The Clemens family moved into their home in Hartford, CT September 19 of 1874. It served as their official residence until Sam took his family to Europe in March of 1878, not to return until October 24, 1879. During this first period of residency, Sam did not sit still but made several trips, primarily to New York City and Boston. The family took summer vacations away from Hartford: 1875, Newport, Rhode Island; 1876 & 1877 at Quarry Farm. In May of 1877, Sam and Joe Twichell visited Bermuda, Sam's second visit to the island.
Hartford House: Day By Day
January 16 Thursday – Sam paid $10,000 for a 544’ x 320’ lot in Hartford deeded this day [MTL 5: 271, 277]. Andrews states it was “later enlarged by a second purchase…for $20,000” total [81].
For three days the area was covered with ice; Livy wrote about it in her Jan. 19 diary entry.
January 19 Sunday – From Livy’s diary:
“Mr. Chamberlin let us have the low land for less than $9 a foot—but in measuring the land there proved to be more of the bank than Mr. C. thought, so that by taking a hundred and thirteen (I believe) of the table land seventy five did not bring us to the flat land, so Mr. C. sold us the rest of the bank for $50 a front foot [Salsbury 13]. Note: Franklin Chamberlin.
March 22 Saturday – Sam purchased a small wedge of land along the eastern side of their lot and 40 feet on the south for $1,000, which increased his frontage on Farmington Avenue by twenty feet [MTL 5: 271n6; Salsbury 17].
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].
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 20 Sunday – In Hartford Sam replied to the Sept.
September 21 Monday – The New York Daily Graphic ran a cartoon of Twain as a frog even though it was for the opening of the play, The Gilded Age (renamed Colonel Sellers); see insert.
September 23 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Robert Shelton Mackenzie, Irish novelist and since 1857 the literary and drama critic for the Philadelphia Press. Sam thanked Mackenzie on his “Correct idea of Col. Sellers,” and discussed the nature of the Sellers character, “drawn from life, not imagination—I ate the turnip dinner with him, years ago…” [MTL 6: 240].
September 24 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Gov. William W. Belknap, about strategy to obtain an appointment to the Naval Academy for Samuel Moffett. They would try to gain the appointment through Keokuk, Iowa, even though Samuel had never lived there [MTL 6: 244].
September 25 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to William Seaver, answering his note of Sept. 17.
“I knew you’d be glad the play was commended, & I hope that before this you & John Hay have been there & wept….Remember that darkey yarn I told you & Hay? Well, it has gone to the “Atlantic” & so you boys can’t gobble it, you see” [MTL 6: 245-6].
On or about this day Sam also wrote to James Redpath:
September 26 Saturday – John E. Owens wrote from Boston to ask for production rights to a play in New Orleans for GA [MTP].
September 28 Monday – President Grant attended a performance of the Gilded Age play at the Park Theatre in New York.
September 29 Tuesday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to Frank Fuller, who evidently had written trying to engage Sam in a stage production. Sam replied:
My Dear Frank:
Many thanks for your letter & enclosures. If I had the time I would hurl myself in the drama, wholesale. But I must go on with my book. I do not know whether I could fit Mr. & Mrs. Barney Williams with characters or not, but I still think I could fit Bijou—though I must not be thinking about dramas, with this big book on my shoulders.
September 30 Wednesday – William Dean Howells wrote from Cambridge, Mass. Sam asking for “some such as that colored” story “for our Jan’y number.” He congratulated Sam on President Grant’s enjoyment of the Col. Sellers character in the Gilded Age play; and said they’d enjoyed Charles & Susan Warner’s visit before they left for Europe [MTHL 1: 32].
October – Sam inscribed a copy of John Campbell’s (1779-1861) Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal (1874) [Gribben 126].
October 3 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to William Dean Howells about possible submissions for the Atlantic. Howells had written seeking “some such story as that colored one” for the January issue. Sam replied:
“…the house is still full of carpenters. So we’ll give it up. These carpenters are here for time & eternity; I am satisfied of that. I kill them when I get opportunities, but the builder goes & gets more.”
October 5 Monday – From Twichell’s diaries:
“Reached home after vacation and a trip of 7 weeks to Peru and the W. Coast of South America (with Yung Wing) M.T. met me at the depot” [Yale, copy at MTP].
October 7 Wednesday – Sam’s neighbor and to-be literary collaborator, Charles Dudley Warner and family, left for a year abroad. Twichell notes in his diary the date and that “A.C.O & Mary D. went with them” [Yale, copy at MTP]. Parties are unidentified.
Owen S. McKinney wrote to Sam asking about a woman whom Clemens called “a fraud”:
October 8 Thursday – Clemens wrote To William Dean Howells, the letter unrecovered but an enclosure about The Olympic Theatre survives and may be read at [Mtl 6: 627-30].
October 9 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Louis J. Jennings, editor of the New York Times. Sam was “much more complimented than distressed” at someone imitating him and sending a letter purported to be his sent to the Greenwich Street Grammar School [MTL 6: 249].
October 12 Monday – For Sam’s speech at the Hartford Insurance banquet, see Oct. 15 entry. (Fatout gives this date [MT Speaking 89]; MTP’s Inventory Binder #1 states Fatout’s date in error).
Louise C. Moulton wrote from Pomfret, Conn.:
Dear Mr. Clemens—
October 13 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Owen S. McKinney, who had inquired of Sam about the Bonner woman, who Sam judged a fraud, and a forger [MTL 6: 254]. See Oct. 31 from McKinney.
Sam’s article “Mark Twain’s Cold,” ran on page two of the Hartford Courant [Courant.com].
October 14 Wednesday – Hartford: Sam replied to the Oct. 13 of Louise Chandler Moulton, writer and family friend who hoped that Bliss might publish a collection of her stories.
October 15 Thursday – Sam represented the Hartford Accident Insurance Co. at a fancy dinner of the Hartford insurance industry for Cornelius Walford at the Allyn House in Hartford. He gave a humorous speech on accident insurance. The speech was included in Sketches, New and Old (1875).