Day By Day Dates

November 26 Thursday – Thanksgiving – Olivia Louise Langdon accepted Sam’s proposal, subject to her father’s approval. Sam accepted Jervis Langdon’s suggestion that official parental sanction be given after credentials of Sam’s character might be obtained. Sam offered names for Jervis to solicit [MTB 376].

November 26-27 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Mary Mason Fairbanks:

November 28 Saturday – Sam wrote from Everett House in New York to Livy, his first love-letter since their engagement.

November 29? Sunday – Sam wrote from New York to his sister, Pamela Moffett:

November 30 Monday – Sam’s 33rd birthday.

December 1 Tuesday – Mary Mason Fairbanks wrote from Cleveland, replying to Sam’s of Nov. 26-27. It survives in part in Sam’s letter to Livy of Dec. 4. He quotes: “Of course you must live in Cleveland. That is what I want to do. Don’t you? Now say you do, Livy, there’s a dear good girl” [MTP].

December 2 Wednesday – Sam wrote from New York to Jervis Langdon, including between pleasantries his progress at buying an interest in a newspaper [MTL 2: 297-9]. Sam left New York on the 11:30 AM Hudson River Railroad express To Albany and Troy, where he crossed the river to Rondout, New York. Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture in the evening [MTL 2: 300n5].

December 3 Thursday – Sam probably used this day as a travel day, and returned to New York.

December 4 Friday – Sam wrote from Metropolitan Hotel in New York to Livy, again professing his undying love, the necessity for love from the brain and the heart, and listing those he confided the provisional engagement to: Dan Slote, the Twichell’s, his sister Pamela, and Mrs. Fairbanks—and tells of their responses.

December 5 and 7 Monday – Sam wrote from New York to Livy of misgivings about being a Christian—about understanding that he needed Christ for his own sake, not to win Livy’s heart and approval.

“Bless me, I am so tied hand & foot with these lecture appointments that I don’t know whether I am standing on my head or my heels” [MTL 2: 312-18].

December 8 Tuesday – Sam made a “little journey to Hartford” to bare his soul to Twichell about his struggles with prayer and his desire for success. According to Sam’s letter to Livy of Dec. 9, he and Twichell sat up from 10 PM to 1 AM talking about Livy and religion. It had been bothering Sam that he’d been praying with “selfish motives” instead of seeking Jesus “for himself alone” [MTL 2: 318].

December 9 Wednesday – Sam returned to New York on the 1:20 AM train.

Opera House, Newark, New Jersey: Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture, sponsored here by the Clayonian Society. Back in his room, Sam wrote Livy about his talk with Twichell, and the successful lecture in Newark.

December 10 Thursday – Sam wrote from the Everett House in New York City to his mother and family.

December 11 Friday – The Newark Daily Advertiser:

In the humorous parts the speaker resembled Artemus Ward in his slow and quaint way of saying very amusing things. The audience was constantly convulsed with laughter, and was continued in its happy humor by quiet touches of wit and sentiment. Altogether it was a most enjoyable evening’s entertainment.

In Norwich, New York, Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture.

December 12 Saturday – Sam wrote from Norwich, New York to tease Mary Mason Fairbanks.

December 14 Monday – Sam left Norwich to New York City and on to Scranton, Pa. 

December 16 Wednesday – Scranton, Pennsylvania: Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture, then left again for Elmira.

December 17 Thursday – Sam arrived in Elmira at 7 PM and spent the night at the Langdon house [A. Hoffman 147]. See also letter of Dec. 12.

December 18 Friday – Sam left the Langdon house at 7 PM [MTL 2: 348].

December 19 Saturday – Fort Plain, New York: Sam arrived here in the afternoon and gave his “Vandals” lecture in the evening.

December 19 and 20 Sunday – Sam was the guest of his poet-friend, George W. Elliott (1830-1898) and wife in Fort Plain, New York. Sam wrote to Livy.

December 21 Monday –Sam arrived in Detroit, Michigan just before midnight and wrote Livy:

“I am so inexpressibly tired & drowsy!—not tired, either, but worn, you know, & dreary. I wish I never had to travel any more. And I won’t, after we come to anchor, my dear—I won’t for any light cause. How I long to have a home & never leave it!” [MTL 2: 339-40].

December 22 Tuesday – Young Men’s Hall, Detroit, Michigan: Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture. At midnight he added to the letter to Livy from the previous night:

“I have just this moment parted with my newspaper friends—I don’t get a moment’s time to myself. The whole day long I have been driving or visiting, with first one & then another—& I found an old friend or two here, as usual—I find them everywhere—how they do wander!”

December 23 Wednesday – A review of the Detroit lecture by the Detroit Free Press:

December 24 Thursday – Sam wrote from Lansing to his sister Pamela. Sam wished the family Merry Christmas and sent his mother and the children money. He expected to spend a few days around New Year’s in Cleveland with the Fairbankses [MTL 2: 347-8]. Sam began a letter to Mary Mason Fairbanks, which he completed the following day.

December 25 Friday – Christmas – In the wee hours, Sam wrote Livy:

“I love you more than I can tell. And now is the time to love—for on this day the Savior was born, whose measureless love unbarred the gates of Heaven to perishing men….I must to bed. I ride 20 miles in a cutter to-day, & lecture tonight at Charlotte.”