To Jane Lampton Clemens and Family
5 December 1872 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: NPV, UCCL 00840)

Hartford De 5.

Dear Folks—

Livy is so tired she makes me write the letter she meant to write herself. She wants you all to visit us during this winter; & can best accommodate two of you at a time—so she wants two of you (whichever 2 you please,) to come, choosing the date of your coming to suit yourselves, & letting us know what hour to expect you.

We have a letter from Annie today & an excellent photograph.

Orion has taken a house in Sigourney street, & will begin to [move] in tomorrow.1

We shall like to have a couple of you here for Christmas, if you feel like coming.2

I don’t hear anything of Sammy’s engine, but it will be along [presently. It] will have cost about $140 in greenbacks by the time it gets through the custom house, & I think it will be a very useful & entertaining toy.3 I took it in preference to a magic lantern I was going to buy for him. The lantern & fixtures took up too much room—got disgusted with it—it was too much like importing a stock of dry-goods.

Love to all.

Ys

Sam.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Orion and Mollie Clemens’s stay at 55 Sigourney Street in Hartford would be short-lived. By 1 May 1873 Orion was working in Rutland, Vermont, and Mollie was apparently staying with the Moffett household in Fredonia (Schuyler Colfax to OC, 15 Feb 73, CU-MARK; 5 May 73 to OC and MEC, n. 1).

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2 See 20 Dec 72 to JLC and family.

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3 See 26 Nov 72 to JLC and PAM.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Vassar College Library (NPV).

Previous publication: L5, 771; MTBus, 121–22, with omission.

Provenance:see McKinney Family Papers in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

move • mo move [corrected miswriting]

presently. It • presently.—|It