September 28 Wednesday – Sam wrote from San Francisco to Orion and Mollie. He discussed work on a book, which ultimately would become Roughing It, from scrapbooks Orion had kept of the 1861-4 period. He also claimed that Oct. 24 would be the wedding day of Steve Gillis and Miss Emeline Russ “who is worth $100,000, & what is better, is a good, sensible girl & will make an excellent wife” [MTL 1: 315]. Note: Miss Russ decided before that date to marry another.
An article attributed to Sam, “Answer to a Mining Company’s Suit,” ran in the Call [Branch, C of Call 300].
Sam’s mother, Jane Clemens wrote from St. Louis to Sam and Orion about “great excitement in the city” and of being “threatened hourly with an invasion by Price and others….My trunk is packed ready if the women and children are ordered to leave….Last Thursday we received Sam’s scolding letter dated 12 th of August if we cant make him write only by making him mad we will have to try that…” [MTP]. Note: Confederate General Sterling Price (1809-1867) led a raid into Missouri, the last major military engagement in Mo. in the Civil War.