July 5 Monday – In Keokuk, Iowa Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore (who had written June 29), giving him power of attorney to act in a matter of “the music scheme.” Sam informed him that they were leaving Keokuk on July 7 [MTP].
July 4 Sunday – From Susy Clemens’ diary, comes the final entry of the biography of her father, interrupted in mid-sentence. Sam would later remark how this sentence suggested his dead daughter was merely away, would return to finish:
July 4. We have arrived in Keokuk after a very pleasant [Papa 225].
July 3 Saturday – Since the fourth fell on a Sunday, the town of Keokuk held the festivities on Saturday the third. From early morning people began arriving in the town. It was a clear, sunny, and hot day. Public buildings were decorated with buntings and ribbons. After a morning parade down Main Street, a carriage was sent for Sam to take him and Orion to Rand Park. Sam wore a white duck suit with a tall white hat, which caused a stir in the crowd as he passed to the platform.
July 2 Friday – H.R. Thompson of the Stickney Machine Co. Wrote from Boston to Franklin G. Whitmore, apologizing for the failure of their machine to “do its work every time,” and that they’d located the problem. Furthermore, Thompson offered to sell “an undivided one-fourth interest” in the machine [MTP].
July 1 Thursday – William J. Hamersley wrote to Sam from Hartford about the London exhibition of typesetters at the American Exhibition, costs for space, etc. The event would open May 2, 1887 and continue for six months. Patents needed, foreign and domestic, would need to be secured beforehand.
June 30 Wednesday – The Clemens family boarded a Mississippi steamboat for the final leg of their journey to Keokuk, about 500 miles [Scharnhorst, Interviews 88]. (Sam had estimated it “a 7 or 8-day journey” from Elmira to Keokuk; it took eight days).
Willis writes:
June 29 Tuesday – According to the interview with the St. Paul newspaper (printed June 30), the Clemens family was in St. Paul and staying at the Ryan Hotel.
June 28 Monday – The Clemens family traveled by rail from Duluth to St. Paul, Minn. About this day. The St. Paul and Minneapolis Pioneer Press interviewed Sam (See June 30 entry). Note: Kaplan writes Sam was dressed “in alligator slippers, a light-gray suit, and a pearl-colored high hat” [289].
June 27 Sunday – The Clemens family reached Duluth, Minn. About this day.
June 26 Saturday – The Clemens family were aboard the steamer India. Note: According to the interview in St. Paul, Sam claimed the trip across the lakes was five days.
From Susy Clemens’ diary:
June 26, 86 We are all of us on our way to Keokuk to see Grandma Clemens, who is very feeble and wants to see us and pertickularly Jean who is her name sake. We are going by way of the lakes, as papa thought that would be the most comfortable way [Papa 225].