The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Train No. 5, The Pacific Express, left Erie, Pennsylvania, on the afternoon of December 29, 1876 in deep snow. Two locomotives, "Socrates" and "Columbia", were hauling 11 railcars, including two express cars, two baggage cars, one smoking car, three coaches, and three sleeping cars that carried 159 passengers.

At about 7:30 pm the train was crossing over the Ashtabula River about 1,000 feet (300 m) from the railroad station at Ashtabula, Ohio when the bridge gave way beneath it.

Charles Farrar Browne (April 26, 1834 – March 6, 1867) was a United States humor writer, better known under his nom de plume, Artemus Ward. He is considered to be America's first stand-up comedian. At birth, his surname was "Brown"; he added the "e" after he became famous. Ward met Mark Twain when Ward performed in Virginia City, Nevada and the two became friends.

This railway is the result of consolidations of several smaller railways that have gone broke and or been taken over. One of the first in this region is the Franklin Canal Company. Chartered in 1844 the Franklin Canal Company built the original line from Erie, Pennsylvania to the Pennsylvania/Ohio state border.

The Holland Land Purchase and
Holland Land Company Records
Genealogical Research in
Western New York State

The Treaty of Canandaigua is a treaty signed after the American Revolutionary War between the Grand Council of the Six Nations and President George Washington representing the United States of America.

It was signed at Canandaigua, New York on November 11, 1794, by fifty sachems and war chiefs representing the Grand Council of the Six Nations of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy, and by Timothy Pickering, official agent of President George Washington.

The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was a treaty between Native Americans and Great Britain, signed in 1768 at Fort Stanwix, in present-day Rome, New York. It was negotiated between Sir William Johnson, his deputy George Croghan, and representatives of the Six Nations (the Iroquois).

The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company (DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad) was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey, a distance of about 400 miles (640 km). Incorporated in 1853, the DL&W was profitable during the first two decades of the twentieth century, but its margins were gradually hurt by declining traffic in coal and competition from trucks. In 1960, the DL&W merged with rival Erie Railroad to form the Erie Lackawanna Railroad.

And so, the morning of July 15, 1895, Twain slouched into Buffalo for a two-hour layover. This was the last time he ever visited Buffalo, where he once lived as a newlywed, a first-time father and a newspaper owner and managing editor. His old Buffalo friend Charles M. Underhill collected Twain, his wife, Olivia, and daughter Clara by carriage at the Exchange Street station.

Sam and Cable read at the Congregational Church, Washington, D.C.

Note: Fatout gives figures from Pond’s cashbook, listing $789 as the take from this reading [Circuit 218]. Thus ended the “Twins of Genius” tour: total gross receipts, $46,201, from which Cable’s salary and expenses took more than $20,000. Cable earned $6,750, Sam approximately $15,000, and Pond’s commissions “a modest $2500 to $3000” [228].

See Touring with Cable and Huck for review.