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Home , Mark Twain, Olivia Langdon Clemens, Stormfield

Volume 10 • Number 3

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Huck Finn Born in New York

Boy Soldiers on the Front Lines Muslims in Fatal Plane Crash Saves Many The House That Westinghouse Built Hunting for Communists in the Classroom 11 and Elmira

B Y M A R K W O O D H O U S E

American author and Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) was a citizen of the world, but his life and art were nurtured at his summer home in Elmira, New York.

or most people, the pen name Mark Twain conjures up visions of the FAmerican heartland: steam - boats on the , , Huck Finn, and the idyllic fictional village of St. Petersburg, based on Samuel Clemens’s boyhood home, Hannibal, . Clemens, however, was a citizen of the world. He trav- eled widely, and many places can lay claim to him by virtue of his having visited, lived, and worked in them. People

are often surprised to learn, then, that his art and life are LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

www.nysarchivestrust.org ALL IMAGES: MARK TWAIN ARCHIVE, GANNETT-TRIPP LIBRARY, ELMIRA LIBRARY, GANNETT-TRIPP ARCHIVE, TWAIN MARK IMAGES: ALL

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As legend has it, while anchored in the Bay of Smyrna,

Langdon showed Clemens a picture of his sister, Olivia, and Clemens immediately fell in love.

Samuel Clemens’s name for Quarry Farm, which overlooked the Chemung River, was “Rest and Be Thankful.”

the steamship Quaker City. Olivia’s father, Jervis One of the travelers with Langdon, was a prominent whom Clemens struck up an Elmira businessman who had acquaintance was Charles made his fortune primarily in Langdon of Elmira. lumber and coal. A member As legend has it, while of the Congregationalist Park anchored in the Bay of Smyrna, Church that had formed from Langdon showed Clemens a split with the Presbyterians a picture of his sister, Olivia, over the question of slavery, and Clemens immediately fell Jervis had also been active in in love. How true you find the Underground Railroad this story to be depends on and had served as a founding most the degree of the romantic member of the board of deeply in you, but at least there is trustees of Elmira Female entwined evidence that Clemens was College, the first college to with New York made aware of Olivia while degrees to women State, particularly on the voyage and that his equal to those awarded to Elmira, where much of his interest in her was piqued. In men at the time. Into this best-known work took shape. the months after the journey, upper-class and progressive at a lecture by Charles Dickens society came Sam Clemens, The Courtship of Olivia in New York City, Clemens the self-educated, rough-hewn Clemens’s connection with met Olivia Langdon and Westerner who, in relatively Elmira began when, as a her parents for the first time. short order, was asking for young reporter from the West, Shortly after this, he took the hand of Jervis’s daughter. he was commissioned in 1867 the Langdons up on their For his part, Clemens was by a California newspaper to invitation to visit Elmira. By in demand as a lecturer, and accompany and report on a this time he was most certainly his book based on the Quaker group of travelers to in love, and he began his City voyage, The Innocents and the Holy Land on board courtship of Olivia. Abroad, was about to make

NEW YORK archives • WINTER 2011 13

Samuel Clemens looks out the window of the octagonal study that Susan Crane built for him up the hill from Quarry Farm.

Beginning in 1870 and continuing until 1889, their summer him well known as a . before moving to Hartford, into the study and sail right But he was by no means , which would in and sail right on, the months were spent regarded as the perfect suitor. remain their primary residence whole day long, without Nonetheless, after some for the next twenty years. thought of running short of in Elmira, where they encounters in which Jervis But beginning in 1870 and stuff or words.” stayed with Olivia’s Langdon took careful measure continuing until 1889, their In his time at Quarry Farm, of the man, consent was summer months were spent Clemens wrote major portions adopted sister, Susan granted, and Sam and Olivia in Elmira, where they stayed of his best-known works, were married in February with Olivia’s adopted sister, including The Adventures of Crane, and her 1870 at the Langdon home. Susan Crane, and her husband, Tom Sawyer, The Adventures husband, Theodore, Two ministers presided: Theodore, at their home, of Finn, Life on Reverend of Quarry Farm. It was on East the Mississippi, and A at their home, Hartford, and Elmira’s Hill overlooking the Chemung Connecticut at King Reverend Thomas K. Beecher, River and the town of Elmira, Arthur’s Court. In an interview Quarry Farm. pastor of Park Church and a a place Clemens called “Rest with a Chicago Tribune member of the prominent and Be Thankful.” reporter in 1886, he remarked family that included Harriet During these summers, that “this may be Beecher Stowe, Henry Ward Clemens settled in to work. called the Beecher, and the feminist By his own admission, life in home Catherine Beecher. Hartford offered many dis- of tractions, while the relatively Olivia Clemens with daughters “Rest and Be Thankful” quiet life at Quarry Farm (left to right) Susy, Jean, and Clara. As a wedding present, allowed him to “pile up manu- Jervis Langdon surprised the scripts” at a more satisfying newlyweds with a home on rate. Susan Crane had a Delaware Avenue in Buffalo, small octagonal study since Clemens had recently built for him farther up acquired part interest in the the hill above the farm. newspaper Buffalo Express. In one letter of 1883, Sam and Livy remained in he wrote, “…it’s like Buffalo only a little over a year old times to step right

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more complete picture of Clemens’s other complexities as a man and as an artist. Some of this material was only discovered and made available to scholars in 1982, after the generous gift of Quarry Farm to Elmira College by Jervis Langdon Jr.

Discoveries in Elmira For instance, many books at the farm were found to contain marginalia by Clemens. These annotations, and the books themselves, speak to his wide-ranging interests and intellectual curiosity. The casual reader, exposed only to the carefully contrived public persona of Mark Twain as a self-taught, simple humorist, might not be Sam Clemens in his study. prepared for his insightful remarks in such titles as tells of John Lewis, a black Carlyle’s and other books of man who owned land near and William Edward Hartpole mine, for they were Quarry Farm. Lewis figures Lecky’s History of European written here.” as the hero in a harrowing Morals. Similarly, those who In addition, incident in which a runaway have noted Mark Twain’s Clemens’s first piece horse and buggy bearing casually intimate conversa- for Monthly in Charles Langdon’s wife, tional style on the lecture November 1874, entitled their daughter Julia, and a platform might be fascinated Many books at the “A True Story, Repeated nursemaid speeds down the by Livy’s copy of the poems farm were found to Word for Word as I Heard It,” steep East Hill and is stopped of Robert Browning, which recounts an evening on the by Lewis, who blocks the Clemens marked extensively contain marginalia porch during which Auntie road with his own wagon with stress marks and stage Cord, the cook at Quarry Farm and grabs the bridle of the directions for the readings he by Clemens. These and an ex-slave, tells the story runaway, at great risk to his gave in Elmira homes, reveal- annotations, and the of the painful separation from own life. Clemens’s vivid ing his meticulous attention to her children and serendipitous depiction of the incident preparation and presentation. books themselves, reunion with her son. This shows the warm regard he Another unusual artifact is was the most overt appear- had for Lewis. the “Sermon in Stones,” a speak to his wide- ance of Quarry Farm in Mark The relationships revealed stone split into three slices. ranging interests and Twain’s work, but other in both of these episodes are On the flat surfaces, Clemens references to Clemens’s time useful as part of the compli- wrote a verse in response to intellectual curiosity. and work there are abundant cated conversation regarding a friendly argument with Mrs. in his letters and notebooks. Clemens’s attitude toward Thomas Beecher over the One notable letter to race. Evidence from the farm question of life after death. in 1877 has also contributed to a Mrs. Beecher, the wife of a

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minister, predictably argued Tragically, Susy, who had T H E A R C H I V E S C O N N E C T I O N for an , while Clemens returned to the Hartford came down with characteris- home in the interim, died of he Mark Twain Archive mation about Clemens’s tic humor on the side of there spinal meningitis while her Tin the Gannett-Tripp Elmira circle. being nothing at all after parents were still abroad. Library at Elmira College Samuel Clemens left this life. The stones and the After her death, the supports the programs of behind more than 30,000 subject of the verse, besides Clemenses never lived in the the Center for Mark Twain letters and thousands of giving further evidence of Hartford home again. They Studies at Quarry Farm pages of autobiographical Clemens’s many friendships returned to the United and holds photos, letters, dictations, notebooks, and with clergy, offer a glimpse of States in 1900, living first in artifacts, manuscripts, and unfinished manuscripts. his interest in and and then in volumes from Quarry Farm The bulk of this material philosophical matters. Riverdale on the Hudson. In and from Clemens’s own was given to the University Among Clemens’s other 1903, Sam and Livy returned library. The archive is of California at Berkeley by acquaintances in Elmira were to Quarry Farm for a brief visit augmented by microfilm of Clemens’s daughter, Clara, prominent progressives of before moving to , unpublished material from and is available to scholars the time. Zebulon Brockway, , where Livy died in 1904; other repositories and a in the , the superintendent of the afterwards, Sam lived in a complete collection of where the Mark Twain Elmira Reformatory and a leased home on Fifth Avenue secondary sources, as well Project is engaged in pub- pioneer in methods of reha- in New York City until 1908. as papers and articles lishing, either in hard copy bilitation for prisoners, was a He built his final residence, deposited by scholars. Some or electronically, all extant friend; Clemens spoke to the , in Redding, of the collections can be material. In New York State, reformatory’s inmates on Connecticut, where he died in viewed at www.toolsofhis- Vassar College’s Webster more than one occasion. 1910. His last visit to Elmira tory.org, a regional history Papers, the New York Public Rachel Brooks Gleason and was in 1907, for the dedica- project of the South Central Library, and the Morgan her husband, Silas, ran tion of a new organ at Park Regional Library Council. Library have significant Watercure Sanitarium; she Church. He is buried in the The collections of the Twain materials. The Buffalo was a respected physician at Langdon plot in Woodlawn Chemung County Historical and Erie County Public a time when the profession Cemetery in Elmira alongside Society and the Steele Library holds the manuscript was not always welcoming to Olivia, his three daughters, Memorial Library in Elmira of The Adventures of women. She cared for Livy and one son, all but one of are also invaluable for infor- Huckleberry Finn. and attended the births of whom preceded him in death. the Clemens children. The connection with Elmira College, where Olivia had Continuing Connections been enrolled as a student in After 1889, financial difficul- 1858 and 1859 and where ties and business setbacks her father was a trustee, forced Clemens to live abroad continued with Ida Langdon, for a number of years, but in Charles’s daughter, who July 1895 the family gathered taught English at the college at Quarry Farm once again from 1920 to 1942. Ida prior to embarking on an spoke at the dedication of the around-the-world lecture tour Mark Twain Study, which designed to free Clemens was moved from its East Hill from his money worries. location to the Elmira College Daughters Susy and Jean campus in 1952, thirty years stayed behind at Quarry Farm, before her nephew, Jervis Jr., while Sam, Livy, and daughter gave Quarry Farm to the Clara made the long trip college and the Center for Dr. Ida Langdon, niece of Sam and Olivia Clemens, speaks at the dedication that was eventually chronicled Mark Twain Studies was of Mark Twain’s study, which was moved from Quarry Farm to the campus in . established. n of Elmira College in 1952.

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