January 2 Sunday – A fire started in Sam and Livy’s bedroom from a hot croup-kettle and spread to Clara Clemens’ crib and canopy. Rosa, the German nursemaid, “snatched Bay from the midst of the flames, just in time to save her life.” Sam and Rosa threw the burning bedclothes out the window. Sam wrote that “it looked, for awhile, as if the house must go” [MTBus 149]. In his Oct. 3, 1906 A.D. Clemens related that the Polish wet-nurse should have been there but was not: Julia Koshloshky. See also Harnsberger, p. 28-9.

January 2? Sunday – Sometime during the month Sam wrote from Hartford to William P. Woolley returning his bill with a note that Woolley hadn’t receipted him for his enclosed check for $10.75, payment in full for services on Oct. 19, Nov 2, 10, 23, 27, Dec. 1 and 6, 1880. Woolley operated a livery stable at 108 Main St. in Hartford.

January 2 to 4 Tuesday – Clara Clemens (Bay) remained “dangerously ill.” Sam and Livy “kept two croup-kettles going, both night & day, filling the room with steam; but Tuesday afternoon (Jan. 4) the membrane yielded & dissolved, & our fears were at an end” [MTBus 149].