Birth of Langdon and Move to Hartford (1870, 1871)
Chapter 44 of "Rebel With a Cause: Mark Twain's Hidden Memoirs"
Chapter 44
Birth of Langdon and Move to Hartford (1870, 1871)
Some of my contemporaries—the boys and girls I had grown up with along the banks of the Mississippi River—already had children old enough to now be apprentice blacksmiths, printer’s devils, mud clerks, plumbers, organ grinders, Congressmen, or other sorts of criminals. But not until November 7th, 1870, shortly before I turned thirty-five, did I first become a father.
We transferred Livy’s maiden name to our new son. Following his father’s example, Langdon was born two months prematurely; he was born just nine months and five days after our wedding date.
Augmenting my growing distaste for Buffalo was the fact that Livy was quite ill a good deal of the time we were there, following the birth of our firstborn.
Adding to the worry and the care was that Langdon himself was never very healthy. The poor child cried incessantly.
Also, a friend of Livy’s, Emma Nye, came to stay with us on her way from Elmira to her new job as a schoolteacher in Michigan. Unfortunately, Miss Nye became ill, to the point of death. When her situation became critical, we put Emma in our bed, and we took up quarters elsewhere in the house.
Miss Nye died in our bed of scarlet fever on November 29th, 1870, the day before I turned thirty-five.
This, of course, put an even greater weight on Livy, and her spirits were dashed to a low ebb. She became so weak that we eventually had to transport her on her mattress to Quarry Farm outside of Elmira, New York, where her adopted sister Susan Crane had insisted we come, so that she could look after Livy.
Livy had contracted typhoid fever, and was dangerously ill. While still in Buffalo, I was not enamored with the local doctor who had treated her, so I asked Dr. Rachel Gleason to come from Elmira and take over Livy’s case. She came, and her ministrations improved matters. But the good doctor and I came to an impasse when she insisted she must return to Elmira to resume her obligations there. I felt certain that if Livy was to fully recover, it would only take place under Dr. Gleason’s hand. Thus, I hired a private policeman to guard the door and let no one either in or out. Under this circumstance, Livy’s physician had no recourse but to remain and continue her treatment of Livy—and Langdon as well.
In time, Livy improved, and I finally allowed Dr. Gleason to return to her home practice. Langdon’s health also seemed to take a gradual turn for the better.
When my wife and our son were healthy enough for it, the three of us moved to Hartford, Connecticut, renting a house in the Nook Farm neighborhood of that prospering city. This was in October of 1871.
Eventually, we built a house of our own design in that community. Our growing family lived in that house from 1874 until 1891, after which we lived mostly in Europe for the remainder of the 19th Century.
I should remark also that some years after Livy’s illness in Buffalo, I saw Dr. Gleason again, and she assured me that she did not blame me for my high-handed treatment of her at that time.
EDITOR’S NOTES: Emma Nye’s stopover in Buffalo on her way to Detroit was not just to help nurse Livy, but also to offer her condolences following the death of Livy’s father, Jervis Langdon. With a house full of ailing people, Twain was distraught, worried, and frazzled.
Always sensitive to noises, and ever sensitive to the sufferings of others, Twain, who was working on Roughing It at this time, was on the verge of a nervous breakdown out of concern for the sick ones and due to Langdon’s incessant crying.
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Dr. Gleason was one of the first female physicians in America.
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