Springfield to Bloomington - 1853

Submitted by scott on

Sam took Frink’s stage to Bloomington. Frink’s was first established in 1840 as Frink, Walker and Company. The company came to dominate all stagecoach travel in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, and Missouri. They used Concord coaches for their routes. The name changed to John Frink and Company in 1849 and the business relationship between the two men was dissolved in 1856.

St. Louis to Alton, Illinois - 1853

Submitted by scott on

August 19, 1853, 11am, Sam boarded the sidewheeler steamer Cornelia and traveled to Alton, Illinois. The Cornelia was sunk just two years later, running into a rock at Chain of Rocks. Chain of Rocks is a geological formation just below the confluence of the Missouri River and the Mississippi River.

Samuel L. Clemens Born November 30, 1835

Submitted by scott on
I was born the 30th of November, 1835, in the almost invisible village of Florida, Monroe county, Missouri. I suppose Florida had less than three hundred inhabitants. It had two streets, each a couple of hundred yards long; the rest of the avenues mere lanes, with rail fences and corn fields on either side. Both the streets and the lanes were paved with the same material—tough black mud, in wet times, deep dust in dry.