Samuel Clemens left a mark on Elmira, NY and his name remains on the Mark Twain Golf Course, the Mark Twain Little League, and the many business named after the famous writer. For a closer look at Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain visit the following locations in Elmira.
Quarry Farm
Writer Samuel Clemens, who used the pen name Mark Twain, married Elmira native Olivia Langdon in 1870. Olivia’s father bought Quarry Farm in 1869. When he died a year later, his daughter Susan inherited the property and began inviting the Twains to visit.
The Twains divided their time between their home in Hartford, Connecticut and Quarry Farm. The property received the name from a small stone quarry on the property. Twain's three daughters were born at the farm and he wrote some of his most famous works there, including
- A Tramp Abroad
- Life on the Mississippi
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- The Prince and the Pauper and
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
The family's descendants donated the property to Elmira College around 1980. The college now uses the property for Mark Twain Studies and a home for Mark Twain scholars. Contact the Center of Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College for tours.
The Mark Twain Study
On Quarry Farm, Clemens wrote in a gazebo a short distance from the house to give him quiet time to write and to save the family from the many cigars he smoked daily. Each day he would sit on the front porch and read what he had written that day to his family. After he died, the gazebo remained on the property until the 1950s when vandals began to destroy what we know today as the Mark Twain Study.
The family donated the study to Elmira College and the college moved the structure to the college in 1952. It remains there and anyone can visit. Usually a scholar student tells visitors the story of Twain and the study. The chair he sat on while writing is still there, but you can’t sit in it.
Elmira College
A private liberal arts college, Elmira College boasts of being the oldest college, since 1855, still in existence which, as a women's college, granted degrees to women equivalent to those given to men. The first was the now defunct Mary Sharpe College.
Olivia Langdon was an alumna of Elmira College and her father, Jervis Langdon, was one of the EC’s founding trustees. The college has an extensive Mark Twain archive and is one of two centers of Mark Twain studies on the planet. Every four years Elmira College hosts an international conference on the State of Mark Twain Studies.
Woodlawn Cemetery
Mark Twain died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910. He was buried at his wife’s family tomb in Elmira’s Woodlawn Cemetery. He was survived only by his daughter, Clara. A twelve foot – two fathoms or "mark twain" – monument marks his grave as well as a headstone.
On April 21, 2010, the city of Elmira marked the 175th anniversary of his birth, 125th anniversary of The Adventures of Huckberry Finn, and the 100th anniversary of his death with a reenactment of Twain’s funeral. Vintage transportation moved from the Park Church to Woodlawn Cemetery where they met “mourners.” All in attendance followed the casket to the family plot. They heard the original eulogy given and Twain’s favorite hymn, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot," closed the ceremony.
Sources:
Pages in the Faces of Elmira
Terry Pruyne - I wrote for my high school and college newspapers on my way to teaching degrees in English and History. Later, I received a Masters Degree ...
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