April 10 Wednesday – In Hartford, Sam responded to an unidentified person he addressed as “My Dear Cousins.”

I suppose you have got it a little wrong, & that you are cousin to my niece Mrs. Annie Moffett Webster, of Fredonia, N.Y. My wife’s former name was Langdon, & she doesn’t seem to have any relatives outside of the State of New York [MTP].

Sam also wrote a paragraph to Walter Williams responding to an invitation to speak at the University of Missouri. Williams was founder of the journalism school there. He wanted Sam and Henry Watterson (Sam’s second cousin by marriage and editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal) to make a joint appearance. Sam’s famous reply in declining the invitation shows he’d picked up a thing or two in a prior visit to Edison’s laboratory in New Jersey.

…while Watterson, by himself, is a useless carbon loop, & I, by myself, am a useless wire, we are an electric light when we combine [MTP].

Orion and Mollie Clemens finished a letter to Sam and Livy they started on Apr. 10: Orion was “now satisfied about the machine” and would wait “with hope and without fear.” His cold was better; he’d received a letter from Daniel Whitford saying he wanted him to go to Burlington (Iowa) if a letter to that effect came Monday or Tuesday. Mollie: “I am so glad you will remember Ma as Ma. We shall have to think of her as being changed as Mrs. Stowe is changed. Truly Ma’s case is most pitiable. The Dr comes every day” [MTP]. Note: Whitford was actively pursuing the lawsuit against R.T. Root Co.

Daniel Whitford for Alexander & Green wrote to Sam about James G. Batterson of Hartford who had been in to see him the past week relative to typesetters. Whitford recommended Sam call upon Batterson and ask him to look at the Paige typesetter (as a possible investor) [MTP]. Note: James G. Batterson, founder and president of the Travelers Ins. Co. of Hartford and president of the New England Granite Works