14 January 1869 • Davenport, Iowa (MS: NPV, UCCL 00233)
(SUPERSEDED)
Private.
Jan. 14Ⓐemendation
I lectured here to-nightⒶemendation—& have lately lectured in several Michigan towns, & in Akron, Ohio, Fort Wayne, Ind., Indianapolis, Rockford, Monmouth, Galesburg, Chicago, Peoria, Decatur, & Ottawa, Ill— & a Ⓐemendation lecture every night—& now have to talk in Iowa City, Sparta, Wis., Toledo, Ohio, Norwalk, Cleveland, & a lot of places in Illinois, Michigan, & New York City & New York State, & am getting awfully tired of it.1explanatory note I spend about half as much money as I make, I think, though I have managed to save about a thousand dollars, so far—don’t think I shall save more than a thousand more.2explanatory note
One of Mrs. Pavey’s daughters (she married a doctor & is living in an Illinois town & has sons larger than I am,) was in the audience at Peoria. Had a long talk with her. She came many miles to be there.3explanatory note Saw a nephew of Tom Collins in Decatur.4explanatory note
The Societies all want to engage me to lecture for them next year, but end of page
two-thirds of MS page (about 65 words) missing
That is all of the private.5explanatory note Had a letter from Miss Lou Conrad the other day—was near where she lives, but had not time to go there.6explanatory note
What do you think of Norwich, N. Y., for a home? I think it will exactly suit you. You can run to New York or visit the sea-side whenever you please, from there.7explanatory note
No, you can’t board & lodge in New York City in any sort of respectable & comfortable style for less than $25 to $35 a week apiece.
In the spring go yourself, or send Orion8explanatory note—or both of you go—to Norwich, & you will rent or buy a house & be delighted. I only wish I could live there. I Ⓐemendation am to lecture every night till Feb. 2. Shall be in Cleveland, Ohio, one day only—Jan. 22.
Love to all.
For the dates of Clemens’s appearances in these places, see the Lecture Schedule, 1868–1870click to open link.
Between 17 November 1868, when his tour began, and the date of this letter, Clemens’s gross earnings were at least $2,300. He earned a fee of $100 for each performance, but evidently paid his own travel, lodging, and meal costs. As befitted a newcomer to the field, his normal fee was half that of some of his competitors, such as Petroleum Vesuvius Nasby (20 and 21 Jan 69 to OLL, n. 1click to open link; L2 , 246, 282, 294).
Jesse H. Pavey (1798?–1853), a brutal Hannibal tavern keeper during Clemens’s youth, and his wife, Catharine (b. 1800?), had a large family that included at least seven daughters. Clemens’s visitor might have been any one of four of them—Julia, Sarah, Fanny, or Susan. In 1897, in “Villagers of 1840–3,” he identified her as “Mrs. Strong.” The Paveys had left Hannibal for St. Louis by mid-1850. In 1855, while working in St. Louis as a printer, Clemens boarded with the widowed Catharine Pavey (for his recollections of this family, see Inds , 98–99, 340–41).
Thomas K. Collins (1822–85), a dry goods merchant, was one of Hannibal’s foremost businessmen (Inds, 94, 102, 315). His nephew has not been identified.
Pamela must have torn away the top two-thirds of this page, which presumably contained Clemens’s progress report on his courtship, even before passing the letter on to other members of the family in St. Louis. She thereby complied with his November 1868 request for strict confidentiality—“I make no exceptions” ( L2 , 295).
Clemens sent Louisa Conrad’s letter to Olivia Langdon (see 7 Jan 69 to OLL from Chicago, n. 5click to open link).
Clemens repeated his previous recommendation (of 24 December) that his sister move with her family to Norwich, in Chenango County, New York, approximately 140 miles from New York City ( L2 , 326–27, 348). She now lived with her mother, two children, and the family’s German maid, Margaret, at 1312 Chesnut Street in St. Louis, where she also took in boarders. The family remained at that address until May 1869, the first of several moves within St. Louis. In April 1870, they moved to Fredonia, in westernmost New York, close to Lake Erie and about forty miles from Clemens’s Buffalo home (11 May 69 to JLCclick to open link; 1 Apr 70 to Jervis and Olivia Lewis Langdon, TS in CU-MARK; 21 Apr 70 to OC, CU-MARK; Richard Edwards 1868, 537, 953; Richard Edwards 1869, 569; MTBus , 47, 103, 112).
Orion and Mollie Clemens apparently lived in St. Louis throughout 1869 (with Mollie sometimes visiting her parents in Keokuk, Iowa). It is not known whether they were currently living with Pamela.
MS, Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Vassar College Library (NPV). The surviving MS consists of three and one-third leaves, inscribed on the rectos only. Pages 1, 2, and 4 survive intact, but the top two-thirds of page 3 was cut off, doubtless by Pamela Moffett, and does not survive. No characters or portions of characters from the excised portion remain on the surviving third.
L3 , 43–44; MTBus , 103–4, with omission.
see McKinney Family Papers, pp. 583–85.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.