October  21 Tuesday – “The  Great Fair at St. Louis,” signed, “SAM,” appeared in the Keokuk Post [ET&S 1: 378].

October  19 Sunday – Sam arrived in Keokuk, Iowa (see Oct. 18 entry).

October  13 Monday – Sam made a brief stay in St. Louis, staying with his mother,  and sister. He attended the St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical  Association Fair. He wrote a sketch of it,  titled “The Great Fair at St. Louis,” signed, “SAM,” which appeared in the  Keokuk Post on Oct. 21 and then in the Saturday Post on Oct. 25 [MTL 1: 69].
 

– Sam’s fifth birthday.
 

October   – John Marshall sold on credit about $1,000 for merchandise  bought wholesale to one Ira Stout, who then used the new  bankruptcy laws to avoid payment. Ultimately this led to the loss of the  Clemens home [Wecter 56].
 

– The Log Cabin Campaign rally on Market Street in Hannibal would surely have included John Marshall,  a devout Whig. Jane Lampton Clemens loved parades and funerals. Four  and a half year old Sam no doubt witnessed the celebration [Wecter 58]. Note: For more about Jane Clemens  as recalled by her granddaughter Annie Moffett Webster in Fredonia, see May  22, 1870 entry.
 

Spring – Sam started school  at Mrs. Horr’s school in  Hannibal, a small log cabin at the  southern end of Main Street, near Bear Creek. Elizabeth Horr (ca.1790-1873) and  daughter Miss Lizziewere the only teachers. On Sam’s first day of  school he broke a rule twice and was told to go find a switch for his punishment. He kept looking for smaller and smaller switches until he came back  with a cooper’s shaving (a cooper is a barrel maker). Later, Miss Mary Ann  Newcomb(1809-1894) would help at the school [Wecter 54].

  – Sam “took a workroom at 45 Nymphenstrasse—Frau  Kraze.” He made a purchase on the “Tobacco shop on corner under Hotel Bellevue,  opp. Karls Thor” and noted amounts spent [MTNJ 2: 283].

– Sam wrote from Munich, Germany to  Howells, giving him the itinerary  of the trip from Rome. At first they did not much like the place:

– The Clemens family was up at 6 AM and traveled all day. After twelve hours they arrived in Munich, Germany. At 7 PM they arrived, in “drizzle & fog at  the domicil which had been engaged for us ten months before” [MTLE 3: 94].