Twain in Elmira
This is a timeline of important historical events involving the Clemens and Langdon families in Elmira.
1855
Elmira Female College is the first college founded to grant the baccalaureate degree to women. Jervis Langdon is a member of the Board of Trustees of Elmira Female College.
February 4, 1869
Samuel Langhorne Clemens and Olivia Louise Langdon are officially engaged.
May 1869
Jervis Langdon purchases the East Hill property that will become Quarry Farm.
February 2, 1870
Samuel Langhorne Clemens and Olivia Louise Langdon are married in the parlor of the Langdon home in Elmira, New York. The Reverend Joseph Twichell and the Reverend Thomas K. Beecher preside.
August 6, 1870
Jervis Langdon dies. Quarry Farm is willed to his eldest daughter Susan Crane. She and her husband, Theodore, make it their year round home.
1870s – 1880s
Clemens family spend summers at Quarry Farm. During these years Mark Twain works on Roughing It (1872), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), A Tramp Abroad (1880), The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Life on the Mississippi (1883), and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889) as well as many short pieces.
March 19, 1872
Olivia Susan “Susy” Clemens is born in Elmira, New York.
June 2, 1872
Langdon Clemens is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.
1874
Susan Crane presents Samuel L. Clemens/Mark Twain with an octagonal study.
June 8, 1874
Clara Langdon Clemens is born at Quarry Farm.
July 26, 1880
Jane Lampton “Jean” Clemens is born at Quarry Farm.
July 3, 1889
Theodore Crane, brother-in-law to Samuel L. Clemens, dies at Quarry Farm.
July 14, 1895 – July 31, 1896
Samuel L. Clemens, Olivia L. Clemens and Clara L. Clemens leave from Elmira, New York for a world lecture tour. Susy and Jean stay at Quarry Farm with their aunt, Susan Crane. Jean attends the Elmira College Prepatory School.
August 23, 1896
Olivia Susan “Susy” Clemens is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.
Summer 1903
Samuel L. and Olivia L. Clemens spend their last summer at Quarry Farm.
July 14, 1904
Olivia L. Clemens is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.
December 26, 1909
Jane Lampton “Jean” Clemens is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.
April 24, 1910
Samuel Langhorne Clemens is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.