June 18 Thursday – The History of Redding website notes that Sam arrived at the West Redding Train Station shortly before 6 p.m on the Berkshire Express out of New York. The train made a special stop for Twain and thereafter continued the stop for his many visitors.
At 6 p.m. Sam arrived by buggy at his new (and last) home in Redding, Conn., one that Isabel V. Lyon had been getting ready for some weeks. Sam played billiards with Ralph Ashcroft and Albert Paine until midnight [June 19 to Jean Clemens]. Initially he named the house, “Autobiography House,” then “Innocence at Home,” but finally “Stormfield” would stick at the insistence of Clara Clemens in Oct. The house cost about $45,000 [MTHL 2: 830-31n1].
Cooley writes of Mark Twain’s arrival in Redding:
When Clemens arrived at the Redding rail station, he was greeted by a crowd of townspeople. Carriages decorated with flowers formed something of a parade, transporting Clemens, his well-wishers, and curious onlookers the three miles to the gates of his new home. The house and its grounds seemed to him perfect in every detail. That night more townsfolk and some neighbors stopped by to set off fireworks in the garden and give welcome to their celebrated new neighbor. Afterward, because the billiard table was already in place, Paine and Clemens played until after midnight. Before retiring that night he wrote to Dorothy Quick [See June 19], inviting her to come for a visit [MTAq 174-5].
Louise Paine also remembered the arrival:
On the 18th of June, 1908, at about four in the afternoon we left New York City by an express train that was to make its first stop in Redding that day. With Mr. Clemens were my father, a reporter or two, a photographer and that most fortunate little girl, myself, whose boarding school closed that day so that I, too, was homeward bound to Redding.
Waiting for us at the Redding station was a proud array of carriages, flower trimmed, and filled with smiling people who waved warmly. I knew I would never forget it. Mr. Clemens waved in return, then stepped into his own carriage and drove toward the beautiful house that was to be his last home.
– Louise Paine [http://www.historyofredding.com/HRtwainstormfield.htm]. Philip Nichols Sunderland, along with his father, William Webb Sunderland, builder of Stormfield, recollected the day:
The day he arrived, I went down to be present, as a representative of my father, at his entry into the house. It was all rather informal, I recall; there were quite a lot of people who came out with him on the train from New York and we all drove up from the Branchville station (he says Branchville but that’s incorrect, unless a photo surfaces to prove otherwise, Twain arrived in West Redding) in buggies. And it was all there, just as he had wanted it, even to the cat and I believe that he was very pleased [ibid.]
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Benar, Mr. & Mrs. Paine. / The King arrived this afternoon” [MTP: IVL TS 53].
Joe Twichell wrote a note to Sam on an engraved invitation announcing the marriage of their daughter Harmony to Charles Edward Ives, June 9 in Hartford.
“Dear Mark, / Harmony—old lady Harmony—and I sail for England Saturday. Good bye. We have just received a quite long and very nice letter from Jean at Gloucester. Yrs.” On the bottom of the announcement he wrote of his daughter: “Harmony is to be domiciled in NY at 70 West 11th St.; so that she will be your rather near neighbor” [MTP].
Sam’s new guestbook:
Sam signed himself, Ralph W. Ashcroft, and Albert Bigelow Paine and wife into the first page of the guestbook. He wrote “1908” at the top, and put Brooklyn , N.Y. for Ashbrook, and Redding Conn. for the Paines, who lived nearby. After his name he wrote “Arrived. Saw the place for the first time. Came for the summer. Soon concluded to remain permanently. Gave up the New York house.” Note: these entries were made on or after Dec. 28, when Mary B. Rogers gave Sam the new guestbook. The original guestbook of five pages was merely signed by guests with a few dates.
June 18 after – Maud W. Littleton wrote Sam a note on a postcard: “My dear Doctor Clemens —Why don’t you answer my last letter? Are you too busy or have you forgotten us? Martin was mightily set up over the nice things you said. My house will soon be finished — & then I am going to invite you again—with love…” [MTP]. Note: a similar postcard to Isabel Lyon is in file.