Bob: 
I feel your pain. This may be an AOL-handshake issue.
Try hitting return after 65 characters, counting spaces,
whether you're finished with the sentence or not,
and see what happens.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Dan


-----Original Message-----
From: Robert E Stewart <[log in to unmask]>
To: TWAIN-L <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thu, Nov 27, 2014 3:21 am
Subject: Twain's Tahoe Host, Final Try


Moving to another computer, I will try this one last time:
=20
Hoping your Thanksgiving today is full of family, food and friends, I =20
offer the following diversion, dubbed by my granddaughter as "Funny how =
 people=20
don't change despite modern technology.=E2=80=9D
It is a  runaway husband anecdote, peripherally involving Sam Clemens. It=
=20
is  a piece of Twain-related "gossip" from 1861.

In  researching people and places in 1861 Nevada Territory, I ran across=
 a =20
journal by sketch artist Joseph Lamson, of Maine, and obtained photocopies=
 =20
from Lamson's journal at  CalHistSoc.=20
Lamson writes of hiking  north along the east shore of Lake Tahoe in May,=
=20
1861. He spent  time exploring Cave Rock, then hiked north until he came=
 to a=20
=E2=80=9Chouse,=E2=80=9D an  occupied log cabin, where he spent the night.
=20
He writes of "small squirrels" [chipmunks] scampering in through the =20
chinking of the house, and the daughter of the unnamed "lady of the house=
=E2=80=9D =20
chasing them off. He names his host as "Mr. Walker," and writes of a  visi=
tor,=20
"Mr. Patterson" also being there.  Lamson mentions Shakespeare  rock, and=
 the=20
meadow, where "Walker" is planting  grain.

It is clear he is at Glenbrook Bay, then  called Walton's Landing, where=
=20
four men (Capt. A. W.  Pray, Rufus Walton,  George Warren, and Nelson E.=
=20
Murdock) had formed a sawmill company. Capt.  Pray lived in Virginia City.=
 Walton=20
owned the Clear Creek toll road from  there to a point just north of Carso=
n=20
Valley. He collected toll where  he, lived half-way along that road, near=
=20
"Mr. Jones" sawmill. Warren and  Murdock lived at the site.  Numerous reco=
rds=20
identify Nelson Eliphalet  Murdock as  a "millwright.

Lamson's journal begs the question: "Mr. Walker and Mr. Patterson"? No =20
records have been found of a man named Walker at the Lake in 1861, and  th=
ere=20
was only the one cabin/house at Walton's Landing on the November 1861 =20
General Land Office original survey. But Lamson was specific about the  oc=
cupants=E2=80=99=20
names.

In the September, 1861 letter  by Sam Clemens, he writes that a few days=
=20
earlier he and John Kinney had  arrived at the =E2=80=9Clower camp=E2=80=
=9D at the Lake, then=20
they  ".  . . set out  for the only house on this side of the Lake,
three miles from there,  down the shore" on a stormy day in September 1861=
=20
afternoon. In Roughing It  he writes it had been "a three mile pull" to=20
reach the =E2=80=9CBrigade=E2=80=9D camp on first  arrival. It becomes cle=
ar from the =E2=80=9Cthree=20
miles=E2=80=9D that they considered the  brigade camp to be their =E2=80=
=9Clower camp=E2=80=9D and=20
they were now back at the point  of beginning. Sam does not name or direct=
ly=20
mention people there. In the  1861 letter Sam specifies =E2=80=9Clower cam=
p=E2=80=9D, three=20
miles =E2=80=9Cdown the shore=E2=80=9D, and  =E2=80=9Cthis side of the lak=
e.
=20
 Four of his roommates at Mrs. Murphy=E2=80=99s (Capt. John Nye, William=
  Wagner,=20
Johannes Slott and James Coulter) were partners in a Tahoe timber claim.=
 =20
From a description of the claim by Will Wagner in 1861, and the 1862 claim=
 =20
survey and plat by the Ormsby County Surveyor, we know their =E2=80=9CJohn=
 Nye  & Co.=E2=80=9D=20
camp was three miles north of the Warren/Murdock cabin. All of  which=20
suggests Clemens =E2=80=9Clower camp=E2=80=9D was at the Brigade Claim of=
 Roughing  It.

A few weeks later, in November 1861, surveyor  Butler Ives wrote in the=20
Land Office survey of the Glenbrook area, that the  house was that of "Mes=
srs.=20
Warren and Murdock." (The draftsman didn=E2=80=99t  include the names on=
 the plat of=20
Ives=E2=80=99 survey.) Ives also notes the nearby  "sawmill, just built".=
 (Roughing=20
It specifies "a saw-mill and some  workmen", not a working sawmill.) In=20
December 1861, George Warren and Nelson  Eliphalet Murdock filed a claim=
 on the=20
land under both the house and  sawmill. In it they state they have lived=
=20
there since May,  1860.

So, OK, who is this =E2=80=9CWalker=E2=80=9D fellow that Lamson  tells us=
 lived there in=20
May, 1861? I mentioned my quandary to a historian  who retired from Law=20
Enforcement. He asked about Lamson, and then the  occupants--two men, a wo=
man and=20
a girl, and then promptly said " Murdock  didn't want folks back home to=
=20
find him",  adding that Murdock was neither  the first nor the only man to=
 use=20
the Gold Rush to skip out on his family. =20
A Murdock family genealogist in New York confirmed  that Nelson Eliphalet=
=20
Murdock, born  1810, was a millwright from New York  who left his wife and=
=20
three children  in the East in 1852 for  California--and was never heard=
 from=20
again. (The term is =E2=80=9Cgrass  Widow.)

Whether Lamson knew the true names of  his host or not is unknown. It's=20
possible he was covering for Murdock, and  equally possible they gave Lams=
on=20
aliases. Same goes for  Sam Clemens.

Bob  Stewart

All documents mentioned above, excepting  the Lamson Journal, are in the
online package at  https://futureboy.us/twain/2014Version6Total.pdf