October 10 Tuesday – Bill paid to Thomas Carron Co. “$47 for moving; 3 teams moving furniture 11 hours each, 75 plus two hours; 2 men helping at house; 10 hours each, etc.” [MTP]. Note: This bill was likely for moving the family’s goods from the Hartford depot to their rental house in Nook Farm.
October 9 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James Redpath, asking him to send the first part of his lecture list “& let me see where I am to talk.” He requested a copy be sent to Bliss.
October 6 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford, with an affidavit by John Hooker, to Mortimer D. Leggett (1821-1896), Commissioner of Patents, about the date of his ideas for the elastic strap. Sam included his first drawings, for use with vests and pants. Henry C. Lockwood had applied for a patent on a similar device only six days after Sam’s application [MTL 4: 462-4]. Note: the Oct.
October 2 or 3 Tuesday – Sam and Livy arrived in Hartford and took possession of the Hooker house on Forest Street in Nook Farm, a small community on the western reach of the city. John Hooker, descendant of Hartford’s founder, Thomas Hooker, began Nook Farm with a 100-acre tract.
October 1 or 2 Monday – Sam left Buffalo and met Livy in New York City, staying a day at the St. Nicholas Hotel [MTL 4: 462n1].
October – Sam’s article “A Brace of Brief Lectures on Science, Part 2” ran in American Publishing Co.’s in-house promotional monthly, American Publisher [Camfield, bibliog.].
September 28 Thursday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to John A. Lant, a printer Sam had worked with as a boy, probably in St. Louis.
“Thank you kindly for the picture of the baby. But it seems to me you did not economise material to the best advantage: there is meat enough in this youngster for twins” [MTL 4: 461].
September 27 Wednesday – Sam’s article, “The Revised Catechism” ran in the New York Tribune [Camfield, bibliog.].
The City of Buffalo receipted Sam for $222.25 for city tax on the “Delaware st. house; Outer lot 50ft, front feet 60 ft, Feet deep 118” [MTP].
Napoleon Sarony, photographer, wrote from NYC to ask Sam to sit for a photo “any time you are in the city” [MTP].
September 26 Tuesday – Sam again wrote from Buffalo to James Redpath, setting Feb. 2 as the final date for his lectures [MTL 4: 460].
Sam and Livy also wrote to Charles C. Duncan, steamboat captain, regretting that they could not attend:
September 22 Friday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to James Redpath. Livy was sick in Elmira and Sam and the servants were packing. He and his wife were to take possession of their Hartford house on Oct. 1. Sam liked the Young Men’s Association in Buffalo and wouldn’t mind lecturing for them, but not the G.A.R. [MTL 4: 459-60].
Orion Clemens wrote to Sam: