February 27 Wednesday – The Alonzo Child left for New Orleans. Sam took his mother, cousin Ella Creel (b. 1840), and Miss Castle of St. Louis on a pleasure trip from St. Louis with 20 or 30 other couples to New Orleans aboard the Alonzo Child [MTL 1: 118n4].
February 25 Monday – The Alonzo Child arrived in St. Louis.
February 18 Monday – The Alonzo Child left for St. Louis. The committee on petitions for the Polar Star Lodge Number Seventy-nine of St. Louis reported favorably on Sam’s petition for membership. Sam was recommended by John M. Leavenworth (b.1835?) brother of Zeb, and John T. “Tom” Moore. Sam Clemens was duly elected to receive the Masonic first degree [Jones 364; Strong 88].
Note: Moore was a “mud clerk” on the Roe; see July 6, 1859 and Feb. 18, 1861; also letter from Karl Gerhardt of May 5, 1909 mentioning Moore.
February 16 Saturday – The Alonzo Child arrived in New Orleans.
February 8 Friday – The Alonzo Child left Cairo for New Orleans.
February 6 Wednesday – Sam was in Cairo, Illinois. He wrote his brother Orion and sister-in-law, Mary (Mollie) Clemens:
My Dear Brother:
February 5 Tuesday – The Alonzo Child arrived in Cairo, and did not continue to St. Louis due to icy river conditions.
January 29 Tuesday – The Alonzo Child left for St. Louis.
January 24 Thursday – The Alonzo Child arrived in New Orleans
January 21 Monday to March 30, 1861 – Ten letters signed by Quintus Curtius Snodgrass were published on various dates in the New Orleans Daily Crescent. Until 1964, most scholars attributed these letters to Sam. Alan Bates then presented an article showing that the dates penned and published would have precluded them from being Sam’s [Bates 31-7]. Could Sam have assigned them dates different than the day of composition? Or, are they, as Bates claims, “the tedious productions of an obscure newspaper reporter”?