The Chemung River is a tributary of the Susquehanna River, approximately 46.4 miles long, in south central New York and northern Pennsylvania in the United States. It drains a mountainous region of the northern Allegheny Plateau in the Southern Tier of New York. The Chemung River is formed near Painted Post in Steuben County, just west of Corning by the confluence of the Tioga River and Cohocton rivers. It flows generally east-southeast through Corning, Big Flats, Elmira, and Waverly.

The Cohocton River, sometimes referred to as the Conhocton River, is a 58.5-mile-long tributary of the Chemung River in western New York in the United States, part of the Susquehanna River watershed, flowing to Chesapeake Bay. The name "Cohocton" is derived from an Iroquois term, Ga-ha-to, meaning "log floating in the water" or "trees in the water". In the 1820s the New York State Legislature commissioned a study for the building of a canal that would link the Cohocton at Bath to Keuka Lake (Crooked Lake) and Seneca Lake.

Livingston County was formed Feb. 23, 1821, from Genesee and Ontario Counties. A portion of Allegany County was annexed in 1846 followed by a second portion in 1856. Livingston's parent county, Ontario County, was formed from Montgomery County in 1789. Montgomery was formed from Albany County (one of the original NYS counties) in 1772 and was known as Tryon County until 1784. Livingston is surrounded by Monroe, Ontario, Steuben, Allegany, Wyoming, and Genesee counties. The 1860 census showed 39,256 residents. The Genesee River cuts through the northwestern portion of the county.

And so, the morning of July 15, 1895, Twain slouched into Buffalo for a two-hour layover. This was the last time he ever visited Buffalo, where he once lived as a newlywed, a first-time father and a newspaper owner and managing editor. His old Buffalo friend Charles M. Underhill collected Twain, his wife, Olivia, and daughter Clara by carriage at the Exchange Street station.

The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company (DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad) was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey, a distance of about 400 miles (640 km). Incorporated in 1853, the DL&W was profitable during the first two decades of the twentieth century, but its margins were gradually hurt by declining traffic in coal and competition from trucks. In 1960, the DL&W merged with rival Erie Railroad to form the Erie Lackawanna Railroad.

The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee are a historically powerful and important northeast Native American confederacy. They were known during the colonial years to the French as the "Iroquois League," and later as the "Iroquois Confederacy," and to the English as the "Five Nations" (before 1722), and later as the "Six Nations," comprising the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora peoples. The Iroquois have absorbed many other peoples into their cultures as a result of warfare, adoption of captives, and by offering shelter to displaced peoples.

July 15, 1895: After a two hour lay over in Buffalo Twain's party proceeded to Cleveland, Ohio. The railway was either the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad, which went into bankruptcy in 1893, or the reorganized Erie Railroad that emerged in 1895. They arrived that afternoon and Twain went straight to bed at the Stillman.

"Cleveland, July 15, 1895."

"At the Stillman with 'Mark Twain,' his wife, and their daughter Clara. 'Mark' looks badly fatigued. "We have very comfortable quarters here. 'Mark' went immediately to bed on our arrival. He is nervous and weak. Reporters from all the morning and evening papers called and interviewed him. It seemed like old times again, and 'Mark' enjoyed it.