March 12 Tuesday – Sam had a painful meeting with Elisha Bliss. An unsent draft of Mar. 20 shows that Sam was somewhat reassured by the meeting of this day. Sam probably went to a party at the Hartford home of Joseph R. Hawley, editor of the Hartford Courant. Andrew Hoffman claims that Bliss kept two sets of books [195].
March 7 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Redpath & Fall. Sam remitted less than his bill and haggled over the balance for hiring a train to reach an out-of-the-way lecture. In response to ills plaguing the two men, Sam wrote:
March 4 Monday – The St. Louis Missouri Democrat ran a short item on page two about the newly released RI:
It is not necessary to say one word about this work, as it is already widely known. It is equal to Mark’s Innocents, profusely illustrated and of course no one would think of being without it….[Budd, Reviews 100].
March 3 Sunday – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to James Redpath, asking for George Fall to send Sam’s bill [MTL 5: 52].
March 2? Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Mary Mason Fairbanks responding to her letter of Feb. 28 and asking for her to visit. He also wrote: “We are getting to work, now, packing up, & fixing things with the servants, preparatory to migrating to Elmira”. Livy probably wanted to have the baby in Elmira [MTL 5: 49].
March – Sam’s sketch “Roughing It” ran in American Publishing Co.’s in-house promotional monthly, American Publisher [Camfield, bibliog.]. Similar to Roughing It, Ch. 57.
Located on a lot of donated land from Amherst College, it was built between the years of 1828 and 1829, to serve as the third meeting house of the First Congregational Church of Amherst. When a new congregational church was built on Main Street in 1868, Amherst College purchased the former church building and its lands. In 1905 the building was rededicated as College Hall, as well as expanded and remodeled, with the addition of new columns to the front.
The Taylor Opera House was built by James S. Taylor, according to the book series, “Images of America, Danbury”. He originally solved the problem of felting hats with the Taylor sizing machines (Danbury was the hat capitol of the world) by machinery. He was born in 1825 and was the great-great-great-grandson of Thomas Taylor, an original settler of Danbury.
In 1935, the bowling and billiard hall that Erve managed was in the Hall-Rand building on the northwest corner of Congress and Third Streets in Troy. This was the former Rand’s Hall, later Rand’s Opera House, expanded in 1872 as a concert room, lecture hall and place of exhibitions. How Rand’s Hall became “Hall-Rand,” or how an opera house became a bowling alley, I don’t know. I also don’t know how “Erve” is pronounced. Sadly, it’s long gone, and a former chain restaurant building housing a fast food buffet occupies what should be a prominent corner of the city.
The Paterson Opera House was opened on April 2, 1866.In 1900 it was severely damaged in a fire. It was rebuilt and reopened in 1901. In 1914 another fire caused some damage and following renovations it reopened as the U.S. Photo Play Theatre on March 6, 1916 with the film “Battle Cry of Peace”. It was listed in 1930 as the United States Theatre with a 2,000 seat capacity and equipped with an RCA sound system. It was operated by the Stanley Warner chain and was closed in September 1967.
The building was sold and demolished in 1969.