August 18–20 Thursday – Sam took a short trip to Poughkeepsie, New York, where he was an overnight guest at a summer outing in Sunny Brook, the country home of Moses S. Beach, then owner of the New York Sun. (See Aug. 25 to Bliss) Also at the gathering were Henry Ward Beecher and his protégé, Theodore Tilton (1835-1907), who beat a group of guests collaborating against him at chess, even with odds given of a rook. Tilton would give even greater odds to Beecher in an adultery scandal shortly thereafter. While at this summer outing, Sarah D. Maynard, a young schoolmate of Emma Beach, taught Sam how to play croquet [Milwaukee Journal, Oct. 2, 1929]. Note: Poughkeepsie is the home of Vassar, established as a female college in 1861. The girls may have been students there. Beecher served on the Vassar board of directors from 1864-68.

Note: Debby Applegate, author of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for her biography of Henry Ward Beecher sent this: “The Beaches and the Beechers were obsessed, absolutely obsessed with croquet. Henry Ward Beecher’s wife Eunice especially excelled—the cut throat quality of it seemed to fit her personality.” See Susan K. Harris’ The Courtship of Olivia Langdon and Mark Twain, p.153 for a marvelous picture of the Beechers, Warners and others playing croquet in full fashion dress (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1996). Note: Eunice White Bullard Beecher (1812-1897).