November 26-27 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Mary Mason Fairbanks:

It is MY thanksgiving day, above all others that ever shone on earth. Because, after twenty-four hours of persecution from me, Mr. & Mrs. L. have yielded a conditional consent—Livy has said, over & over again, the word which is so hard for a maiden to say & if there were a church near here with a steeple high enough to make it an object I should go & jump over it. What do you think? She felt the first faint symptom Sunday, & the lecture Monday night brought the disease to the surface. She isn’t my sister any more—but some time in the future she is going to be my wife, & I think we shall live in Cleveland….I shall touch no more spirituous liquors after this day (though I have made no promises)—I shall do no act which you or Livy might be pained to hear of—I shall seek the society of the good—I shall be a Christian [MTL 2: 283-5].

Sam must have left Elmira by Nov. 27, because he wrote from New York to Livy the following day.