 187 miles. In 1870 and by 1918 the Galena and Chicago Union ran for 94 miles between Chicago and Rockford. In 1870, between Indianapolis and Chicago, for 93 miles, ran: an unnamed railroad; Bellefontaine Line; Cincinnati and Chicago; Illinois Central; Peru and Indianapolis; and Terre Haute and Richmond.
January 6 - Brown's Hall, Rockford, Illinois
January 7 - Twain returned to Chicago, probably on the Galena and Chicago Union, for 93 miles. He lectured at the Library Hall, Chicago, Illinois
To Olivia L. Langdon
7 January 1869 Chicago, Ill.
Sherman House, Chicago, Jan. 7.
...
I will remark, in passing, that the Sherman House is a good hotel, but I have seen better. They gave me a room there, away up, I do not know exactly how high, but water boils up there at 168⁰. I went up in a dumb waiter which was attached to a balloon. It was not a suitable place for a bedchamber, but it was a promising altitude for an observatory. The furniture consisted of a table, a camp stool, a wash-bowl, a German Dictionary and a patent medicine Almanac for 1842. I do not know whether there was a bed or not—I didn’t notice. (SLC 1868)
The Sherman House was designed in 1861 by “the supreme architect of the Chicago hotel, William Boyington.” It “rose up in six stories of finely cut Athens marble, could accommodate 300 guests, and always had an orchestra playing in its grand dining room.” The imposing structure had “a frontage of one hundred and eighty feet on Clark Street and one hundred fifty on Randolph Street” and cost, with furnishings, half a million dollars. It was destroyed by fire in 1871 (Lowe, 66, 95, 114; Masters, 111).
SLC to Olivia L. Langdon, 7 Jan 1869., Chicago, Ill. (UCCL 00224).
January 8 - Hardin's Hall, Monmouth, Illinois
On 8 January Clemens traveled from Chicago to Monmouth, Illinois, about 170 miles to the southwest, presumably on the “Day Express and Mail” of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, which departed at 7:30 a.m. He lectured in Monmouth that evening, in Hardin’s Hall, under the aegis of the Quaternion Association (“Railroad Time-Table,” Chicago Times, 8 Jan 69, 3; “Mark Twain,” Monmouth Review, 8 Jan 69, 2; Wallace, 14–16). SLC to Olivia L. Langdon, 7 Jan 1869., Chicago, Ill. (UCCL 00224).
The 1870 railroad maps from the University of Nebraska would have him travel 150 miles on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy line, and 35 miles on the Galena and Chicago Union line from Chicago to Geneva.
The night Mark Twain ‘vandalized’ Monmouth Jeff Rankin Jan 23, 2018
MONMOUTH, Ill. — Living in a college town like Monmouth has its perks — among them the opportunity to hear an impressive array of distinguished lecturers. That was certainly the case in 1869, when Monmouth College’s Quaternion Society (a joint organization of its four literary societies) invited bestselling author and humorist Samuel Clemens — Mark Twain — to speak in Monmouth.
The lecture was held in the new Hardin’s Hall, located on the north side of the 100 block of East First Avenue. Built in 1865 by hardware merchant Chancy Hardin, it was at the time the only public auditorium in Monmouth. Details of the Monmouth lecture were not recorded in the local newspapers, but because of Twain’s fame, they can be effectively reconstructed through preserved documents.
https://medium.com/@jeffrankin/the-night-mark-twain-vandalized-monmouth…
January 9 - Twain would have back-tracked on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy for 17 miles to Galesburg, Illinois. On the 10th or 11th he would have traveled on the Peoria, Oquawka and Burlington, 50 miles to Bartonville, then 3 miles on the Illinois River line to Peoria.
January 11 - Rouse's Opera House, Peoria, Illinois
January 12 - Powers' Hall, Decatur, Illinois
Sam wrote from El Paso that he spent half the day in Peoria on his way to Decatur.. Then went to Ottawa in the evening. From Peoria to El Paso was 32 miles aboard the Logansport, Peoria and Burlington, later to become the Toledo and Western in 1905 and the Toledo, Peoria and Western in 1927. From El Paso to Decatur was 61 miles aboard the Illinois Central.
After the lecture, according to the Day By Day site, Twain traveled to Ottawa, approximately 115 miles. 101 miles from Decatur to Peru aboard the Illinois Central, then 14 miles to Ottawa aboard the Chicago and Rock Island.
January 13 - Methodist Episcopal Church, Ottawa, Illinois
January 14 - 97 miles from Ottawa to Davenport aboard the Chicago and Rock Island. Burtis Opera House, Davenport, Iowa
January 15 - 54 miles from Davenport to Iowa City aboard the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad. Metropolitan Hall, Iowa City, Iowa
January 16 Saturday – Sam slipped and fell on the ice in Iowa City earning a sore hip. That evening, Sam traveled by train to Chicago, and along the way wrote a letter of apology to the landlord in Iowa City. Sam had yelled at the man for waking him up too early, 9 AM [MTL 3: 45-7].1
SLC to Olivia L. Langdon ... , 17 Jan 1869, Chicago, Ill. (UCCL 00234).
The train ride from Iowa City to Chicago was approximately 235 miles; 54 miles from Iowa City to Davenport on the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad; 6 miles on the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad from Rock Island to East Moline; 19 miles on the Rock Island and Sterling from East Moline to Port Byron; 19 miles on an unnamed railway that became the Chicago, Milwaukee and St Paul Railroad to East Clinton; 137 miles on the Galena and Chicago Union from East Clinton to Chicago.
The “Wisconsin town” was probably Sparta, where he was scheduled to appear on 17 or 18 January (see SLC to OLL, 17 Jan 69 [misdated 16 Jan] and 19 Jan 69, CU-MARK, in LLMT, 54, 55). SLC to Pamela A. Moffett, 29? Nov 1868, New York, N.Y. (UCCL 02771).
Clemens was at the home of Abel and Mary Mason Fairbanks, on whose personal stationery he wrote this letter. He remained with the Fairbankses until 25 January, except for the nights of 20 and 21 January, which he spent in Toledo and Norwalk, respectively, after delivering his lecture.
SLC to Olivia L. Langdon, 19 Jan 1869, Cleveland, Ohio (UCCL 00235).
January 18 - Unable to get to Sparta, Twain returned to Cleveland, 356 miles. Twain departed Chicago aboard the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad, 281 miles to Crestline; the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad from Crestline to Cleveland, 73 miles; and a short run into the city on the Cleveland and Pittsburgh, 1.65 miles.
January 20 - White's Hall, Toledo, Ohio. The trip to Toledo was from 113 miles to 123 miles. If Twain took the Cleveland and Toledo for the entire ride, he would have passed through Oak Harbor. It is possible he took a slightly shorter route on the Lake Shore and Michigan between Fremont and Millbury. It's doubtful he would have changed trains twice to save ten miles.
1869: Mark Twain entertains a crowded White's Hall (Summit and Jackson) with his stories from The American Vandal. The Toledo Blade wrote:
“White’s Hall was filled from cellar to garret, last night, by one of the best tickled audiences that ever assembled there to hear a lecture or see the speaker. Mark Twain tickled them. And he did it so easily and almost consistently, that they didn’t know what they were laughing at more than half the time. Twain is witty, and his wit comes from his own fertile brain. His style is original; and his manner of speaking is not after the manner of men generally. His serious face and long drawn words are, of themselves, sufficient to make one laugh, even if there were not in every sentence expressed a sparkling gem of humor, and original idea. His anecdotes, with which the lecture is replete, are rich, and, as he tells them, irresistibly funny. In some of his descriptions of European places and characters the lecturer delivers, at times, most eloquent passages, brilliant in thought and word.
That MARK TWAIN is a success as a lecturer, as well as writer, we think no one who heard ‘The American Vandal Abroad,’ last night, will dispute.”
January 21 - Whittlesey Hall, Norwalk, Ohio. The trip from Cleveland to Norwalk would have been 53 miles aboard the Cleveland and Toledo Railroad.
He returned to Cleveland by train at 8 AM on Jan. 22.
January 22 - Protestant Orphan Asylum Benefit, Case Hall, Cleveland, Ohio