Peter,
You are correct.
Upon further digging, I agree that a side trip to Schiever did not occur.
It seems wishful thinking in the little village since Moore did live at
Waubun when he died.

Instead, I found a New Orleans address for Moore in the 1880 census that
was located not far from Cable's house. So the letter to Livy in the
article is likely accurate, but Sam must have visited his old steamboat
buddy and family on Orange St. in the city.
I had sent Scott this information to his email. Thanks for giving me a
chance to clear that up on this thread.
Miki

On Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 2:44 PM Peter Clark <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Scott:
>    You are doing great work! Thank you!
> re: Sam's first trip to New Orleans- On your website, you state that you
> believed Sam's version of the facts rather than Bixby's. I did at first
> also, but then came to believe that Bixby's story was what actually
> happened. This from your site:
>      "Although Bixby consistently indicated that he and Clemens came to
> terms either at their first meeting or quite soon after, Mark Twain three
> times explicitly designated New Orleans as the place where he approached
> Bixby about becoming his steersman and where they reached anagreement.
> Clemens’s version seems the more probable."
> ...
> ...There are several reasons why I came to believe Bixby's
> rendition, including the formality of the interview that was
> reported, which didn't seem to fit with Sam's scenario. I believe that that
> interview occurred in Cincinnati before the first trip began.
>      My beliefs were reinforced when I came to learn that Sam had already
> voiced an interest in becoming a pilot when he went to Saint Louis before
> doubling back up the river, and then on to Cincinnati:
>        Instead, I came to believe that Sam's story that he was on his way
> to South America was a cover story, and that the truth was what Sam wanted
> to make sure would not be talked about for 100 years after his death. I
> would sure like to know more about them dropping off armaments in Baton
> Rouge on the way to New Orleans! This is of particular interest in light of
> the Mississippi Militia stopping Sam at gunpoint at Vicksburg on his last
> trip down the Mississippi in 1861.
>      Miki's inference that Sam might have taken a side trip on his first
> trip down to New Orleans doesn't appear to be supported by the reference
> provided.
>    Again, thanks for your excellent work in documenting these journeys!
>     Peter
>
> Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]>
> Precedence: list
> There are 9 messages totalling 625 lines in this issue.
> Topics of the week:
>   1. Starting off for the Amazon (3)
>   2. Life on the Mississippi editions (5)
>   3. In re Kevin Macdonnell's post
> Date:    Wed, 11 Aug 2021 12:03:37 -0700
> From:    Scott Holmes <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Starting off for the Amazon
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
> I mapped Sam's journey from Keokuk to New Orleans, via Chicago and
> Cincinnati, for those of you interested in such things.  Any commentary is
> from the Mark Twain Project's collection of letters and editorials.
> I'm still trying to sort out the history of the railroads involved.  I'm
> discovering just how corrupt the development of railroads was.
> http://twainsgeography.com/content/starting-out-amazon
>
> If anyone knows of commentary on Sam's first trip with Horace Bixby I'd
> appreciate a lead on it.  About all I know is Sam got aboard the Paul Jones
> in Cincinnati, ran aground near Louisville, dropped of armaments at Baton
> Rouge and discovered that passage to the Amazon was not immediately
> available fro New Orleans.
> Date:    Wed, 11 Aug 2021 15:51:42 -0500
> From:    miki pfeffer <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Starting off for the Amazon
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> Scott,
> I don't know if you know of any research on a side trip Clemens might
> have taken
> to Schriever, Louisiana during this trip.
>      Local lore and some apparent evidence suggests a visit in 1882 to
> a riverboat
> friend, John T. Moore, who owned Waubun plantation in Schriver along the
> Southern Pacific Railroad line. The train from New Orleans still makes a
> brief stop when there's someone (like my now-deceased mother when she came
> to visit) who needs to disembark.
>     The house Waubun still exists and is now lived in by a friend of mine
> who is caretaking it at the same time he is the archivist at Nicholls
> State University
> here in Thibodaux, just a few miles from the house.
>      Here's an article in a local paper from 2010. See what you think:
> https://www.houmatoday.com/article/DA/20101229/Entertainment/608099735/HC
> Regards,
> Miki
>