June 15 Monday – Sam wrote the good news from Elmira to Dr. John Brown:

“We call the new Megatherium (mate to the Megalopis) Clara of course” [MTL 6: 159].  

September 19 Saturday – The Clemens family left New York for their new home in Hartford. The next day Sam wrote to Howells, saying they were occupying “part of the new house. Goodness knows when we’ll get in the rest of it—full of workmen yet” [MTL 6: 233].

September Virginia S. Patterson (Mrs. Robert Patterson) wrote from Bellefountain, Ohio, wanting Sam’s opinion of two or three articles she wrote. A few weeks later she wrote again having heard nothing back, even though she realized he must be “besieged” by such requests [MTP].

June 14 Sunday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam and Livy. Letter enclosed in June 18 from Mollie Clemens—both congratulating them on the birth of a daughter [MTP].

June 13 Saturday – From Charles E. Perkins’ cash book, Sam’s account: “To po Garvie  1200.00” [Berg collection, NYPL]. Note: likely John Garvie. See other listings for Garvie.

June 12 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Will Bowen about plans for the new house. Only a fragment survives [Hornberger, 33].

June 11 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to the Twichells.

“The baby is here & is the great American Giantess—weighing 7¾ pounds, & all solid meat….It is an admirable child, though, & has intellect. It puts its fingers against its brow & thinks.”

Sam then described what became a famous structure, now at Elmira College:

June 10 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Orion and Mollie. He told them of Clara’s birth; Livy was doing “amazingly well—is cheerful, happy, grateful & strong.” Sam wrote of firing his coachman, Downey, and hiring Patrick McAleer, who was “straight” (sober) because his wife kept him so.

June 9 Tuesday – Sam paid a June 5 bill of $8.40 from Scribner, Welford & Armstrong of New York for William Harris Rule’s two-volume work, History of the Inquisition from Its Establishment in the Twelfth Century to Its Extinction in the Nineteenth [Gribben 593].

June 8 Monday – At 7 AM, Livy gave birth to Clara Langdon Clemens, their second daughter, named after Livy’s friend, Clara Spaulding. The baby weighed nearly eight pounds, “which is colossal for Livy,” Sam wrote on June 10 to Orion and Mollie [MTL 6: 155].