January 1 to 5 Wednesday – Sam spent these days with Livy in Elmira [MTL 4: 3].
January 4 - Wilson Hall, Owego, New York
January 4 Tuesday – Sam and Livy traveled thirty miles east of Elmira where Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Wilson Hall, Owego, New York. They returned to Elmira that evening . They likely took the New York and Erie.
January 5 Wednesday – Sam left at 8 PM and traveled overnight by train from Elmira to New York City. The probable route would have been on the New York and Erie to Piermont. The next day he would take the New York and Harlem to Amenia.
January 6 - Amenia, New York
The Amenia train has been changed to 3.30 instead of 4, PM., & so it is just right. I can arrive there at 7.21, whoop my lecture & clear out again.1
I was so tired last night that I slept soundly in the cars & really feel refreshed this morning—a rare experience in Railway travel. I read 3 pages of Robinson Crusoe, lost & found the book some twelve or fifteen times, & finally lost it for good a couple of hours ago. It is just like me. I must have a nurse.
Clemens had just reached New York City after traveling overnight from Elmira (about 165 miles) on his way to Amenia, New York, 70 miles to the north.
SLC to Olivia L. Langdon, 6 Jan 1870, New York, N.Y. (UCCL 00402), n. 1.
The Boston & Albany to Albany and the Albany and Vermont to Cohoes.
January 7 - Egberts Hall, Cohoes, New York
Cohoes was another infernal no-season-ticket concern—paid me in 7,000 ten-cent shin-plasters, so that my freight cost more back to Albany than my passage did. I hate these one-horse concerns. I have no regular season courses lately. They call them regular courses, but are not respectable, & have no season tickets. We have had good houses, but would have had better if their system had been the right one.
SLC to James Redpath, 8 Jan 1870, Albany, N.Y. (UCCL 00405), n. 2.
January 8 Saturday – At midnight in the Troy House, Troy, New York, Sam wrote to Livy.
The short trip back to Albany could have been aboard the Troy and Greenbush or the Albany and Vermont.
January 10 - Tweddle Hall, Albany, New York
January 11 - Union Place Hall, West Troy, New York
January 12 - Rondout, New York
Hudson River RR to Albany; Troy and Greenbush RR to Troy; Troy and Bennington RR to Eagle Bridge; and Rutland and Washington to Cambridge.
January 13 - Ackley Hall, Cambridge, New York
Yesterday afternoon I arrived at Cambridge & drove to the hotel through a driving storm of sleet—it was dreary & cold. The My spirits began to ebb. Then the Committee (with customary brilliancy of judgment,) informed me that the Troy Times had published my entire lecture, praising it highly, & using numberless dashes & hyphens to imitate my drawling manner of speaking——& further informed me that ever the Times had a large circulation in Cambridge. My spirits fell lower—my anger began to rise. I abused my informant in no minced language, for knowing no better than to tell me I was to talk to an audience to whom my speech would be no news. Then he left (to return after supper) & I was alone in my fury. ...
In due time the Chairman returned, & at 7 the fire‐bells rang, & he sprang to his feet & exclaimed, “My God, there is the lecture‐hall in flames!”
Mentally I uttered a thanksgiving so fervent that if ever prayer of mine pierced the vault of Heaven that one did. I did not move from my chair, & so my wildly excited chairman halted in his mad flight to the door. I said: “You can see by the blinding glare from the windows that nothing can save your hall—why need you rush there for nothing?”
He cooled a little & sat down—& as the fires glowed through those tall windows my spirits came up till I felt that all I needed to be entirely happy was to see the Troy Times editors & this chairman locked up in that burning building.
But my rising spirits were crushed to earth, & exasperation came again. The house was saved. It was burned a little, & flooded with water. But within the hour they scrubbed & the floors, let out the smoke & warmed the place up again—& I lectured.
Of course, after the lecture, a lot of committeemen invited themselves to my room—although they knew I must rise at 7 in the morning—& presently I grew cheerful & kept them there till 12 o’clock.
This morning the porter failed to call me. I woke, surprised to see it so light, looked at my watch—14 minutes to 8—train leaves at 8.05—depot 4 or 5 blocks distant—no vehicle in sight. Inside of 4 minutes I was not only fully dressed, but down stairs making trouble. The landlord was crazy as a loon in 3 seconds—darted this way & that—yelled for a coach—tore his hair—swore at his porter, & was in despair—said the jig was up, & the best he could do was to take a buggy & drive me to Troy—30 miles—thermometer already below zero & growing steadily colder.
I said, “Collect your senses & don’t go wild—show me we have still 6 minutes—show me to the depot—run!” And he did run—ran a tolerably good gate, but I beat him to the depot & jumped on the train—he arrived the next second with my hand-sachel & I was safe for Utica! Hurrah!
SLC to Olivia L. Langdon, 14 Jan 1870, Troy, N.Y. (UCCL 00410), n. 4.
Returned to Cohoes then takes the New York Central to Utica.
January 14 - Mechanic's Hall, Utica, New York
New York Central to Syracuse then the Oswego and Syracuse to Oswego
January 15 - Doolittle Hall , Oswego, New York
January 15 Saturday – Sam wrote after midnight from the Baggs Hotel in Utica, New York to Livy
January 17 - First Methodist Church, Baldwinsville, New York
From Baldwinsville to Ogdensburg the road starts with the Oswego and Syracuse to Oswego. From Oswego to Richland the 1870 files have no name for the railroad but the line would eventually belong to the New York Central and Hudson River. From Richland to Philadelphia ran the Watertown and Rome Railroad, from Philadelphia to DeKalb Junction ran the Potsdam and Watertown Railroad. From DeKalb Junction to Ogdensburg the 1870 files have no name for the railroad but this, too would eventually be owned by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad.
January 18 - Ogdensburg, New York
It would be a long journey from Ogdensburg to Buffalo. It would likely entail returning to Oswego then to Syracuse and Rochester and then to Buffalo. Day By Day mentions his letter to Livy remarking on his departing Buffalo at 4pm. This should probably have been included in the entry for the 20th not the 18th. The 1870 kml files have no name for the railway from Buffalo to Dunkirk.
January 19 - Normal School Chapel, Fredonia, New York
I left Buffalo at 4 PM yesterday, & went to Dunkirk, & thence out to Fredonia by horse-car, ‸(3 miles)‸ rattled my lecture through, took horse-car again & just caught 9.45 t P.M. train bound east—sat up & smoked to Salamanca (midn (12.30,) stripped & went to bed in a sleeping car till two hours & a half, & then got up a & came ashore here at 3 o’clock this morning.—& had a strong temptation to lie still an hour or two longer & go to Elmira. But I resisted it. By coming through in the night, I saved myself 2 hours extra travel.
By the time he reached Hornellsville at 3 a.m. on 20 January, he had lectured twice (at Ogdensburg and Fredonia) and traveled more than 350 miles, all within thirty-one hours. After lecturing in Hornellsville on 20 January, he had to travel 80 miles west to Jamestown, where he concluded his tour the following evening, then immediately made the 125-mile trip east to Elmira
SLC to Olivia L. Langdon, 20 Jan 1870, Hornellsville, N.Y. (UCCL 00414), n. 2.
The train from Dunkirk, past Salamanca to Hornellsville would have been the New York and Erie.
January 20 - Hornell Library, Hornellsville, New York
I left Buffalo at 4 PM yesterday, & went to Dunkirk, & thence‸ out to Fredonia by horse-car, (3 miles) rattled my lecture through, took horse-car again & just caught 9.45 P.M. train bound east—sat up & smoked to Salamanca (midn (12.30,) stripped & went to bed in a sleeping car till two hours & a half, & then got up a & came ashore here at 3 o’clock this morning.—& had a strong temptation to lie still an hour or two longer & go to Elmira. But I resisted it. By coming through in the night, I saved myself 2 hours extra travel.
Five letters that Clemens wrote to Olivia between 15 and 19 January (docket numbers 179–83) are lost. During that interval he lectured in Oswego (15 January), Baldwinsville (17 January), Ogdensburg (18 January), and Fredonia (19 January). Early on the morning of 19 January, he departed Ogdensburg for Buffalo, where he tried in vain to meet with John D. F. Slee, Jervis Langdon’s business associate, who had agreed to find a suitable boarding house for him and Olivia (see p. 45). He may also have looked in at the offices of the Buffalo Express before continuing on to Dunkirk, New York, on Lake Erie, and from there to Fredonia. By the time he reached Hornellsville at 3 a.m. on 20 January, he had lectured twice (at Ogdensburg and Fredonia) and traveled more than 350 miles, all within thirty-one hours. After lecturing in Hornellsville on 20 January, he had to travel 80 miles west to Jamestown, where he concluded his tour the following evening, then immediately made the 125-mile trip east to Elmira (L3, 480, 486).
SLC to Olivia L. Langdon, 20 Jan 1870, Hornellsville, N.Y. (UCCL 00414), n. 1.
Back to Salamanca on the New York and Erie then to Jamestown on the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad.
January 21 - Institute Hall, Jamestown, New York
The trip back from Jamestown to Elmira could have been as much as 167 miles.